ul gaze that one casts into the grave—were
  these, I say, could these be the same airy-robed, white-fingered
  women, so like flowers, who, months and months ago, (it appeared an
  eternity) packed away, ’mid laughter and song, smile and jest those
  _articles de luxe_ for the boys at the front?

  “Before the close of the conflict I knew women to walk twenty miles
  for a half bushel of coarse, musty meal with which to feed their
  starving little ones, and leave the impress of their feet in blood
  on the stones of the wayside ere they reached home again. When
  there, the meal was cooked and ravenously eaten, though there was
  not even salt to be eaten with it. Yet these women did not complain,
  but wrote cheerful letters to their husbands and sons, if they were
  yet living, bidding them to do their duty and hold the last trench.”

What wonder is it? Even superhuman strength could not bear unmoved the
burden placed upon the frail bodies and indomitable minds of the women
and children. Think of what their losses were. Death on the battlefield
or in hospital had brought desolation to tens of thousands of once
joyous homes. Every household was in mourning. What Southern family had
altogether escaped? The poor suffered with those who had been rich. Mr.
James Argo, of Pulaski County, Ga., had fourteen sons and sons-in-law in
service. Ex-Governor Wm. A. Graham, of North Carolina, had five sons in
the army, and his sister, the wife of the Rev. Dr. Morrison, gave two
sons and four sons-in-law to the Southern cause, and among these
sons-in-law were D. H. Hill and Stonewall Jackson. The Shuler family,
originally from Orangeburg District, South Carolina, had fifty-one
direct representatives in the Confederate service. The Easterlings, of
South Carolina, had sixty-three. Mrs. Hamrick, of Cleveland County,
North Carolina, had seven children, all boys. Six of them went at once
into service; the seventh was little more than a child. At
Fredericksburg was killed Lieut. Bell, of Augusta County. Twelve of the
member