Produced by Richard Tonsing and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive) OUR WOMEN IN THE WAR. AN ADDRESS BY Capt. Francis W. Dawson, DELIVERED FEBRUARY 22, 1887, AT THE FIFTH ANNUAL RE-UNION OF THE ASSOCIATION OF THE MARYLAND LINE, AT THE ACADEMY OF MUSIC, BALTIMORE, MD. PRINTED BY ORDER OF THE ASSOCIATION. CHARLESTON, S. C. WALKER, EVANS & COGSWELL COMPANY, PRINTERS, Nos. 3 and 5 Broad and 117 East Bay Sts. 1887. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ ADDRESS. In the writings of Count Montholon there is the following passage: “On great occasions, it is almost always women who have given the strongest proofs of virtue and devotion. The reason is that, with men, good and bad qualities are, in general, the result of calculation, whilst in women they are impulses springing from the heart.” Macaulay, in one of his essays, speaks of “that perfect disinterestedness and self-devotion of which man seems incapable, but which is sometimes found in woman.” This virtue, this perfect disinterestedness and self-devotion, was manifested on every side, and on all occasions, by Southern women during the Confederate war. Their constancy and fidelity, their tenderness and courage, their unfailing cheerfulness and patience, have no parallel in the history of human achievement and human suffering. Think for a moment of the peculiar circumstances. The soldiers on the Northern side fought as the Confederates fought, and were equally exposed to the fatigue of the march and the hazard of battle. But the Northern soldier was well-clad, well-fed, well-armed. Naught that science and wealth could furnish to make him an effective combatant was allowed to remain wanting. The Confederate, on the other hand, was stinted in his food, and, besides, was poorly equipped in arms and munitions. In a campaign, he was more often bare-backed and bare-footed than warmly clothed and well-shod.