An open letter in the Dec. 2, 1861, edition of the Louisville Courier Journal asked “the ladies of Kentucky and Northern Tennessee” for help providing supplies and services to the Confederate hospital in Bowling Green.

Women were encouraged to organize relief associations, send needed supplies (such as bed clothes, bandages and soap), and volunteer at the hospital since “the sick chamber is destitute of its chief solace unless graced by the presence of your sex.”

– “Way Back When in Warren County” is compiled by researchers at the Warren County Public Library and appears twice weekly in the Bowling Green Daily News. For more information about the library, visit warrenpl.org.