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Battle of Mobile Bay |
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NURSING CORPS Quote from a Civil War Nurse - "IWould that I could do more than thank the dear friends who made my life for four years so happy and contented; who never made me feel by word or act, that my self-imposed occupation was otherwise than one which would ennoble any woman. If ever any aid was given through my own exertions, or any labor rendered effective by me for the good of the South-if any sick soldier ever benefitted by my happy face or pleasant smiles at his bedside, or death was ever soothed by gentle words of hope and tender care, such results were only owing to the cheering encouragement I received from them. They were gentlewomen in every sense of the word, and though they might not have remembered that "noblesse oblige," they felt and acted up to the motto in every act of their lives. My only wish was to live and die among them, growing each day better from contact with their gentle, kindly sympathies and heroic hearts". Approximately two thousand women, North and South, served as volunteer nurses
in military hospitals during the American Civil War. Seeking convention and
direct involvement in the national struggle rather than the domestic support roles
to which social minimum career opportunity had traditionally confined the majority
of their sex, they experienced at first hand the grim constants of war -- amputated
limbs, mutilated bodies, disease and death -- and provided invaluable aid to the
sick and wounded soldiers and medical authorities on either side. Of those so employed
a relative few-such as Louisa May Alcott, Jane Stuart Woolsey, and Katharine Prescott
Wormeley - recorded their experiences for posterity. Most, however, unfortunately
left little record of their wartime service. They therefore remain in large measure
historically anonymous, except for the terse appearance of their names on hospital
muster rolls, and consequently the activities and influence of the woman nurse constitute
one of the rare aspects of Civil War history that has not been extensively recorded.
Approximately two thousand women, North and South, served as volunteer nurses in
military hospitals during the American Civil War. Seeking convention and direct
involvement in the national struggle rather than the domestic support roles to which
social minimum career opportunity had traditionally confined the majority of their
sex, they experienced at first hand the grim constants of war -- amputated limbs,
mutilated bodies, disease and death -- and provided invaluable aid to the sick and
wounded soldiers and medical authorities on either side. Of those so employed a relative
few-such as Louisa May Alcott, Jane Stuart Woolsey, and Katharine Prescott Wormeley
- recorded their experiences for posterity. Most, however, unfortunately left little
record of their wartime service. They therefore remain in large measure historically
anonymous, except for the terse appearance of their names on hospital muster rolls,
and consequently the activities and influence of the woman nurse constitute one of
the rare aspects of Civil War history that has not been extensively recorded.
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