slave States, and who prepared
themselves to do useful service in the hospitals as nurses, was Miss
Emily E. Parsons, of Cambridge, Massachusetts, a daughter of Professor
Theophilus Parsons, of the Cambridge Law School, and granddaughter of
the late Chief Justice Parsons, of Massachusetts.

Miss Parsons was born in Taunton, Massachusetts, was educated in Boston,
and resided at Cambridge at the beginning of the war. She at once
foresaw that there would be need of the same heroic work on the part of
the women of the country as that performed by Florence Nightingale and
her army of women nurses in the Crimea, and with her father's approval
she consulted with Dr. Wyman, of Cambridge, how she could acquire the
necessary instruction and training to perform the duties of a skilful
nurse in the hospitals. Through his influence with Dr. Shaw, the
superintendent of the Massachusetts General Hospital, she was received
into that institution as a pupil in the work of caring for the sick, in
the dressing of wounds, in the preparation of diet for invalids, and in
all that pertains to a well regulated hospital. She was thoroughly and
carefully instructed by the surgeons of the hospital, all of whom took
great interest in fitting her for the important duties she proposed to
undertake, and gave her every opportunity to practice, with her own
hands, the labors of a good hospital nurse. Dr. Warren and Dr.
Townshend, two distinguished surgeons, took special pains to give her
all necessary information and the most thorough instruction. At the end
of one year and a half of combined teaching and practice, she was
recommended by Dr. Townshend to Fort Schuyler Hospital, on Long Island
Sound, where she went in October, 1862, and for two months performed the
duties of hospital nurse, in the most faithful and satisfactory manner,
when she left by her father's wishes, on account of the too great
exposure to the sea, and went to New York.

While in New York Miss Parsons wrote to Miss Dix, the agent of the
Government for the employment of women nurses, offering her services
wherever they might be needed, and received an answer full of
encouragement and sympathy with her wishes. At the same time she also
made the acquaintance of Mrs. John C. Fremont, who wrote to the Western
Sanitary Commission at St. Louis, of her qualifications and desire of
usefulness in the hospital service, and she was immediately telegraphed
to come on at once to St. Louis.

A