Show WOMEN OP THE WAH Very few people in New Orleans outside out-side of the warmhearted veterans of the confederacy know that the Army of Northern Virginia monument shadows shad-ows the sepulcher of two women who followed the fortunes of the confederate confeder-ate forces from the first gun to the surrender They sleep side by side with tue men whose hardships and dangers they shared The names of these women were Rose Rooney and Mary Gillan Both were true sin s-in their way says the New Oilcans Picayune When Colonel Monler led the Tenth Louisiana regiment into the field the command was accompanied by Mary Gillan whose husband was an enlisted man There were numbers of women who followed their husbands fortunes at one time or another during the war but this woman was destined to fill a greater place to become in her way indispensable to the men whom she adopted as her especial charge although al-though her husband had fallen early In the fighting and she was left alone Her nativity Is unknown but she left New Orleans with the boys and did not come back until the last one of them had returned to take up the burden bur-den of reconstruction and the task of forgetting defeat She followed them through the battles bat-tles of Frasers farm and Malvern hill Cedar run and second Manassas was with them at Sharpsburg and the terrible terri-ble seven days fighting at Richmond Finally when the gallant regiment of 1200 good men and true reduced to only 350 laid down their arms she came back with them with a record of mercy and kindness that the old soldiers sol-diers at the home love to recall and illustrate with many a narrative She lived in New Orleans always after that and when she died a little over a year ago she was placed in the vault of the Army of Northern Virginia Vir-ginia where she now rests with honor Rose Rooney left this city with the St Paul battalion Chasseurs a Pied and made a record similar to Mrs Gll lans When after the fall of Richmond Rich-mond that command was disbanded seme of its members formed the command com-mand which became famous as the Crescent Blues and with them she shared the fortunes of war until its close when she took up her residence in New Orleans again and a few years ago became quite destitute Her only son was drowned in the river and she was left alone The veterans never forgot her gentleness to the sick and the dead and dying and they made her a position at the soldiers home where She lived in a little cottage apart from the mens quarters and attended to the wants of her old comrades In arms About a year ago she died and was laid away with that other brave woman wo-man who had preceded her by a short while |