The Civil War was transformative experience for many who fought or otherwise served in it.
Nurses like Usher were no exception. She was not on the battlefield, but was close to it and to those who had been there.
After the war, besides her continuing contacts with men and women she had known during the war, she followed politics.
When Ulysses S. Grant came to Maine in 1865, Usher was eager to hear him speak, and see him and war hero Joshua Chamberlain.
She wrote to her sister, "Gen. Grant is a silent man, talks very little & never because he is expected to say something. His face is remarkable for what it conceales feelings & emotions as Mr Lincoln's was for what it revealed."
