AMERICAN MEN AND WOMEN IN WAR-TIME.* A GREAT war, like

a great storm, reveals often through the gloom and the tumult, glimpses of grandeur and beauty never seen by mortal eyes in hours of peace. The fairest qualities in human nature, no less than the foulest passions, start into vivid activity on the battle-field, in the camp, the prison, the hospital ; and men become heroes and women ministering angels under the influence of a stimulus which the ordinary conditions of life never supply. Not wholly evil, not by any means the worst of evils which can befall a nation, is such a war as that of which the scenes are recorded in this book by one who played in America a part somewhat like that of Florence Nightingale in the Crimea.

Mrs. Livermore visited England a few years ago, and there are many who then heard her eloquent addresses to whom the frontispiece of this volume will recall her very impressive presence, stately figure and features at once sweet and massive ; a type rather of some old Mother-goddess of Greece or Germany, than of a modern nervous and fragile American lady. Such a woman was fitly moulded for the vast labours of mind and body which she underwent during the great war in her country ; and we rejoice to learn that through the quarter of a century- which has since elapsed, she has been able to continue a life of active usefulness. Such women vindicate Nature from the monstrous theories of those doctors who would havens treat the sex as one of pre-ordained invalids.

The materials of Mrs. Livermore's work consist of the letters and papers which she wrote and received during the war, and which were carefully preserved by her husband and fellow- worker, Dr. Livermore. Her own taste, she tells us, led her little to the hoarding of such things, but now that public interest has been excited by the records of the larger events of the great story, she desires to bear her testimony to the heroic bearing of the common soldiers, and also to the deeds of nobleness performed by many who remained at home, but made innumerable sacrifices for the public cause. "The s11/1 of my life," she says, "is now sloping swiftly to the west ; the years that I have travelled lie stretching in long array behind me, and I am approaching the time when one lives much in memory. I have been again asked to write for pub- lication my story of the war and its relief work, and this time the request has found me favourably disposed for the under- taking."

Mrs. Livermore's father, son of a man who had fought in the

* My Story of the War. B

II-SA.: Worthington and Co y Mary A. Livermore. Illustrated. Hartford,

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old Revolutionary war, was in his youth captured on an American ship by an English press-gang, and very barbarously treated. Escaping while Nelson's fleet was at Copenhagen, he returned to America, entered the Navy, and fought in the war of 1812. To this sturdy old patriot, the disruption which threatened the Union when the Secession of 1861 took place was a blow which brought him to death's door, and caused his daughter to be summoned from her home in Chicago to attend his last hours in Boston ;—a singular example for those amongst us in Ragland who calmly contemplate the breaking- up of our United Kingdom, the separation of Ireland, and the fall of the British Empire, as events possibly within measurable distance, but demanding no particular con- cern. "My God ! now let me die !" cried Mrs. Livermore's father; "for I cannot survive the rain of my country." From the date—April 15th—when Lincoln called for seventy-five thousand volunteers to protect Washington, the enthusiasm of New England and the whole North rose to an almost in- credible height, and it is difficult to read Mrs. Livermore's glowing pages without catching something of the spirit of the time. "If it be a question of the supremacy of freedom or slavery underlying this war," she thought, "I pray God it may now be settled, and oh ! that I may lend a hand, a foot, a voice on the side of freedom and my country ! " Her prayer was abundantly fulfilled. In six weeks from the fall of Fort Sumter, half-a-million of men had volunteered as soldiers, and the whole of the North was turned into a vast workshop of military and hospital stores and drilling-ground. The women had abundance of work in aiding in the preparations ; but such was the fervour of patriotic sentiment, that this share did not suffice for all, and the number of those who actively enlisted and fought in the ranks, affords quite a curious page of history. Mrs. Livermore mentions an Annie Etheridge, who fought with the 3rd Michigan through the whole four years' war, "found in the field often in the thickest of the fight, always inspiring the men to deeds of valour, always respected for her correctness of life." Another, Bridget Devens, went with her husband, a private soldier, through all the campaigning. Sometimes when a soldier fell, she took his place, fighting in his stead with unquailing courage ; sometimes she rallied retreating troops, sometimes she brought off the wounded from the field. Madame Tin-chin was wife of the Colonel of. the 19th Illinois. In the spring of 1862, when her husband's regiment was actively engaged in Tennessee, he was taken dangerously ill, and was carried for days in an ambulance. Madame Turchin both nursed her husband tenderly, and took his place at the head of his regiment, the men and officers according her implicit and cheerful obedience. "Utterly devoid of fear, and manifesting perfect indifference to shot or shell, even when they fell thickly around her, she led the troops into action, facing the hottest fire, and fought bravely at their head. When her husband was able to resume his command, she gave herself again to the care of the sick and wounded." Mrs. Brownell, the wife of a non-commissioned officer in the 5th Rhode Island Infantry, was "colour-bearer of the regiment; and an expert swordsman." Georgiana Peter- man was for two years drummer in the 7th Wisconsin. The number of these women-soldiers was "estimated at four

