[Illustration: _Cordially Yours Annie Wittenmyer_] UNDER THE GUNS A WOMAN’S REMINISCENCES OF THE CIVIL WAR BY MRS. ANNIE WITTENMYER AUTHOR OF “WOMAN’S WORK FOR JESUS,” “A JEWELLED MINISTRY,” “HISTORY OF THE TEMPERANCE CRUSADE,” “THE WOMEN OF THE REFORMATION,” AN HISTORICAL WORK, ETC. WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY MRS. GENERAL U. S. GRANT BOSTON, MASS. E. B. STILLINGS & CO., PUBLISHERS 55 SUDBURY STREET 1895 COPYRIGHT, BY ANNIE WITTENMYER, 1895. TO THE ARMY NURSES OF OUR RECENT CIVIL WAR, WHO WALKED AS ANGELS OF MERCY ON MANY BATTLE-FIELDS, AND MINISTERED TO THE SICK, WOUNDED, AND DYING, IN LOATHSOME, OVER-CROWDED HOSPITALS; AND TO THE NOBLE WOMEN OF IOWA WHO SO GENEROUSLY SUSTAINED ME IN MY ARMY WORK; AND TO THE PATRIOTIC WOMEN OF AMERICA WHO SENT THEIR HUSBANDS, BROTHERS, AND SONS TO THE DEFENCE OF THEIR COUNTRY WITH A DEVOTION AND COURAGE EQUAL TO THAT OF ANY GRECIAN MOTHER OR ROMAN MATRON, THIS VOLUME IS RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED BY THE AUTHOR. PREFACE. In preparing this little volume for publication, no attempt whatever has been made to record, as facts of history, the military movements of the army during our recent Civil War. The great captains, who led the Union forces through the terrible conflict from Fort Sumter to Appomattox, have already covered, to a large extent, the military history of the war. My purpose has been simply to bring out in connection with these great military events, with which they were so intimately connected, a few of the many incidents and heart histories that were crowded into my own life, from April 20, 1861, to Nov. 23, 1865. _The stories and reminiscences in this book are true to life, every one of them._ They are told just as they occurred, without any attempt at literary embellishment; and most of them can be substantiated by living witnesses. Camps and hospitals were established near my own home in Keokuk, Iowa, early in April, 1861. I began at once my ministrations to the sick in these newly established hospitals, and, during my daily visits, closed the eyes of the first Iowa soldier who died in the war. From that time on till the close of the war I was actively engaged all along the lines. I was loyally and generously sustained by the women of Iowa; was elected by the Iowa Legislature sanitary agent of the State; was commissioned by Iowa’s grand old war governor, Samuel J. Kirkwood; was furnished by Secretary Stanton with a pass to all parts of the field, and government transportation for myself and supplies. This official order of Mr. Stanton’s was supplemented by the following charge:-- “It is especially enjoined upon all officers to furnish this lady every facility in carrying out her generous purposes, it being shown that she is worthy of great respect.”