Soldiers Aid Society - August 1861

HARLAN, WITTENMYER

Posted By: Pat Ryan White (email)
Date: 4/22/2024 at 19:38:01

The Soldiers Aid Society.

We invite the special attention of the ladies of Henry County to the letter published below. The object is praise-worthy and the suggestions wise. Let not our patriotic ladies fall behind these of any other county in the commendable work.

KEOKUK, IOWA, August 30, ‘61

MRS. HARLAN – Dear Madam: The ladies of Keokuk have organized themselves into a society called “The Soldiers’ Aid Society”, and through you they invite the ladies of Mt. Pleasant to organize a similar society, and cooperate with them in giving such aid to our volunteers as you may be able, and for the purpose of furnishing the Iowa hospitals with such comforts and conveniences as the Government does not provide.

As they will be in direct communication with, and will frequently visit their hospitals, they propose to lay before you, through their secretary, a full statement of facts, and to transmit to you from time to time, such items of intelligence as may be of interest and advantage to your society, and they desire that you permanently organize and through your secretary keep them advised of your movements, so that we may all understandingly and harmoniously work together in the great cause of human liberty.

The call we make upon you will be made to ladies all over the State, and we hope by our united efforts to place the Iowa hospitals on the best possible footing.

The time has come when every lady who loves the country, and desires the perpetuity of this, the best government that was ever instituted for the protection and elevation of woman, must be ready to sacrifice time and labor in the great and bloody struggle for the existence of our free institutions.

Very many of the ladies of Iowa have sons and husbands and brothers and dear friends on the field of battle, or in the hospital, and we feel that they are with us in heart and sympathy, then let us all lay aside sectional and party feeling, and earnestly unite in the great work before us.
Delegated by the ladies of this society, I have just returned from visiting some of the Iowa hospitals – they are in a wretched condition.

The ladies advise the making of bed shirts and drawers as the most important just now. Hoping to hear from you as soon as you get organized, I am very truly yours &c.
MRS. ANNIE WITTENMYER.

P.S. – You will please lay this before a meeting of the ladies of Mt. Pleasant.

It is thought advisable to mark each article, so that those for whom they are designed, may receive them, and understand from whence they came, and be able to give proper credit. A.W.

(“The Home Journal”, Mount Pleasant, Iowa; Saturday, September 21, 1861, page 3)