hundred." Mrs. Livermore cannot vouch for the calculation, but is convinced that a far larger number fought in dis- guise than were ever suspected. But, as she justly adds, this was not the noblest service which women did for the Army; which was to heal wounds, rather than to cause them. More remarkable than her sisters' military prowess was the part played by Miss Carroll, daughter of a Governor of Mary- land, in the planning of the Tennessee Campaign. By the advice of the War Department, she went to St. Louis, and there studied and planned the campaign which was carried out by General Grant after it had been adopted by the Adminis- tration. By this campaign "the Confederacy was cut in twain, the Mississippi was opened, European intervention was averted, and the national credit revived." Not only did President Lincoln acknowledge Miss Carroll to be the author of the plan of the Tennessee Campaign, but Secretary Stanton, and also the Chairman of the Senate, gave her the same honour ; and at last, after twenty years, the Court of Claims has" substantiated her claim to recompense" for that important service.

It would be impossible within the compass of this article to give any account, however condensed, of all the organisations and efforts made by the Northern States to provide suddenly for the enormous demands of their army. The ignorance and inefficiency which at first led to mistakes and waste half- ludicrous, half-deplorable, was followed by the steady work of the great Sanitary Commission, with its vast machinery of inspectors, hospital cars, soldiers homes, hospital directory, pension agencies, battle-field relief service, portable soup- kitchens, and scores of other devices. The object of the Sanitary Commission was "to do what the Government could not do ;" and its methods were so elastic, that it was able to make provision for any need, seeking always "to supplement, never to supplant, the Government." Mrs. Livermore's work was in connection with the Chicago branch of this Sanitary Commission, of which Dr. Bellows was President, and the late Rev. W. H. Channing, Chaplain-General.

The main portion of Mrs. Livermore's book consists of recollections and sketches (such as she promised at the outset) of the conduct of the soldiers when under her charge and that of her fellow-nurses in the boats and hospitals. Anything more touching than these simple records, or more heroic than the endurance of the poor wounded and dying men, we have never read. Here is one example among scores like it :— " Another form of horror occupied a bed adjoining The flesh in places had sloughed off his frozen back and thighs. How long were you left on the field ?' I inquired.—' Two days

and nights.' 'Oh! they couldn't be bothering with us,' said the patient sufferer, they had to take the fort, and we didn't

expect anybody to stop and see after us till that was done We fellows on the ground, I can tell you, all cheered when the fort showed the white flag, and we knew the rebs had sur- rendered. I couldn't cheer myself, for I was 'most gone ; but Jerry over in that bed, his left arm was gone and his right hand shot away, but he threw up his right stump of an arm, and hurrahed enough to split his throat."

Besides Mrs. Livermore herself and her band of lady-friends, Mrs. Hoge, Dr. Mary Safford, and Mrs. Harvey, whose work in field and hospital she records with her own, there was a moving spirit named Mother Bickerdyke, who was "unique in method, extraordinary in executive ability, enthusiastic in devotion, and indomitable in will." Here are a scene or two from her career :— "After the battle of Belmont, she was appointed matron of the large hospital at Cairo, which was filled with the wounded. The surgeon was competent, but given to drunkenness ; and Bacchana- lian carousals in 'the doctor's room' were of frequent occurrence. In twenty-four hours Mother Bickerdyke and he were at swords' points. When the delicacies sent her for the use of the sick and wounded disappeared mysteriously, she charged their theft upon him and his subordinates. He ordered her out of the hospital.

