"A Plague o' Women" -- a Surgeon's View

John Hartwell

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Major Dr. John Hill Brinton (May 21, 1832 – March 18, 1907), was an important figure in the study of military medicine. He was a leading Philadelphia surgeon both before and after the war, and would become the first curator of the Army Medical Museum (now the National Museum of Health and Medicine, an element of the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology), and was responsible for the publication of the monumental Medical and Surgical History of the War of the Rebellion. But, at the beginning of the war, he was appointed surgeon of volunteers, and assigned to Fremont’s Department of the West. His first major responsibility (in the fall of 1861) was the establishment of the Mound City Hospital (later the Mound City Naval Hospital) in Mound City, Illinois.

He encountered many difficulties in setting up the hospital.

One of my chief troubles at this place was the difficulty, and, I may almost say, the impossibility, of procuring the necessary men to do the work incident to the formation of a large hospital. … I fretted a great deal more than was at all necessary, about my hospital, though it was hardly to be wondered at, considering I had only half-sick men, or the prisoners from the guard house, to do my work. Scrubbing, sweeping, putting up beds, and making beds, and that sort of thing, was, to use the western formula, "women's work," and these gawky western men insisted that they did not come into the army to do anything else but fight. It was astonishing to me how slowly these fellows did work, even with a guard behind them. In fact, they seemed only to work when my eye was upon them. Just as soon as my back was turned all exertion ceased.

But if the men were bad, the women were worse. Just at this period the craze spread among our good people that the women of the country could make themselves very useful by acting as nurses for the sick and wounded. So out they came, these patriotic women of the North. The Secretary of War, the generals commanding departments, divisions or military posts, were besieged by them. By strained construction of certain paragraphs in the army regulations, and of acts of Congress, positions, paid positions, were devised for them. They besieged all officers and persons high in authority, and these, on the general military principle of sending a disagreeable person as far away as possible, sent the fair petitioners to as far away positions as they could. And the women went, and on the arrival of certain trains would stalk into the office of district commanders, and establish themselves solemnly against the walls, entrenched behind their bags and parcels.

They defied all military law. There they were, and there they would stay, until some accommodation might be found for them. In self-defence the adjutant general would send them to the medical director, and he, gallantly or not, as might be his nature, would forward them to the surgeon in charge of hospitals. To him at last these wretched females would come. They did not wish much -- not they, "simply a room, a bed, a looking glass, someone to get their meals and do little things for them," and they would nurse the "sick boys of our gallant Union Army." "Simply a room." Can you fancy half a dozen or a dozen old hags, for that is what they were (our modern efficient trained nurses were unknown), surrounding a bewildered hospital surgeon, each one clamorous for her little wants? And rooms so scarce and looking glasses so few! And then, when you had done your best, and had often sacrificed the accommodations for the sick to their benefit, how little gratitude did one receive! Usually nothing but complaints, fault-finding as to yourself, and backbiting as to companions of their own sex. In short this female nurse business was a great trial to all the men concerned, and to me at Mound City soon became intolerable.

I determined, therefore, to try to get rid of them from the Mound City hospital. In answer to my request to the Catholic authorities of, I think, North and South Bend, Indiana, a number of sisters were sent down to act as nurses in the hospital. These sent were from a teaching and not from a nursing order, but in a short time they adapted themselves admirably to their new duties. I have forgotten the exact title of the order to which they belonged, I think they were sisters of Notre Dame. I remember their black and white dresses, and I remember also, that when I asked the Mother, who accompanied them, what accommodation they required, the answer was, "One room, Doctor," and there were in all, I think, fourteen or fifteen of them. So I procured good nurses for my sick and the whole tribe of sanitary "Mrs. Brundages" passed away. The sick patients gained by the change, but for a few days I was the most abused man in that department, for the news papers gave me no mercy.

