ded and a prisoner. She knew he had suffered amputation of an
arm, but could learn nothing more. _Rumors_ were fearful enough to
distress the young wife, whose trembling heart was filled with
foreboding. Every few days reports that _seemed_ true startled
her,--he was _dead_. Alas! it might be true, for how could he live in
the midst of enemies to whom his high spirit would not bend, wounded,
suffering, deprived of the loving care for which he pined? Again, he
had tried to escape in the garb of a peddler, and had been taken up as
a spy (which no one who knew him believed). In that sad household Mrs.
Caldwell's duties became onerous and multifarious enough to appall one
less stout-hearted or less devoted to the cause. The inmates of the
dwelling looked to her for sympathy, advice, nursing, and all kinds of
attention, as well as for the comfort which could come only by
superexcellent housekeeping. And all this was done, and _well_ done,
by one woman, inspired by supreme devotion to the _Confederate_ cause
and its defenders. Truly such a woman deserves to be immortalized, to
live in history long after the hearts that now enshrine her image
shall have ceased to beat.

Later, larger hospital accommodation having been provided, it became
difficult to obtain permission for private soldiers to leave the wards
to which they had been assigned.

Mr. and Mrs. J. Edwards Caldwell then resolved to fill up the "Refuge"
with their own friends among the officers, saying to each other, "We
will do all the good we can, and will agree to sustain each other in
any course without consulting." Very sick and very badly-wounded
patients were now sent to Mrs. Caldwell. In fact, cases which were
considered hopeless, but lingering, were despatched from the hospital
to the "Refuge" to die, but not one of them did what was expected of
him. The efforts of Mrs. Caldwell were blessed of God, and her
patients, without exception, improved. One of these was Lawson Lewis
Davis, of New Orleans, wounded at Frazier's Mills, near Richmond. He
was suffering from a terrible wound, the cap of the shoulder having
been removed. He suffered for a whole year before recovering. A still
more remarkable case was that of Captain Charles Knowlton, Tenth
Louisiana Regiment. He was wounded in the knee in November, 1863, and
was at once invited to the "Refuge," but, having recession of the
knee, was compelled to remain under surgical treatment until April,
1864, when he was