Cairo's Civil War Ansel, Mary Jane Safford

CAIRO'S CIVIL WAR ANGEL
dyke, did as she pleased. On her daily visits she carried a
memorandum book in one hand and a large basket of delicacies
in the other, while a porter followed with an even
larger basket. Mary personally prepared sick-diet foods authorized
by the patients' physicians, and labeled them with
the name of the hospital and the number of the ward and
bed. In addition to food, she supplied handiwork items,
magazines, newspapers, games, and letter-writing materials.
Many of these were purchased with money donated by her
brother, although she requisitioned and drew regularly upon
supplies shipped to Cairo from the Chicago office of the
United States Sanitary Commission, the forerunner of
American Red Cross.8
Early in th.: war an observer writing for a Chicago
paper graphically told of Mary's contribution to the
of Cairo's hospitals:
I cannot close this letter from Cairo without a passing word
one whose name is mentioned by thousands of our soldiers
gratitude and blessing. Miss Mary Safford is ... devoted to
amelioration of the soldier's lot, and his comfort in the hospitals ..
Her sweet, young face, full of benevolence, pleasant voice, and
ning manner instate her in everyone's heart. , ..
Every sick and wounded soldier in Cairo knows and loves
and as she enters the ward, every pale face brightens at her
proach. As she passes along, she inquires of each one how he
passed the night, if he is well supplied with reading matter,
if there is anything she can do for him. All tell her their
frankly - the man old enough to be her father, and the boy
fifteen, who should be out of the army, and home with his
One thinks he would like a baked apple if the doctor will
it - another a rice pudding, such as she can make - a
8. L. P. Brockett and Mary C. Vaughan, Woman's Work in the Civil
A R ecord of H eroism, Patriotism and Patience (Philadelphia, 1867),
Mary A. Livermore, My Story of the War: A Woman's Narrative
Years Personal Experience (Hartford, 1888), 206-9; S. Emma E.
Nurse and Spy in the Union Army (Hartford, 1865 ),360-62.
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