Isabella Fogg
In the spring of 1861, when men were called to join the Union army and fight for their country, Isabella Fogg of Calais, Maine, felt that she was called also. She felt compelled to leave the quiet and seclusion of her home, and do all that a woman could do to sustain the hands and the hearts of those who had the great battle of freedom to fight.
Isabella Fogg followed her son Hugh, a member of the 6th Maine Regiment, to Washington, DC, and she soon volunteered to work for the Maine Camp and Hospital Association, based back in Portland, Maine. She began visiting hospitals in the Washington area.
In September, 1861, Fogg turned her attention to the post hospital at Annapolis, in which the spotted typhus fever had broken out. One or more fell victims to it daily, much alarm existed, and it was difficult to obtain nurses for the sufferers. Fogg volunteered her services, and week after week, was on duty in the fever ward, constant in her devotion to the patients, and indifferent to the danger of infection. This duty lasted until the spring of 1862.
The epidemic subsided, and Fogg placed herself under the direction of the U.S. Sanitary Commission, and took part in the spring of 1862, in the Hospital Transport Service. By the fall of 1862, the Maine Soldier's Relief Agency, headquartered in Washington, had assumed responsibility for coordinating relief efforts for Maine soldiers.
She realized that the greatest need for assistance was in the field, not in the Washington hospitals. She and other ladies from the Camp and Hospital Association and the Maine Soldier's Relief Agency pressed for permission to travel to the battlefields.
On November 1, 1862, Isabella Fogg and Harriet Eaton of the Association, together with Charles C. Hayes of the Agency, set out for Sharpsburg, Maryland, to help "her boys" from the Pine Tree State who had fallen during the Battle of Antietam. Almost two months after the battle was fought, the hospital grounds had deteriorated to the point that she was "horrified to find sick and wounded soldiers, supposedly long since removed, still languishing all over the area."
As the Maine women had not expected the great number of people in need, their single wagon carried little that was not depleted within minutes. So, after promising to apply pressure on the agency for more relief stores, Fogg's team continued on a snow-covered road toward Bakersville - a 20-minute ride by horse and creaking wagon.
Reaching the village, they discovered 20 badly injured soldiers of the 5th Maine "left in a school house in care of a steward, without supplies; found him making every effort to keep them comfortable." The Maine women repeated the promise made at Smoketown to contact the agency for much-needed supplies.
Fogg and her companions ran into difficulties with the U.S. Sanitary Commission, which they felt ought to have had the situation under control for many weeks. Nevertheless they pressed on, distributing whatever supplies they could find to the soldiers. The journey continued to other field hospitals at Sharpsburg, Berlin (Brunswick today), Harpers Ferry, Keedysville and eventually Hagerstown.
When General George B. McClellan's army crossed the Potomac, Isabella Fogg followed, and early in December 1862, was again at the front, where she was a sad spectator of the fatal disaster of the Battle of Fredericksburg. Mrs. J. S. Eaton from the Maine Camp Hospital Association had accompanied Fogg to the front. During the sad weeks that followed, these devoted ladies labored in the hospitals, and dispensed their supplies of food and clothing, not only to the Maine boys, but to others who were in need.
When the Battle of Chancellorsville was fought in the first days of May 1863, Fogg and Mrs. Eaton spent almost a week of incessant labor, much of the time day and night, in the temporary hospitals near United States Ford, dressing wounds, attending to the poor fellows who had suffered amputation and furnishing cordials and food to the wounded who were retreating from the field, pursued by the enemy.
When General George B. McClellan's army crossed the Potomac, Isabella Fogg followed, and early in December 1862, was again at the front, where she was a sad spectator of the fatal disaster of the Battle of Fredericksburg. Mrs. J. S. Eaton from the Maine Camp Hospital Association had accompanied Fogg to the front. During the sad weeks that followed, these devoted ladies labored in the hospitals, and dispensed their supplies of food and clothing, not only to the Maine boys, but to others who were in need.
Mrs. Fogg reached the Gettysburg battlefield the day after the final battle. Fogg labored among this great mass of wounded and dying men for nearly two weeks.
In the winter of 1864, Isabella made a short visit home, and the Legislature granted a sizeable sum of money to be placed at her disposal, to be spent at her discretion for the comfort and care of Maine soldiers.
