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article. The "Nurse and Spy" purports to be "a record of events, which have transpired in the experience and under the observation of one who has been on the field, and participated in numerous battles-among which are the first and second Bull Run, Williamsburg, Fair Oaks, the seven days in front of Richmond, Antietam and Fredericksburg-serving in the capacity of a Spy and as a Field nurse for over two years." From the record it appears that the author is a native of the Province of New Brunswick. With "an insatiable thirst for education," and a fixed purpose to serve as a "Foreign Missionary," she came a few years before the war to the United States. Early in the spring of 1861, she seems to have been in a "reverie," from which however she was aroused by a voice in the street crying, "New York Herald-Fall of Fort Sumter-President's Proclamation-Call for seventy-five thousand men." The foreign missionary enterprise was at once abandoned, and in ten days our heroine was on her way to Washington, "having been employed by the government" as a "Field Nurse."

With some western troops, she passed through Baltimore a few days after the attack on the 6th Mass. Vols. Here "mobs were gathered in the streets, and the utmost excitement prevailed; and as the crowded cars moved through the city toward the depot, the infuriated mob threw showers of stones, brickbats, and other missiles, breaking the windows and wounding some of the soldiers. Some of the men could not forbear firing into the crowd." p. 21. Now, what schoolboy does not know that after the passage of the 6th Mass. no troops passed through Baltimore for several weeks. The railroad bridges, north and west of the city, were destroyed. The whole State nearly was in the power of the rebels; and Gov. Hicks, in a communication to the President, protested against the passage of northern troops across any portion of its soil. Meanwhile Gen. Butler, with the 8th Mass. and 7th New York, had opened the Annapolis route; and Secretary Seward in reply, while expressing surprise at such a protest, assured Gov. Hicks that this highway (the Annapolis route) for our troops had been selected "upon consultation with prominent magistrates and citizens of Maryland, as the one which, while a route is absolutely necessary, is furthest removed from the populous cities of the State, and with the ex

pectation that it would therefore be the least objectionable one." It was not till the 9th of June that the route through Baltimore was again opened. Baltimore was at that time garrisoned by our troops, and no such scene as that which is presented in the passage we have just quoted from the "Nurse and Spy" could then have occurred.

But we proceed with the narrative. On reaching Washington our heroine commenced her labors as a hospital nurse. After recording some of her experiences, while serving in this capacity, she opens chapter second thus: "Marching orders received to daytwo days more, and the Army of the Potomac will be on its way to Bull Run. I find this registered in my journal July 15th, 1861, without any comment whatever." Comment, however, is necessary. It requires but a glance to see that these lines could not have been written July 15, 1861, as she would have us infer. The Army of the Potomac was not in existence at that time. We had then a "grand union army" we thought; but these words, the Army of the Potomac, now so familiar to us, had not then been framed. Besides, on the 15th of July, 1861, who had heard of Bull Run? That battle was not not fought until Sunday, July 21st. "On to Richmond " was the cry at that time.

Our heroine accompanied the army into Virginia. At the battle of Bull Run she seems to have performed distinguished service. Of course she gave her attention chiefly to our wounded. She found time, however, to render assistance to others. Filling her "canteens while the minnie balls fell thick and fast around us," she carried water to our troops who were "famishing with thirst." Then came the disastrous retreat. Yet like Mary's lamb, when rudely treated by a certain teacher, "still she lingered near" the battle field, and only escaped capture by her extraordinary presence of mind. It would be interesting to give her account in full, but space forbids.

She now returned to her labors in the hospitals in and around Washington. The next spring she accompanied McClellan's army to the Peninsula. While our troops lay before Yorktown, she was often sent out into the country in search of supplies for the hospital with which she was connected. "In some instances," we give her own words, "I met with narrow escapes

with my life, which were not quite so interesting; and the timely appearance of my revolver often rescued me from the hands of the female rebels of the Peninsula." On one occasion, as she was leaving a house, where she had obtained some supplies for her hospital, the following incident occurred. We give her own graphic description.

"I had scarcely gone a rod when she [the woman from whom she had obtained her supplies] discharged a pistol at me; by some intuitive movement I threw myself forward on my horse's neck and the ball passed over my head. I turned my horse in a twinkling, and grasped my revolver. She was in the act of firing the second time, but was so excited that the bullet went wide of its mark. I held my seven-shooter in my hand, considering where to aim. I did not wish to kill the wretch, but did intend to wound her. When she saw that two could play at this game, she dropped her pistol and threw up her hands imploringly. I took deliberate aim at one of her hands, and sent the ball through the palm of her left hand. She fell to the ground in an instant with a loud shriek. I dismounted and took the pistol which lay beside her, and placing it in my belt, proceeded to take care of her ladyship after the following manner: I unfastened the end of my halter-strap and tied it painfully tight around her right wrist, and remounting my horse, I started, and brought the lady to consciousness by dragging her by the wrist two or three rods along the ground."

