Among the branches of the United States Sanitary Commission, the Association which is named above, was one of the most efficient and untiring in its labors. It had gathered into its management, a large body of the most gifted and intellectual women of Boston, and its vicinity, women who knew how to work as well as to plan, direct and think. These were seconded in their efforts by a still larger number of intelligent and accomplished women in every part of New England, who, as managers and directors of the auxiliaries of the Association, roused and stimulated by their own example and their eloquent appeals, the hearts of their countrywomen to earnest and constant endeavour to benefit the soldiers of our National armies. The geographical peculiarities and connections of the New England States, were such that after the first year Connecticut and Rhode Island could send their supplies more readily to the field through New York than through Boston, and hence the Association from that time, had for its field of operations, only Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, and Massachusetts. In these four States, however, it had one thousand and fifty auxiliaries, and during its existence, collected nearly three hundred and fifteen thousand dollars in money, and fully one million, two hundred thousand dollars in stores and supplies for the work of the Sanitary Commission. In December, 1863, it held a Sanitary Fair in Boston, the net proceeds of which were nearly one hundred and forty-six thousand dollars.

The first Chairman of the Executive Committee, was Mrs. D. Buck, and on her resignation early in 1864, Miss Abby W. May, an active and efficient member of the Executive Committee from the first was chosen Chairman. The rare executive ability displayed by Miss May in this position, and her extraordinary gifts and influence render a brief sketch of her desirable, though her own modest and retiring disposition would lead her to depreciate her own merits, and to declare that she had done no more than the other members of the Association. In that coterie of gifted women, it is not impossible that there may have been others who could have done as well, but none could have done better than Miss May; just as in our great armies, it is not impossible that there may have been Major-Generals, and perhaps even Brigadier-Generals, who, had they been placed in command of the armies, might have accomplished as much as those who did lead them to victory. The possibilities of success, in an untried leader, may or may not be great; but those who actually occupy a prominent position, must pay the penalty of their prominence, in the publicity which follows it.

Miss May is a native of Boston, born in 1829, and educated in the best schools of her natal city. She early gave indications of the possession of a vigorous intellect, which was thoroughly trained and cultivated. Her clear and quick understanding, her strong good sense, active benevolence, and fearlessness in avowing and advocating whatever she believed to be true and right, have given her a powerful influence in the wide circle of her acquaintance. She embarked heart and soul in the Anti-slavery movement while yet quite young, and has rendered valuable services to that cause.

At the very commencement of the war, she gave herself most heartily to the work of relieving the sufferings of the soldiers from sickness or wounds; laboring with great efficiency in the organization and extension of the New England Women's Auxiliary Association, and in the spring and summer of 1862, going into the Hospital Transport Service of the Sanitary Commission, where her labors were arduous, but accomplished great good. After her return, she was prevailed upon to take the Chairmanship of the Executive Committee of the Association, and represented it at Washington, at the meeting of the delegates from the Branches of the Sanitary Commission. Her executive ability was signally manifested in her management of the affairs of the Association, in her rapid and accurate dispatch of business, her prompt and unerring judgment on all difficult questions, her great practical talent, and her earnest and eloquent appeals to the auxiliaries. Yet fearless and daring as she has ever been in her denunciation of wrong, and her advocacy of right, and extraordinary as are the abilities she has displayed in the management of an enterprise for which few men would have been competent, the greatest charm of her character is her unaffected modesty, and disposition to esteem others better than herself. To her friends she declared that she had made no sacrifices in the work, none really worthy of the name—while there were abundance of women who had, but who were and must remain nameless and unknown. What she had done had been done from inclination and a desire to serve and be useful in her day, and in the great struggle, and had been a recreation and enjoyment.

To a lady friend who sought to win from her some incidents of her labors for publication, she wrote:

"The work in New England has been conducted with so much simplicity, and universal co-operation, that there have been no persons especially prominent in it. Rich and poor, wise and simple, cultivated and ignorant, all—people of all descriptions, all orders of taste, every variety of habit, condition, and circumstances, joined hands heartily in the beginning, and have worked together as equals in every respect. There has been no chance for individual prominence. Each one had some power or quality desirable in the great work; and she gave what she could. In one instance, it was talent, in another, money,—in another, judgment,—in another, time,—and so on. Where all gifts were needed, it would be impossible to say what would make any person prominent, with this one exception. It was necessary that some one should be at the head of the work: and this place it was my blessed privilege to fill. But it was only an accidental prominence; and I should regret more than I can express to you, to have this accident of position single me out in any such manner as you propose; from the able, devoted, glorious women all about me, whose sacrifices, and faithfulness, and nobleness, I can hardly conceive of, much less speak of and never approach to.

