many years she could not speak her
sister's name without deep emotion; but she was too brave and too truly
religious to allow this blow, dreadful as it was, to impair her
usefulness or unfit her for her destined work. Her religion was
eminently practical and energetic. She was a constant and faithful
Sunday-school teacher, and devoted her attention especially to the
colored people in whom she had a deep interest. She had become by
inheritance the owner of several slaves in Kentucky, who were a source
of great anxiety to her, and the will of her father, though carefully
designed to secure their freedom, had become so entangled with state
laws, subsequently made, as to prevent her, during her life, from
carrying out what was his wish as well as her own. By her will she
directed that they should be freed as soon as possible, and something
given them to provide against the first uncertainties of self-support."

So the beginning of the war found Margaret ripe and ready for her noble
womanly work; trained to self-reliance, accustomed to using her powers
in the service of others, tender, brave, and enthusiastic, chastened by
a life-long sorrow, she longed to devote herself to her country, and to
do all in her power to help on its noble defenders. During the first
year of the struggle duty constrained her to remain at home, but heart
and hands worked bravely all the time, and even her ready pen was
pressed into the service.

But Margaret could not be satisfied to remain with the Home-Guards. She
must be close to the scene of action and in the foremost ranks. She
determined to become a hospital-nurse. Her anxious friends combated her
resolution in vain; they felt that her slender frame and excitable
temperament could not bear the stress and strain of hospital work, but
she had set her mark and must press onward let life or death be the
issue. In April, 1862, Miss Breckinridge set out for the West, stopping
a few weeks at Baltimore on her way. Then she commenced her hospital
service; then, too, she contracted measles, and, by the time she reached
Lexington, Kentucky, her destination, she was quite ill; but the delay
was only temporary, and soon she was again absorbed in her work. A
guerrilla raid, under John Morgan, brought her face to face with the
realities of war, and soon after, early in September she found herself
in a beleaguered city, actually in the grasp of the Rebels, Kirby Smith
holding possession of Lexington and its