In this incident there is no need to remind the reader of Munchausen.

Soon after, our heroine was employed by Gen. McClellan as a spy. She at once entered the rebel lines, disguised as a contraband, and returned with valuable information. Accompanying the army up the Peninsula, she again entered the enemy's lines, and again returned in safety. During the bloody engagements which were fought in front of Richmond, she acted as an orderly to Gen. K, throwing herself into the thickest of the fight, but always emerging unharmed.

During Pope's campaign, she visited the rebel camps three times within a period of ten days. Of course she saw Kearney killed at "Chentilla:" as she spells it. She was within a few rods of him when he fell."

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At the battle of Antietam, she does not seem to have borne a prominent part. Late in October following, she accompanied

the army in its march from the vicinity of Harper's Ferry to Fredericksburg. On this march our heroine joined a body of our cavalry, who were in search of some guerrillas. They had not proceeded far when they were surprised and fired upon by the very men whom they were seeking.

"Two of our men were killed upon the spot, and my horse received three bullets. He reared and plunged before he fell, and in doing so the saddle girth was broken, and saddle and rider were thrown over his head. I was thrown on the ground violently which stunned me for a moment, and my horse now fell beside me, his blood pouring from three wounds. Making a desperate effort to rise, he groaned once, fell back, and throwing his neck across my body, he saturated me from head to foot with his blood. He died in a few minutes. I remained in that position, not daring to rise, for our party had fled and the rebels pursued them. A few minutes elapsed when the guerrillas returned, and the first thing I saw was one of the men thrusting his sabre into one of the dead men beside me. I was lying partially on my face, so I closed my eyes and passed for dead." p. 294.

After the battle of Fredericksburg, where our heroine figured as an aide-de-camp, she left the Army of the Potomac, and followed the 9th Corps to Kentucky, and afterwards to Vicksburg. But here her energies were soon exhausted. "All my soldierly qualities," she says, "seemed to have fled, and I was again a poor, cowardly,, nervous, whining woman." Accordingly she returned north, and retired to private life and the delights of authorship.

Such is an outline of this record of "personal experience." But the great body of the book is made up of various incidents, which, if we may believe the publisher's notice, came under the observation of its writer. These incidents are of a very different order from those with which she illustrates her own life, and, in a measure, would redeem the character of the book were it not for the claim of personal knowledge respecting them. Those who have read Hackett's "Memorials of the War" will recognize, in the "Nurse and Spy," many incidents with which they are already familiar. They will find them in most instances unchanged either in word or form; and perhaps they will be not a littled startled when they are told that these incidents occurred

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under the personal observation of the Nurse and Spy. On pages 117-119 of the "Memorials of the War," an incident is recorded entitled "a singular Death." This is introduced into the "Nurse and Spy " p. 241, thus: "While at one of the hospitals in Alexandria, the head steward told me the following touching incident, which occurred in that hospital." On page 33 of the "Memorials," an incident is related of an officer of a Massachusetts regiment, who was mortally wounded at the battle of Antietam. This incident is found in the "Nurse and Spy" p. 270, with this introduction: "At the close of the battle I stood by the side of a dying officer of one of the Massachusetts regiments, who had passed through the thickest of the fight unhurt, but just at the close of the battle he was struck by a random shot which wounded him mortally." On page 104 of the "Memorials," an incident is recorded entitled, "Is that Mother?" This is also found in the "Nurse and Spy," p. 307, with this introduction: "But among all the dead and wounded, I saw none who touched my heart so much as one beautiful boy, severely wounded; he was scarcely more than a child, and certainly a very attractive one. Some one writes the following, after he was sent to a hospital."

And so we might go on, for we had noted twenty-three of these coincidences; but we have a more serious charge to make against the writer of the "Nurse and Spy." She has taken not only these incidents from the "Memorials of the War," without any acknowledgment whatever, except in a single instance, claiming at the same time that they occurred under her own personal observation, but she has also taken remarks of Dr. Hackett, and introduced them into her book as her own. Thus on page 20 of the "Memorials of the War," Dr. Hackett makes the following remark: "It is certain that men animated by such faith have the consciousness of serving God in serving their country, and that their presence in the army adds to it some of its most important elements of strength and success." In the "Nurse and Spy," p. 276, we find this remark. It is not quoted — it is given as a remark of the writer: "The presence of such men in the army, animated by faith in God, and conscious of serving Him in serving their country, adds materially to its elements of strength and success." Can any one doubt the source of this

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