Michigan in every battle in which it was engaged. When the three years
of its service was over, she followed the re-enlisted veterans to the
Fifth Michigan. Through the entire four years of war, this fearless
woman never left the field, though often under the hottest fire. She
made herself beloved and respected by both officers and men.
Bridget Devins, known as "Michigan Bridget," because she went to the
front with the First Michigan Cavalry, in which her husband served as
private, was noted for her daring deeds and her good service. When the
troops were about to retreat, it was Michigan Bridget who rallied them.
When a soldier fell, she took his place, fighting bravely in his stead.
Often she carried the wounded from the field, risking her own life
in the performance of her duty. Michigan Bridget liked military life
so well that at the close of the war she and her husband joined the
regular army and were sent to a station on the western plains.
These women soldiers who served so bravely on the field of battle, we
must honor, yet we cannot regret that their numbers were small. The
nobler service of those countless women, who, with white faces and
breaking hearts, sent to the front their husbands, fathers and sons,
can never be properly estimated nor sufficiently honored.
These women toiled day and night, determined that the soldiers should
be well cared for and well fed; they organized relief work so that the
fighters might have comforts and good hospitals. These women as truly
enlisted for battle as did the others who went to the front.