At the opening of the Overland Campaign of May 1864 Fogg went to Belle Plain and to Fredericksburg again, and in company with scores of others worked night and day to relieve the indescribable suffering of the wounded who filled that city after the Battles of the Wilderness and Spotsylvania Court House.
After two or three weeks, Fogg went to Port Royal, to White House, and finally to City Point, where she helped organize one of the hospitals there. She returned to Maine, where she received the news that her son, who was in the Army of the Shenandoah, had been wounded at the Battle of Cedar Run.
She abandoned her work in Maine, and hurried to Martinsburg, Virginia, where she met a friend, one of the delegates of the Christian Commission, and learned that her son had been badly wounded and underwent amputation of one leg. After a few days, he had been transferred to a Baltimore hospital. She hurried to that city, and with great joy, found him doing well, but anxiety and overexertion soon prostrated her own health, and she was laid up for a month or more.
In November, 1864, Isabella's health had improved, and she returned to Washington. Her ties with the Maine Camp and Hospital Association were severed by them in 1863 for reasons that are not clear. Still wanting to help others, she volunteered with the U.S. Christian Commission.
Fogg was directed to report to Annie Wittenmyer, who was the Commission's Agent for the establishment of Special Diet Kitchens in the Hospitals. Mrs. Wittenmyer assigned her a position in charge of the Special Diet Kitchen aboard the hospital ship Jacob Strader on the Ohio River.
While on duty on this boat in January, 1865, Isabella Fogg accidentally fell through an open hatch, permanently injuring her spine. Officers of the Army of the Potomac, including Generals Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, George Gordon Meade and Ulysses S. Grant were instrumental in seeing that Fogg received a federal pension for her dedicated service during the war.
Practically a child bride when she married William Fogg of Calais in 1837, Isabella crossed the St. Croix River to live in Maine and have three children, including a son named Hugh Morrison Fogg.
Widowed by 1860, Fogg apparently doted on Hugh, possibly her only child to survive.
In September 1861, Isabella Fogg and Ruth Mayhew arrived in Annapolis, Md., where spotted fever “was raging with fearful malignity” in an Army hospital.
Isabella Fogg
In the spring of 1861, when men were called to join the Union army and fight for their country, Isabella Fogg of Calais, Maine, felt that she was called also. She felt compelled to leave the quiet and seclusion of her home, and do all that a woman could do to sustain the hands and the hearts of those who had the great battle of freedom to fight.
Isabella Fogg followed her son Hugh, a member of the 6th Maine Regiment, to Washington, DC, and she soon volunteered to work for the Maine Camp and Hospital Association, based back in Portland, Maine. She began visiting hospitals in the Washington area.
In September, 1861, Fogg turned her attention to the post hospital at Annapolis, in which the spotted typhus fever had broken out. One or more fell victims to it daily, much alarm existed, and it was difficult to obtain nurses for the sufferers. Fogg volunteered her services, and week after week, was on duty in the fever ward, constant in her devotion to the patients, and indifferent to the danger of infection. This duty lasted until the spring of 1862.
The epidemic subsided, and Fogg placed herself under the direction of the U.S. Sanitary Commission, and took part in the spring of 1862, in the Hospital Transport Service. By the fall of 1862, the Maine Soldier's Relief Agency, headquartered in Washington, had assumed responsibility for coordinating relief efforts for Maine soldiers.
She realized that the greatest need for assistance was in the field, not in the Washington hospitals. She and other ladies from the Camp and Hospital Association and the Maine Soldier's Relief Agency pressed for permission to travel to the battlefields.
On November 1, 1862, Isabella Fogg and Harriet Eaton of the Association, together with Charles C. Hayes of the Agency, set out for Sharpsburg, Maryland, to help "her boys" from the Pine Tree State who had fallen during the Battle of Antietam. Almost two months after the battle was fought, the hospital grounds had deteriorated to the point that she was "horrified to find sick and wounded soldiers, supposedly long since removed, still languishing all over the area."
As the Maine women had not expected the great number of people in need, their single wagon carried little that was not depleted within minutes. So, after promising to apply pressure on the agency for more relief stores, Fogg's team continued on a snow-covered road toward Bakersville - a 20-minute ride by horse and creaking wagon.
