ersburg at the time of
Lee's surrender. She remained in the hospitals of Petersburg and
Richmond, until the middle of May, and then returned to her quiet home,
participating to the very last in the closing work of the Volunteer
Refreshment Saloon, where she had commenced her labors for the soldiers.
Other ladies may have engaged in more extended enterprises, may have had
charge of larger hospitals, or undertaken more comprehensive and
far-reaching plans for usefulness to the soldier--but in untiring
devotion to his interests, in faithfully performed, though often irksome
labor, carried forward patiently and perseveringly for more than four
years, Mrs. Lee has a record not surpassed in the history of the deeds
of American women.

MISS CORNELIA M. TOMPKINS.

Miss Cornelia M. Tompkins, of Niagara Falls, was one of the truly heroic
spirits evoked by the war. Related to a distinguished family of the same
name, educated, accustomed to the refinements and social enjoyments of a
Christian home she left all to become a hospital nurse, and to aid in
saving the lives of the heroes and defenders of her native land.
Recommended by her friend, the late Margaret Breckinridge, of whom a
biographical notice is given in this volume, she came to St. Louis in
the summer of 1863, was commissioned as a nurse by Mr. Yeatman, and
assigned to duty at the Benton Barracks Hospital, under the
superintendence of Miss Emily E. Parsons, and the general direction of
Surgeon Ira Russell. In this service she was one of the faithful band of
nurses, who, with Miss Parsons, brought the system of nursing to such
perfection at that hospital.

In the fall of that year she was transferred to the hospital service at
Memphis, by Mr. Yeatman, to meet the great demand for nurses there,
where she became favorably known as a most judicious and skilful nurse.

In the spring of 1864 she returned to St. Louis, and was again assigned
to duty at Benton Barracks, where she remained till mid-summer, when
having been from home a year, she obtained a furlough, and went home for
a short period of rest, and to visit her family.

On her return to St. Louis she was assigned to duty at the large
hospital at Jefferson Barracks, and continued there till the end of the
war, doing faithful and excellent service, and receiving the cordial
approbation of the surgeons in charge, and the Western Sanitary
Commission, as well as the gratitude of the sick and wounded soldiers,