She repliea that she would stay as long as the men needed her To ascertain who were the thieves of the food,

she resorted to a dangerous ruse. Purchasing a quantity of tartar emetic at a drug store, she mixed it with some stewed peaches, which she had openly cooked in the kitchen, and left ostensibly` to cool over-night.' Then she went to her own room to wait results. She did not wait long. Soon the sounds of suffering from the sick thieves reached her ears, when, like Nemesis, she stalked in among them Peaches don't seem to agree with you, eh?"

The accounts of what this splendid, homely creature did, her tenderness, her indomitable pluck and resourcefulness, form together a chapter which it would be a pity, even if we had space; to curtail. The men for whom she laboured so in- defatigably and with such wonderful cleverness, "could mention her name only with tears and benedictions, and she was greeted with cheers three times three whenever she appeared in the camp."

Some of the most interesting chapters, however, of this fascinating book are those in which Mrs. Livermore relates all that she knew and saw of Abraham Lincoln. She had the privilege of long conversations with him at various times, and was always impressed with his haggard, careworn aspect. "Whichever way the war ends," he said, "I have the im- pression I shall not last very long after it is over." She had also opportunities of watching him in the exercise of his official power, when applications were made to him for the pardon of offenders. In one case, a young man of good family had played the traitor, and sold secrets to the rebels. Lincoln commuted his punishment from death to imprisonment for twenty years. His friends concocted a plausible story for his defence, and urged it personally on Lincoln. "The President listened impatiently, and with a darkening face. 'There is not a word of this true,' he burst in abruptly and sternly, 'and you know it as we.11 as I. He was a spy; he ought to have been hanged as a spy and if you don't 'want to see him hanged as high as Thrnan, don't come to me again about him!" Here is the other side of the shield:— " I was in the anteehamber of the President's room one morning

waiting the exit of Mr. Secretary Stanton There were some fifty men in attendance and one woman. She was poor-looking, shabbily, but neatly, dressed, middle-aged, and careworn. Her hands were tightly clenching a handkercief with the evident effort to master the emotion which was shaking her whole frame. Putting my arm about her, I said as kindly as I could, I am afraid you're in trouble ; can I do anything to help you ?' She turned a most imploring face to me. My husband is to be shot, and if I cannot get him pardoned, nobody can comfort me.' [He was a Major in an Illinois regiment, who had been grossly insulted by his Colonel, and who had struck the offender dead on the spot, for which crime a court-martial had condemned him to death. Mrs. Livermore brought the poor wife into the presence of the President.] Instead of telling her story, she dropped, trembling, into a chair, only half- alive, and lifted her white face to the President's with a beseeching look Seeing she was past speech, I spoke quietly in her behalf. All the while the hungry eyes of the woman were riveted on the President's face, and tearless sobs shook her frame. The President was troubled, Oh, dear, dear ! ' he said, passing his hand over his face and through his hair ; these cases kill me ; what shall I do ?' The attendant of the wife gave in an abstract of the case which had been furnished by the Major's counsel, and 'which the President began gloomily to run over. Now and then

he looked up pityingly at the speechless woman He had turned over some half-dozen pages of the abstract when he sud- denly dropped it, sprang forward in his chair, his face brightened almostinto beauty, and he rubbed his hands joyfully : 'Oh! I know all about it now ! This came before me ten days ago, and I decided it then, and I have changed his sentence of death to two years' imprisonment in the penitentiary at Albany. Major — has been a brave man and a good man, and he had great provocation. Your husband knows all about it before now (he said, addressing the wife), and when you go back you must go by way of Albany, and see him. Tell him to bear his imprisonment like a man, and take a new start in the world when it is over.' The Major's wife did not at first comprehend, and she attempted to rise, as if she were going to kneel at the President's feet, but instead, she only slid helplessly on the floor, and lay in a dead faint. He helped to

raise her The expression of his face when it dawned upon him that he had already interposed between the Major and death will never leave my memory. His swarthy, rugged, homely face was glorified by the delight of his soul, which shone out of his features." (p. 574.)

We regret that we can extract no more from one of the finest books, both as regards matter and manner, which has come to our notice for many a day.