In the ordinary acceptation of the term, Mrs. Bigelow has not been connected with Soldiers' Homes either in Washington or elsewhere; yet there are few if any ladies in the country who have taken so many sick or wounded soldiers to their own houses, and have made them at home there, as she. To hundreds, if not thousands, of the soldiers of the Army of the Potomac, the name of "Aunty Bigelow," the title by which she was universally known among the sick and wounded soldiers, is as carefully, and quite as gratefully cherished as the name of their commanders. Mrs. Bigelow is a native of Washington, in which city she has always resided. She was never able, in consequence of her family duties, to devote herself exclusively to hospital work, but was among the first to respond to the call for friendly aid to the sick soldier. She was, in 1861, a daily visitor to the Indiana Hospital in the Patent Office Building, coming at such hours as she could spare from her home duties; and she was always welcome, for no one was more skillful as a nurse than she, or could cheer and comfort the sick better. When she could not come, she sent such delicacies as would tempt the appetite of the invalid to the hospital. Many a soldier remembers to this day the hot cakes, or the mush and milk, or the custard which came from Aunty Bigelow's, on purpose for him, and always exactly at the right time. Mrs. R. K. Billing, a near relative of Mrs. Bigelow, and the mother of that Miss Rose M. Billing whose patriotic labors ended only with her life—a life freely sacrificed for the relief of our poor returned prisoners from Andersonville, as related in our sketch of the Annapolis Hospital Corps,—was the co-laborer of her kinswoman in these labors of love. Both were indefatigable in their labors for the sick soldiers; both knew how to make "that bread which tasted exactly like mother's" to the convalescent soldier, whose feeble appetite was not easily tempted; and both opened their houses, as well as their hearts to these poor suffering invalids, and many is the soldier who could and did say: "I don't know what would have become of me if I had not met with such good friends."

Mrs. Bigelow became, ere long, the almoner of the bounty of many Aid Societies at the North, and vast quantities of supplies passed through her hands, to the patients of the hospitals; and they were always judiciously distributed. She not only kept up a constant correspondence with these societies, but wrote regularly to the soldier-boys who had been under her care, after they returned to their regiments, and thus retained her influence over them, and made them feel that somebody cared for them, even when they were away from all other home influences.

Besides these labors, which were seemingly sufficient to occupy her entire time, she visited continually the hospitals about the city, and always found room in her house for any sick one, who came to her begging that he might "come home," rather than go to a boarding-house or to a hospital. Three young officers, who came to her with this plea, were received and watched over till death relieved them of their sufferings, and cared for as tenderly as they could have been in their own homes; and those who came thither were nursed and tended till their recovery were numbered by scores.

To all the hospital workers from abroad, and the number was not few, her house was always a home. There was some unappropriated room or some spare bed in which they could be accommodated, and they were welcome for the sake of the cause for which they were laboring. Had she possessed an ample fortune, this kindness, though honorable, might not have been so noteworthy, but her house was small and her means far from ample. In the midst of these abundant labors for the soldiers, she was called to pass through deep affliction, in the illness and death of her husband; but she suffered no personal sorrow to so absorb her interest as to make her unmindful of her dear hospital and home-work for the soldiers. This was continued unfalteringly as long as there was occasion for it.

Few, if any, of the "Women of the War," have been or have deserved to be, more generally beloved by the soldiers and by all true hospital-workers than Mrs. Bigelow.