Arabella Wharton Griffith, first wife of Francis Channing Barlow, passed away in Washington, DC on July 27, 1864 after contracting typhoid fever which she likely caught while nursing soldiers during the Overland Campaign. Arabella was described by George Templeton Strong as, “certainly the most brilliant, cultivated, easy graceful, effective talker of womankind, and [she] has read, thought and observed much and well.” She risked her own life to go to her husband's side after ...he was gravely wounded twice. She was also a compassionate nurse to the many soldiers she nursed back to health or comforted in their final moments of life.