The American Pietà: memorializing Civil War Nurses

John Hartwell

Lt. Colonel
Forum Host
Joined
Aug 27, 2011
Location
Central Massachusetts
GBBickerdyke (1).jpg

Michaelangelo's famous Pietà, showing the grieving Virgin Mary holding the body of the dead Jesus, was the obvious inspiration for Theo Alice Ruggles Kitson's 1906 Mother Bickerdyke memorial in Galesburg, Ill. And, it is a fitting grouping, that has been used often, up to and including Glenna Goodacre's 1993 Vietnam Army Nurses Memorial in Washington, D.C.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
In 1911, the Army Nurses Memorial Association of the Massachusetts Daughters of Veterans of the Civil War commissioned Boston sculptor Bela Pratt, to create a memorial to all Civil War nurses. He, too, chose the Pietà model. His work stands in a prominent place in the rotunda of the State House (now renamed "Nurses' Hall") in Boston:
Story of the event marking the 2011 centennial of the statue, HERE.
 
Last edited:
Taking a different inspiration: At the southeast corner of Dupont Circle in Washington D.C. stands the unique Civil War Nurses Memorial, also known as “Nuns on the Battlefield.” Erected in 1924 by the Ladies’ Auxiliary of the Ancient Order of Hibernians, it is the work of Irish American sculptor Jerome Connor.

TO THE MEMORY AND IN HONOR OF
THE VARIOUS ORDERS OF SISTERS
WHO GAVE THEIR SERVICES AS NURSES ON BATTLEFIELDS
AND IN HOSPITALS DURING THE CIVIL WAR​
 
Taking a different inspiration: At the southeast corner of Dupont Circle in Washington D.C. stands the unique Civil War Nurses Memorial, also known as “Nuns on the Battlefield.” Erected in 1924 by the Ladies’ Auxiliary of the Ancient Order of Hibernians, it is the work of Irish American sculptor Jerome Connor.
I noticed the figures on each end and wondered what/who they were.

According to Wiki:

"Each end of the slab has a bronze female figure seated. The proper right side figure has wings, a helmet, robes and armor to look like an angel representing patriotism. Sitting, she holds a shield in her proper left hand and a scroll in her lap with her proper right hand. She is weaponless to represent peace. On the proper left side of the slab another winged figure sits wearing a long dress, a bodice and a scarf around her head to represent the angel of Peace. Her hands are folded on her lap."
 
SO glad The Pieta was mentioned! It's so difficult disentangling each nurse from this root ball, ' Civil War Nurse '- but then having them recognized for what in blazes they did individually is unexpectedly tough. Mother Bickerdyke is perfect for this work, isn't she? So thankful her story has been carried through the years.

Our nurses were such a disparate, heroic group. Mary Virginia Wade's sister, Georgiana McClellan, buried her sister, handed that famous baby to her mother and disappeared into Gettysburg's dank and bloody hallways- because those were the hospitals the first days, homes and churches, besides the colleges- not to surface for weeks. She was a nurse. My grgrgrandmother had wounded men lay down in the streets in front of her house, in Washington, DC after Bull Run- the public house my grgrgrandparents ran became a hospital, poof, and stayed one for 2 years. She was a nurse. The Sally Tompkins and Alice Risleys - and others like those represented here
https://archive.org/details/ourarmynursesint00holl spent the war in a crazy battle against battle- frequently a lost one but at least, reading narratives we have, they accompanied men to their last threshold here on the planet.

Thanks very much for posting these, John Hartwell. May be more lovely than the original.
 
Taking a different inspiration: At the southeast corner of Dupont Circle in Washington D.C. stands the unique Civil War Nurses Memorial, also known as “Nuns on the Battlefield.” Erected in 1924 by the Ladies’ Auxiliary of the Ancient Order of Hibernians, it is the work of Irish American sculptor Jerome Connor.

TO THE MEMORY AND IN HONOR OF
THE VARIOUS ORDERS OF SISTERS
WHO GAVE THEIR SERVICES AS NURSES ON BATTLEFIELDS
AND IN HOSPITALS DURING THE CIVIL WAR​


Notable, on immigrants is the Ladies' Auxiliary of the Ancient Order of the Hiberians- unsurprisingly commissioning Irish American genius. Around here members of the Ancient Order of the Hiberians were hounded, watched with great suspicion and had spies put in their midst. A secret society within a secret society, our Molly Maguires, an Irish voice for labor, existed within the order. Can't tell you the number of vets returning from the war, enlisted in this war. By 1924 the Mollies should have been gone, but who knows?

That the ladies spent this kind of time, effort and finances on a memorial to nurses in a conflict so many years in the past is extraordinary.
 