"As far as I personally am concerned, I would rather your notice of our part of the work should be of 'New England women.' We shared the privileges of the work,—not always equally, that would be impossible. But we stood side by side—through it all, as New England women; and if we are to be remembered hereafter, it ought to be under that same good old title, and in one goodly company.

"When I begin to think of individual cases, I grow full of admiration, and wish I could tell you of many a special woman; but the number soon becomes appalling,—your book would be overrun, and all, or most of those who would have been omitted, might well have been there too."

In the same tone of generous appreciation of the labors of others, and desire that due honor should be bestowed upon all, Miss May, in her final Report of the New England Women's Auxiliary Association, gives utterance to the thanks of the Executive Committee to its fellow-workers:

"We wish we could speak of all the elements that have conspired to our success in New England; but they are too numerous. From the representatives of the United States Government here, who remitted the duties upon soldiers' garments sent to us from Nova Scotia, down to the little child, diligently sewing with tiny fingers upon the soldier's comfort-bag, the co-operation has been almost universal. Churches, of all denominations, have exerted their influence for us; many schools have made special efforts in our behalf; the directors of railroads, express companies, telegraphs, and newspapers, and gentlemen of the business firms with whom we have dealt, have befriended us most liberally; and private individuals, of all ages, sexes, colors, and conditions, have aided us in ways that we cannot enumerate, that no one really knows but themselves. They do not seek our thanks, but we would like to offer them. Their service has been for the soldiers' sake; but the way in which they have rendered it has made us personally their debtors, beyond the power of words to express."

One of the most efficient auxiliaries of the New England Women's Auxiliary Association, from the thoroughly loyal spirit it manifested, and the persistent and patient labor which characterized its course was the Boston Sewing Circle, an organization started in November, 1862, and which numbered thenceforward to the end of the war from one hundred and fifty to two hundred workers. This Sewing Circle raised twenty-one thousand seven hundred and seventy-eight dollars in money, (about four thousand dollars of it for the Refugees in Western Tennessee), and made up twenty-one thousand five hundred and ninety-two articles of clothing, a large part of them of flannel, but including also shirts, drawers, etc., of cotton.

Its officers from first to last were Mrs. George Ticknor, President; Miss Ira E. Loring, Vice-President; Mrs. G. H. Shaw, Secretary; Mrs. Martin Brimmer, Treasurer. A part of these ladies, together with some others had for more than a year previous been engaged in similar labors, at first in behalf of the Second Regiment of Massachusetts Infantry, and afterward for other soldiers. This organization of which Mrs. George Ticknor was President, Miss Ticknor, Secretary, and Mrs. W. B. Rogers, Treasurer, raised three thousand five hundred and forty-four dollars in money, and sent to the army four thousand nine hundred and sixty-nine articles of clothing of which one-third were of flannel.

Another "Boston notion," and a very excellent notion it was, was the organization of the Ladies' Industrial Aid Association, which we believe, but are not certain, was in some sort an auxiliary of the New England Women's Auxiliary Association. This society was formed in the beginning of the war and proposed first to furnish well made clothing to the soldiers, and second to give employment to their families, though it was not confined to these, but furnished work also to some extent to poor widows with young children, who had no near relatives in the army. In this enterprise were enlisted a large number of ladies of education, refinement, and high social position. During four successive winters, they carried on their philanthropic work, from fifteen to twenty of them being employed during most of the forenoons of each week, in preparing the garments for the sewing women, or in the thorough and careful inspection of those which were finished. From nine hundred to one thousand women were constantly supplied with work, and received in addition to the contract prices, (the ladies performing their labor without compensation) additional payment, derived from donations for increasing their remuneration. The number of garments (mostly shirts and drawers) made by the employÉs of this association in the four years, was three hundred and forty-six thousand seven hundred and fifteen, and the sum, of twenty thousand thirty-three dollars and seventy-eight cents raised by donation, was paid as additional wages to the workwomen. The association of these poor women for so long a period with ladies of cultivation and refinement, under circumstances in which they could return a fair equivalent for the money received, and hence were not in the position of applicants for charity, could not fail to be elevating and improving, while the ladies themselves learned the lesson that as pure and holy a patriotism inspired the hearts of the humble and lowly, as was to be found among the gifted and cultivated. We regret that we cannot give the names of the ladies who initiated and sustained this movement. Many of them were conspicuous in other works of patriotism and benevolence during the war, and some found scope for their earnest devotion to the cause in camp and hospital, and some gave vent to their patriotic emotion in battle hymns which will live through all coming time. Of these as of thousands of others in all the departments of philanthropy connected with the great struggle, it shall be said, "They have done what they could."