al, remaining
there until the latter part of May, 1864.

This was a part of her service which perhaps drew more heavily than any
other upon the sympathies and heart of Mrs. Tyler. Here, during the
period of her superintendency, the poor wrecks of humanity from the
prison pens of Andersonville and Belle Isle were brought, an assemblage
of such utter misery, such dreadful suffering, that words fail in the
description of it. Here indeed was a "work of charity and mercy," such
as had never before been presented to this devoted woman; such, indeed,
as the world had never seen.

Most careful, tender, and kindly were the ministrations of Mrs. Tyler
and her associates--a noble band of women--to these wretched men. Filth,
disease, and starvation had done their work upon them. Emaciated, till
only the parchment-like skin covered the protruding bones, many of them
too feeble for the least exertion, and their minds scarcely stronger
than their bodies, they were indeed a spectacle to inspire, as they
did, the keenest sympathy, and to call for every effort of kindness.

Mrs. Tyler procured a number of photographs of these wretched men,
representing them in all their squalor and emaciation. These were the
first which were taken, though the Government afterwards caused some to
be made which were widely distributed. With these Mrs. Tyler did much
good. She had a large number of copies printed in Boston, after her
return there, and both in this country and in Europe, which she
afterwards visited, often had occasion to bring them forward as
unimpeachable witnesses of the truth of her own statements. Sun pictures
cannot lie, and the sun's testimony in these brought many a heart
shudderingly to a belief which it had before scouted. In Europe,
particularly, both in England and upon the Continent, these pictures
compelled credence of those tales of the horrors and atrocities of rebel
prison pens, which it had long been the fashion to hold as mere
sensation stories, and libels upon the chivalrous South.

Whenever referring to her work at Annapolis for the returned prisoners,
Mrs. Tyler takes great pleasure in expressing her appreciation of the
valuable and indefatigable services of the late Dr. Vanderkieft, Surgeon
in charge of the Naval School Hospital. In his efforts to resuscitate
the poor victims of starvation and cruelty, he was indefatigable, never
sparing himself, but bestowing upon them his unwearied personal
attention and sympathy