early life was spent with her kinsfolk in Boston.
She was a woman of brilliant intellect and char-
itable and progressive ideas, antl a valued con-
tributor to periodical publications. In the
soldiers' relief work in New Orleans, in which
she was ])roniinent during the war and after
it, she passed through many scenes of excite-
ment and horror. In 1864 she made a voyage
up the Mississijjpi River on the steamer " Em-
press," which was attacked by masked bat-
teries, riddled with cannon shot, and disabled,
the captain and several convalescent soldiers
being killed, and the steamer only saved from
falling into the hands of the Confederates by
the arrival of the Unitetl States gunboat
"Kineo." Mrs. Hyer died in Wisconsin in De-
cember, 1SS8.
Among Mrs. Elliot's many thrilling experi- ences while in Texas was the raiding by Indians of a camp near where she was visiting, all the horses and cattle being stampeded.
Shortly after their arrival in New Orleans in the autunm of 1S62 Mrs. Hyer, Mrs. N. M. Taylor, Mrs. Elliot (then Miss Hyer), and other Union ladies of the city, at the suggestion of prominent Union men, organized the " Union Ladies' Sokliers' Aid Society," afterward called the "Union Ladies' Aid As.sociation," which attained a membershi|) of more than hfty of the loyal women of the city. Mrs. Hyer was elected president, Mrs. Taylor vice-president, and Mrs. Elliot secretary. The members of this society visited the hospitals and admin- isteretl to sick and wounded sfildiers, provid- ing them with lint, bandages, and other neces- sities and comforts. Among workers promi- nent in Ihis society were Mrs. N. M. "^Taylor, previously mentioned, who, though a strong Unionist, had a son conscripted into the Con- federate army; Mrs. Phoebe Farmer, the poet; Miss Kate Buckley, a teacher in the New Or- leans schools; Mrs. Dr. Kirchner; Mrs. and Miss Bai'nett; and others whose names are among the recognized women workers of the Civil War. Their badge was a miniature Union flag. This society published a little paper. The Acorn, with Mrs. Hyer and Mrs. Taylor as editors, devoted to the cause of Unionism in Louisiana. This paper received the approval and became one of the official organs of the conuuanding general of the Department, and in it were published the official orders of the Army of the Gulf. Mrs. Elliot was a contrib- utor to this paper. The members of the soci- ety received from army surgeons instructions in their chosen duties. They also held public meetings in Lyceum Hall weekly, and on other evenings at private houses.
The Unionists of New Orleans formed a so- cial conununity of their own, and, by assemblies, receptions, and a cordial welcome to their homes, made the life of the Union officers and men in New Orleans more endurable and pleasant than it would otherwise have been.
The loyal men of New Orleans also formed an association in the interest of the Union cau.se, many officers of the army lu-ing members, among them Mr. Hyer and Mr. Elliot, both offi- cers of the Association'. Dr. A. P. Dostie, an outspoken Unionist antl a martyr of the New Orleans anti-Union riot of 1866, was a promi- nent officer of this and other loyal societies. Soon after her escape to the Union lines in 1862 Mrs. Elliot, who had been a teacher in the parish schools of Louisiana, was ai)pointed ttrst assistant in one of the gnunmar schools of New Orleans, which had been reorganized by General liutler. She held this position until after her marriage, September 3, 1863, to Charles Darwin Elliot, of Massachusetts, As- sistant Topographical Engineer of the Army of the Gulf.
Mr. Elliot is a descendant of Thomas Eliot, of Swansea, Mass., a soldier of King Philip's War. His great-grandfather, Joseph Eliot, of Stoughton, was a minute-man of the Revolution, serving from April 20, 1775, until his death, December 15, 1777. Another ancestor, John Hicks, was a member of the Boston Tea Party, and was killed in the battle of Lexington. The home of a third, Stephen Tucker, Jr., was destroyed by the burning of Charlestown.
Mr. Elliot, son of Joseph and Zenora (Tucker) Elliot,' was born June 20, 1S37, in Foxboro, Mass. He received his education in the schools of Foxboro, Maiden, A'rentham, and Somerville, and at the Hopkins Classical School, Cambridge. He studied civil engineering in the office of W. B. Stearns, wIkj was later presi-