Forty women, including seven government nurses, eventually worked at Camp Letterman General Hospital, established after the battle of Gettysburg, east of the town. Camp Letterman cared for the wounded from both sides. In addition, a number of women from Baltimore (at least five have been identified) arrived after the battle to the (Lutheran Theological) Seminary hospital to tend to the needs of the wounded, particularly the Confederate wounded. In addition, many women from the town were also involved in caring for the wounded, in the field hospitals or even in their own homes, which had been opened for that purpose, and where many Federal soldiers received constant attention.
 
Michaelangelo's famous Pietà, showing the grieving Virgin Mary holding the body of the dead Jesus, was the obvious inspiration for Theo Alice Ruggles Kitson's 1906 Mother Bickerdyke memorial in Galesburg, Ill. And, it is a fitting grouping, that has been used often, up to and including Glenna Goodacre's 1993 Vietnam Army Nurses Memorial in Washington, D.C.
Most poignant and notable aspect of this memorial for me: General Sherman's words "She outranks me".

Says it all about what these women meant to these men in terms of their contribution.
 
Last edited:
Thanks for bumping this thread.

Hmm. I never thought of it but one of the 5 figures on the Confederate monument in from of the Leflore County (Miss) Courthouse depicts a very similar pose of a lady guving aide to a young soldier.

I will try to post a photo.


If it is possible, would you please? Despite hearing bits and pieces of nurses it seems to me genuine interest has either fallen or kind of condensed our nurses into one,Frankensteined female, you know? We're allowed one " Civil War Nurse ", really, a prim albeit intrepid young creature forever bedside, wearing a pinafored apron and possibly marrying one of her patients. The End.

Tom Elmore's post highlights one battle's response in women's dedicated compassion and you can add to that most households. Doors thrown open to wounded made a " Civil War Nurse " out of housewives and teenaged girls- heck, children, too. Read a first hand account, mother directing her little girl to please hold a wounded man's leg still while she cleaned it.

Too many circumstances to count- hospital transports, frontline nurses, those serving in rehabilitation units and hospitals where men were placed, knowing there was no hope. Our Southern women faced special horrors, good grief. I've never seen this addressed comprehensively although am not an expert. Wards full of the most horrifically wounded men- and no proper medicine, women resorted back to pioneer days. Woodland and meadow herbs and plants, the old lores were brought back, anything to alleviate suffering.

The magnitude of response to the call for help is staggering. Some women just packed bags and left home, showing up in places of need. If Dix wouldn't take them ( That was only 10% of our nurses ), they kept moving until someone did. Wish I knew more on the various organizations in the South. In the North, somehow Army, Sanitary Commission, Christian Commission and different state and local organizations provided nurses inside a system which somehow worked.
 
If it is possible, would you please? Despite hearing bits and pieces of nurses it seems to me genuine interest has either fallen or kind of condensed our nurses into one,Frankensteined female, you know? We're allowed one " Civil War Nurse ", really, a prim albeit intrepid young creature forever bedside, wearing a pinafored apron and possibly marrying one of her patients. The End.

Tom Elmore's post highlights one battle's response in women's dedicated compassion and you can add to that most households. Doors thrown open to wounded made a " Civil War Nurse " out of housewives and teenaged girls- heck, children, too. Read a first hand account, mother directing her little girl to please hold a wounded man's leg still while she cleaned it.

Too many circumstances to count- hospital transports, frontline nurses, those serving in rehabilitation units and hospitals where men were placed, knowing there was no hope. Our Southern women faced special horrors, good grief. I've never seen this addressed comprehensively although am not an expert. Wards full of the most horrifically wounded men- and no proper medicine, women resorted back to pioneer days. Woodland and meadow herbs and plants, the old lores were brought back, anything to alleviate suffering.

The magnitude of response to the call for help is staggering. Some women just packed bags and left home, showing up in places of need. If Dix wouldn't take them ( That was only 10% of our nurses ), they kept moving until someone did. Wish I knew more on the various organizations in the South. In the North, somehow Army, Sanitary Commission, Christian Commission and different state and local organizations provided nurses inside a system which somehow worked.
It does seem the South didn't have the same number of dedicated facilities and organisations for caring for the sick and wounded, from what I have read many of them being cared for in private homes, halls, etc, and ordinary citizens being required to care for them. They must be some of the many unsung heroes of the war.
 
Michaelangelo's famous Pietà, showing the grieving Virgin Mary holding the body of the dead Jesus, was the obvious inspiration for Theo Alice Ruggles Kitson's 1906 Mother Bickerdyke memorial in Galesburg, Ill. And, it is a fitting grouping, that has been used often, up to and including Glenna Goodacre's 1993 Vietnam Army Nurses Memorial in Washington, D.C.
Where in Galesburg is this? I didn't see it when I was there to photograph the Knox College site of the Lincoln-Douglas debate in October 1858.
 
Back
Top