Reaching the village, they discovered 20 badly injured soldiers of the 5th Maine "left in a school house in care of a steward, without supplies; found him making every effort to keep them comfortable." The Maine women repeated the promise made at Smoketown to contact the agency for much-needed supplies.
Fogg and her companions ran into difficulties with the U.S. Sanitary Commission, which they felt ought to have had the situation under control for many weeks. Nevertheless they pressed on, distributing whatever supplies they could find to the soldiers. The journey continued to other field hospitals at Sharpsburg, Berlin (Brunswick today), Harpers Ferry, Keedysville and eventually Hagerstown.
When General George B. McClellan's army crossed the Potomac, Isabella Fogg followed, and early in December 1862, was again at the front, where she was a sad spectator of the fatal disaster of the Battle of Fredericksburg. Mrs. J. S. Eaton from the Maine Camp Hospital Association had accompanied Fogg to the front. During the sad weeks that followed, these devoted ladies labored in the hospitals, and dispensed their supplies of food and clothing, not only to the Maine boys, but to others who were in need.
When the Battle of Chancellorsville was fought in the first days of May 1863, Fogg and Mrs. Eaton spent almost a week of incessant labor, much of the time day and night, in the temporary hospitals near United States Ford, dressing wounds, attending to the poor fellows who had suffered amputation and furnishing cordials and food to the wounded who were retreating from the field, pursued by the enemy.
When General George B. McClellan's army crossed the Potomac, Isabella Fogg followed, and early in December 1862, was again at the front, where she was a sad spectator of the fatal disaster of the Battle of Fredericksburg. Mrs. J. S. Eaton from the Maine Camp Hospital Association had accompanied Fogg to the front. During the sad weeks that followed, these devoted ladies labored in the hospitals, and dispensed their supplies of food and clothing, not only to the Maine boys, but to others who were in need.
Mrs. Fogg reached the Gettysburg battlefield the day after the final battle. Fogg labored among this great mass of wounded and dying men for nearly two weeks.
In the winter of 1864, Isabella made a short visit home, and the Legislature granted a sizeable sum of money to be placed at her disposal, to be spent at her discretion for the comfort and care of Maine soldiers.
At the opening of the Overland Campaign of May 1864 Fogg went to Belle Plain and to Fredericksburg again, and in company with scores of others worked night and day to relieve the indescribable suffering of the wounded who filled that city after the Battles of the Wilderness and Spotsylvania Court House.
After two or three weeks, Fogg went to Port Royal, to White House, and finally to City Point, where she helped organize one of the hospitals there. She returned to Maine, where she received the news that her son, who was in the Army of the Shenandoah, had been wounded at the Battle of Cedar Run.
She abandoned her work in Maine, and hurried to Martinsburg, Virginia, where she met a friend, one of the delegates of the Christian Commission, and learned that her son had been badly wounded and underwent amputation of one leg. After a few days, he had been transferred to a Baltimore hospital. She hurried to that city, and with great joy, found him doing well, but anxiety and overexertion soon prostrated her own health, and she was laid up for a month or more.
In November, 1864, Isabella's health had improved, and she returned to Washington. Her ties with the Maine Camp and Hospital Association were severed by them in 1863 for reasons that are not clear. Still wanting to help others, she volunteered with the U.S. Christian Commission.
Fogg was directed to report to Annie Wittenmyer, who was the Commission's Agent for the establishment of Special Diet Kitchens in the Hospitals. Mrs. Wittenmyer assigned her a position in charge of the Special Diet Kitchen aboard the hospital ship Jacob Strader on the Ohio River.
While on duty on this boat in January, 1865, Isabella Fogg accidentally fell through an open hatch, permanently injuring her spine. Officers of the Army of the Potomac, including Generals Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, George Gordon Meade and Ulysses S. Grant were instrumental in seeing that Fogg received a federal pension for her dedicated service during the war.
Practically a child bride when she married William Fogg of Calais in 1837, Isabella crossed the St. Croix River to live in Maine and have three children, including a son named Hugh Morrison Fogg.
Widowed by 1860, Fogg apparently doted on Hugh, possibly her only child to survive.
In September 1861, Isabella Fogg and Ruth Mayhew arrived in Annapolis, Md., where spotted fever “was raging with fearful malignity” in an Army hospital.