378 FLIEDKEE, THEODOKE. 



for improving prison discipline, a society which 

 contributed powerfully to reform the character 

 of the prisons of Prussia, which had previously 

 been only schools of vice. This led him to ob- 

 serve the condition of discharged convicts, 

 especially females, who, when released, were 

 left without the means of subsistence ; and 

 thus, shunned by the virtuous, were forced 

 back into a life of crime. He commenced, 

 therefore, a refuge for discharged female con- 

 victs in September, 1833, beginning with a 

 single inmate, in his own house, assisted by his 

 wife and a female friend. By the 1st of June, 

 1834, he had nine of these unfortunates in his 

 refuge, and had found it necessary to employ 

 a second assistant. In May, 1836, he added 

 an infant school to his establishment, and in 

 October of the same year rented the abandoned 

 manufactory, and. established a free hospital 

 there, which grew in process of time to have 

 one hundred and fifty beds. For service in 

 this and his other institutions he received vol- 

 unteer nurses, who were thus trained for ser- 

 vice in other infant schools, hospitals, prisons, 

 and the like. Gradually, from this volunteer 

 service was developed the idea of a body of 

 women bouud by no life-long vows or adher- 

 ence to any rigid system of rules, but who 

 should be trained to benevolent labor among 

 the sick, the wounded, the vicious, the igno- 

 rant, and the poor. To those who, after a 

 period of training and instruction, religious as 

 well as medical, desired to devote themselves 

 for some years to the work of benevolence, he 

 gave the name of Deaconesses, and sent them 

 forth as he had calls for their services, to teach 

 among the poor, to manage hospitals, infirma- 

 ries, and asylums, to be matrons of prisons, etc. 

 They were required to assume a particular 

 dress, to report at stated times to the institu- 

 tion, and were expected to remain in the work 

 for five years, and longer if they chose. If 

 sick, infirm, or disabled, they could return to 

 Ivaiserswerth, where he established a home for 

 them. In process of time Pastor Fliedner add- 

 ed to his institutions a normal school, for the 

 instruction of his neophyte deaconesses, an or- 

 phan asylum, and an insane asylum. These in- 

 stitutions are sustained by the Lutheran synods 

 of Ehineland and Westphalia. The number 

 of deaconesses in active service, in 18G4-, was 

 four hundred and fifteen, and they were scat- 

 tered in all parts of Europe, Asia, and Ameri- 

 ca, and many of them have been instrumental 

 in founding other similar institutions elseAvhere. 

 One thousand and seven schoolmistresses and 

 teachers, not deaconesses, have been trained 

 and sent out by the institute, and very many 

 nurses for military hospitals and other estab- 

 lishments, who have not joined the sisterhood, 

 have received their training here. Among these 

 Florence Nightingale in England, and some 

 of our own most efficient hospital nurses, may 

 be named. The Deaconess' Institute forms 

 one of the establishments which make up the 

 "Inner Mission" in Germany, which, under 



FLOEIDA. 



the direction of Wichern, Fliedner, Harms, ana 

 others, has been productive of so much good. 

 Pastor Fliedner had prosecuted this great 

 work under the pressure of constant ill-health, 

 and finally died of bronchitis, the disease from 

 which he had suffered from youth. 



FLOEIDA. With the exception of two or 

 three points on the coast, Florida has been 

 abandoned by the Federal forces during nearly 

 the whole of 1864. The disastrous expedition 

 of Gen. Seymour (see AKMY OPERATIONS), early 

 in the year, resulted in retaining possession 

 only of Jacksonville. Fernandina has been 

 constantly occupied since its first capture. 

 Pilatka was also held a short time. At all 

 points, however, the enemy were found in 

 some force. The organization of the State 

 militia, as recommended by the Governor in 

 1863, brought every man and boy capable of 

 bearing arms into the field for home defence. 

 They were not subject to be ordered into the 

 Confederate army, or to be sent away from 

 their ordinary pursuits, except to repel inva- 

 sions and to maintain suitable police regula- 

 tions. During the spring the regular army 

 force in the State was large. The body of the 

 enemy near Jacksonville was estimated at ten 

 thousand infantry and about four thousand 

 cavalry. At the same time there was a large 

 camp at Baldwin, the junction of the Florida 

 and Cedar Keys Eailroad. 



During the winter of 1863-'64 the extensive 

 salt works at Lake Ocola and in West Bay, in 

 the neighborhood of St. Andrew's Sound, were 

 destroyed by orders from acting Eear- Admiral 

 Bailey. The works at Ocola made one hun- 

 dred and fifty bushels per day, and those of 

 the Confederate Government at West Bay four 

 hundred bushels. The private works down 

 the bay were also destroyed, and the entire 

 damage was estimated at three millions of 

 dollars. 



About July 20th a raid was made by Gen. 

 Birney, under orders of Gen. Foster, from 

 Jacksonville to the mouth of Trent Creek. 

 Two bridges over one of the forks of the creek 

 were destroyed, and the force pushed forward 

 to Callohan station, on the Fernandina Eail- 

 road, and destroyed two cars, a telegraph 

 office, and other public property. A few days 

 afterward, the same force with others em- 

 barked on transports at Jacksonville, and 

 moved to Whitesville, a point on the south 

 fork of Black Creek. Here a skirmish ensued 

 with a body of the enemy, who disputed their 

 passage, but were driven off and disappeared. 

 At the same time another small body marched 

 to the south fork of the St. Mary's Eiver, and cut 

 the trestlework, and destroyed a bridge about 

 twelve miles in the rear of Baldwin. Subse- 

 quently a force from Jacksonville occupied 

 Baldwin and Camp Milton, a point beyond 

 which other movements of a similar character 

 were made with some loss of life on both sides, 

 but without any important military result. 



On May 18th a convention was called by 



