From Camp Olden Gazette, Spring 2011 with article on Souder by great great great grandson

My Great Great Great Grandmother - Emily Bliss (Thacher) Souder
Submitted by Warren M. Spengler
Emily Bliss (Thacher) Souder was my great great great Grandmother. She was born in Kennebec, Maine in 1814 and was the daughter of Judge Stephen Thacher and his wife Harriet Preble. In 1834 she became the wife of Edmund Alphonso Souder of Philadelphia. Edmund was in the shipping business.
After the battle of Gettysburg in July 1863, Emily gave her gave up her vacation at the family retreat at Cape May, New Jersey and instead traveled with two friends to Gettysburg. They went by train and by carriage, arriving in Gettysburg about July 15th. They spent (roughly) the next three weeks tending the wounded as volunteer nurses.
When not taking care of wounded men, she wrote a series of letters describing her experiences. The letters were to her husband, various friends and several relatives. These would later be put into a book called, ―Leaves from the Battlefield of Gettysburg.‖
For her service at Gettysburg, Emily was made a member of the United States Sanitary Commission. Later that year, Emily, accompanied by Edmund returned to Gettysburg for the dedication of the National Cemetery. President Lincoln would be there to ―deliver a few appropriate remarks.‖
The day of the dedication, Emily and Edmund arrived well before the start of festivities. But Emily felt the seating reserved for the ladies was inadequate. Furthermore, she felt she could read the speeches in the newspaper. So, while the most famous speech in American history was being delivered, Emily and Edmund were far away picking flowers on a hillside.
Sometime later, Edmund wrote a letter to President Lincoln urging him not to blockade Southern ports, but to capture them instead. Just what Abraham Lincoln needed; more advice! Emily Bliss Souder died on December 22, 1886. On the website, Find-A-Grave, is Emily‘s gravesite. The tributes from total strangers to Emily makes this descendent feel very proud.