Noël Bishop Spring 2017: Dr. Robert J. Mueller: Utah State University The Significance of Women Army Nurses in the United States Civil War HIST 4990 Senior Capstone
The Significance of Women Army Nurses in the United States Civil War The Civil War was a hinge point in American history, not just a sea-change for how wars were fought or how the economics of this country worked or for civil rights, but also for women. Before the war began, women ran the American home but little else. After the war they became accepted as nurses, writers, and activists for change and for preservation of the living history which was everywhere. One of the most little known factors of the innovation that was inspired was the newly appointed occupation of Army nursing. The gender roles of women were altered dramatically and ultimately changed during the United States Civil War because of the necessary transition of domestic roles during wartime, participation in military aide, and providing relief as army nurses as their own literary accounts became reliable wartime accounts. The chain of events that occurred during this period led to the eventual acceptance of women being in active military roles because their extraordinary examples set precedence for the future of medical and military innovation. Approximately 21,208 women were recorded as having been army nurses and relief workers during the United States Civil War, from the years 1861 to 1865. 1 A high percentage of these women were either widowed or single with only 10% being married. 2 The call for aid was strong during the fearful crisis of nationalism that was faced with the secession of the Confederate South. The motto of the spirit of self-sacrifice 3 literally became a fashionable statement for women to not only provide sewn goods, but to also envision themselves as fighting the war alongside the men. When the newly established occupation of Army volunteer nurse 1 Jane Schultz, Women at the Front (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2004), 20-21. 2 Schultz, Women at the Front, 20. 3 Schultz, Women at the Front, 48.
began to fill the advertisements of newspapers, letters of application flooded the offices of the United States Sanitation Commission, relief societies, and other relief-based associations, because of the desire of women who felt the restless spirit of doing something different from their domestic duties. Having heard tales of Florence Nightingale, who structured the nursing system and occupation during the Crimean War, some women desired strongly to feel that same type of excitement. 4 Many others desired to fulfill the higher, moral calling of service to their country and their patriotism, whether for the Union or the Confederacy. Historian Jane Schultz in her monograph Women at the Front, discussed the important roles of all of these women during this crucial period. Her main argument is that women volunteer nurses and relief workers during the United States Civil War endured incredible hardships during their service. These hardships equated to hardly any widespread acknowledgement during this period, but later was publicly approved for their difficult work, after stories began to surface of what all these brave women truly accomplished during their service. If it wasn t for the well-documented procedures and life stories that followed these events, society may have never benefited fully from the courageous actions of these women. 5 The work itself was grueling and difficult for many to take on, considering that nurses had to abandon many of their principles of strict modesty and to forget about any fears of being improper in their conduct. The daily list of many army nurses required them to remain in close quarters with invalid soldiers during their given shifts. Tasks like bathing, dressing wounds, giving medication, feeding a particular diet, participating as surgeon assistants, keeping company 4 Schultz, Women at the Front, 46. 5 Schultz, Women at the Front, 1-44.
with the men in an assigned ward, and writing to the families of soldiers were part of the work that army nurses focused on each day. 6 One example of this comes from Pheobe Yates Pemper, who was the matron of nursing in the Confederate Chimborazo Hospital, in Richmond, Virginia, from the years 1862 through 1865. 7 During her time, she was at first wary of her ability to perform services that were only appropriate to male surgeons and doctors, which included dressing wounds after a significant shortage of doctors in an overcrowded hospital and being present during surgeries 8. But, due to the high volume of wounded soldiers being constantly carted in to the hospital and the shortage of male doctors on site, the necessity of having the medical skills that were deemed inappropriate for women to be knowledgeable of, became the signature mark of her care. Because of the overflow of wounded and ill soldiers in hospitals, every nurse put themselves at severe risk for becoming subject to the unclean conditions of stuffy, un-kept hospitals, while field nurses also faced the harsh elements of seasons. Sickness was a prevalent problem that required an indomitable constitution of health in order to not become a patient themselves. Ada Bacot, a South Carolinian hospital nurse stationed in Charlottesville, NC, became ill several times during her two and half year service. Twice, she contracted Erysipelas, which is a highly contagious disease that destroys the skin, the tissue beneath, and could quickly 6 Schultz, Women at the Front, 37-38. 7 Phoebe Pember, A Southern Woman s Story; Life in Confederate Richmond (Jackson: McCow At-Mercer Press, 1959), 2. 8 Pember, A Southern Woman s Story, 53-68.
spread infection to the lymph nodes, bloodstream, and on to the organs, in the form of blood poisoning. 9 This disease had a 90% fatality rate. 10 However, the constant chaos that filled these women s lives was an honest, welcomed break from the many who felt that they were not contributing anything useful in their domestic lives, while their men and families were being destroyed in battle. As difficult as the hard work was, many women found it to be surprisingly enjoyable 11 and found themselves to have been changed significantly during their experiences of service. And even though there was a common practice of humility where one would only take hidden pride in their work while not drawing attention to themselves, they also received significant public recognition for their sacrifice of time, effort, and extending their womanhood into an essential component and practice of military service. At the beginning of the Civil War 1861 and in Concord, Massachusetts, author Louisa May Alcott was tending to her own literary musings and when the Union Company in her town were rounded up and marched into battle. After watching them leave, she found herself secretly desiring to be a man for the sake of joining the cause, but relinquished her secrecy into aiding the fighting soldiers instead, by channeled her pragmatic mannerisms into working with local relief societies. 12 Throughout the following year and a half, Louisa dedicated her efforts to sewing for the men in battle, all the while feeling restless amidst her own feelings of inability in desiring to 9 Ada Bacot, A Confederate Nurse; The Diary of Ada W. Bacot, 1860-1863 (Colombia: University of South Carolina Press, 1994), 82, 147. 10 Glenna Schroeder-Lein, The Encyclopedia of Civil War Medicine (Armonk: M.E. Sharpe, Inc., 2008), 101. 11 Schultz, Women at the Front, 39. 12 Louisa Alcott & Jan Turnquist, Louisa May Alcott s Civil War. (Roseville: Edinborough Press, 2007), 18.