n ample dinner on the day of
the National Thanksgiving, by the Association, and as they were now
diminishing in numbers, and the Auxiliary Societies, which had sprung up
throughout the State, had poured in abundant supplies, Mrs. Brady felt
that the time had come when she could consistently enter upon the work
nearest her heart. In the winter of 1863, she visited Washington, and
the hospitals and camps which were scattered around the city, at
distances of from five to twenty miles. Here she found multitudes of
sick and wounded, all suffering from cold, from hunger, or from
inattention. "Camp Misery," with its twelve thousand convalescents, in a
condition of intense wretchedness moved her sympathies, and led her to
do what she could for them. She returned home at the beginning of April,
and her preparations for another journey were hardly made, before the
battles of Chancellorsville and its vicinity occurred. Here at the
great field hospital of Sedgwick's (Sixth) Corps, she commenced in
earnest her labors in the care of the wounded directly from the field.
For five weeks she worked with an energy and zeal which were the
admiration of all who saw her, and then as Lee advanced toward
Pennsylvania, she returned home for a few days of rest.

Then came Gettysburg, with its three days of terrible slaughter, and
Mrs. Brady was again at her work day and night, furnishing soft food to
the severely wounded, cooling drinks to the thirsty and fever-stricken,
soothing pain, encouraging the men to heroic endurance of their
sufferings, everywhere an angel of comfort, a blessed and healing
presence. More than a month was spent in these labors, and at their
close Mrs. Brady returned to her work in the Hospitals at Philadelphia,
and to preparation for the autumn and winter campaigns. When early in
January, General Meade made his Mine Run Campaign, Mrs. Brady had again
gone to the front, and was exposed to great vicissitudes of weather, and
was for a considerable time in peril from the enemy's fire. Her
exertions and exposures at this time brought on disease of the heart,
and her physician forbade her going to the front again. She however made
all the preparations she could for the coming campaign, and hoped,
though vainly, that she might be permitted again to enter upon the work
she loved. When the great battles of May, 1864, were fought, the
dreadful slaughter which accompanied them, so disquieted her, that it
aggravated her disease, and