Cairo's Civil War Ansel, Mary Jane Safford

LE ROY H . FISCHER
tumbler of buttermilk - a fourth wishes nothing, is discouraged,
thinks he shall die, and breaks down utterly, in tears, and him she
soothes and encourages, till he resolves for her sake, to keep up
a good heart, and hold on to life a little longer - a fifth wants her
to write to his wife - a sixth is afraid to die, and with him, and for
him, her devout spirit wrestles, till light shines through the dark
valley - a seventh desires her to sit by him and read, and so on.
Every request is attended to, be it ever so trivial. . .. She is performing
a noble work . . . in the quietest and most unconscious
manner. 9
Mrs. Mary A. Livermore, an organizer and field inspector
for the Northwestern (Chicago) Branch of the United
States Sanitary Commission, was similarly impressed by
Mary's accomplishments in working with the patients of
Cairo's hospitals:
The effect of her presence was magical. It was like a breath
of spring borne into the bare, white-washed rooms - like a burst
of sunlight. Every face brightened, and every man who was able,
half raised himself from his bed or chair, as in homage, or expectation.
It would be difficult to imagine a more cheery vision than
her kindly presence, or a sweeter sound than her educated, tender
voice, as she moved from bed to bed, speaking to each one. Now
she addressed one in German, a blue-eyed boy from Holland -
and then she chattered in French to another, made superlatively
happy by being addressed in his native tongue. 10
At no time did Mary happen into a more dramatic and
touching hospital situation than when she accompanied Mrs.
Livermore on a tour of inspection for the Sanitary CommiSSIOn.
As they entered one of the wards, a tall, welldressed
officer was being brought in on a stretcher, shot in
the left side the night before on one of the gunboats at
Island Number Ten. After he had been placed on a bed,
9. Quoted in Brockett and Vaughan, Woman's Work in the Civil War,
360-61; a less complete and less reliable version of this letter is in Edmonds,
Nurse and Spy, 360-62.
10. Livermore, lVly Story of the War, 207.
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