Surgeon Brinton was not entirely opposed to women nurses, but, it seemed to him that few were really prepared for the work they had to do, particularly this early in the war.

Good women-nurses were a godsend; those who would really nurse and work, do what they were told, make no pets (favorites), and give no trouble. On the other hand, the fussy female, intent on notoriety and glorying in her good works, fond of washing the faces of "our boys" and of writing letters home, glorifying herself; she was not godsent; in fact we all regarded her as having a very different origin.

Personal memoirs of John H. Brinton, major and surgeon U.S.V., 1861-1865 (1914)
 
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Three years later, at Winchester with Sheridan’s amy, Brinton encountered yet another "fussy female nurse:"

Sanitarians and worse, sanitary and "Christian women" began to arrive. ... One of such creatures I was blest with at Winchester. She was a friend of Mrs. Stanton, the wife of the Secretary of War, and took care to let everyone know of the fact, and boasted a good deal of her influence with the Secretary and of the information she gave him. Knowing his harshness, and ruthlessness, and impetuous injustice, I felt very much afraid of this woman for a day or two. She used to wear an India-rubber waterproof, and created discontent and disorder wherever she went. The men all saw and recognized her weakness. I remember that she made a special pet of one wretched malingerer. She followed me for hours, saying that "the poor boy would relish an omelet." I told her, "that I had no eggs, but that I thought she could get them at a farm-house, just outside the lines; if she liked I would send her there." I was much in hopes that some of Mosby’s men would catch her. She was too sharp, and wouldn't go, but she left me, kindly muttering her intentions to "let her friend the Secretary of War know how badly the wounded boys were treated." I took an opportunity, too, of sending off that malingerer, without ever giving her an opportunity of saying good-bye. His comrades understood the matter, and regarded my little joke with favor.
 
Gee whiz. There was an early prejudice against female nurses and this fellow seems not to have shed it.Before anyone runs away with the idea he may have had a point, given how his opinion of our Sisters was extremely positive, we lost an awful lot of them. Heroically self sacrificing, the Sisters simply ignored conditions which were crazily antithetical to human survival. Note the surgeon seems impressed they shared one room, for 14- his idea, one imagines, of adequate. Think for a minute of the crushing, grinding work they did. Getting adequate rest would seem mandatory.

I don't know. Am inclined towards ' misogyny ' , as a diagnosis. Bickerdyke, Bucklin, and a few others famously came into collision with doctors. As wonderful as doctors could be and were, working around the clock, asleep on their feet, some remained adamant on the topic of female nurses. One good, across the board sampling of dozens of nurses can be found just in " Our Army Nurses ". Not a word, cover to cover, from one of them about lack of comfort, female sniping or unreasonable expectations. Or grips on money- weird since a large chunk never were paid.

Quite a few comment on doctors, however. Some seem reluctant to discuss them.
 
Well, I'm sure to a harassed, overworked surgeon, preoccupied with a thousand and one pressures, from above and below, the intrusion of the occasional "friend of Mrs. Stanton" might stand out in his memory more than any number of "good women nurses." He might well recall the unprepared, complaining, argumentative "troublemaker" more vividly than the helpful, dedicated "godsend" who quietly went about her work, making few demands. And, his memoir was written long after the war. As we have seen so often, the memories of the sick and wounded men in the wards were quite different.
 
Maj. Brinton's complaints were not about the women alone: when civilian volunteers first arrived,

the doctors were often not much better ... Both doctors and nurses were most often of little use. Most were not competent; they were untrained, did not know what to do, or how to take care of soldiers, still less could they take care of themselves. ... They would come down from their comfortable homes, full of desire to be useful, and it would be so hard to find real work for them." (pp.100-200)

I remember particularly one gentleman from Philadelphia, coming to report to me at that dreary wharf at Alexandria, where I stood so long, and was so tired. He wanted to see some surgery that day and then to go back that evening to Washington. Surgery, I had none to show him, and for transportation, I could only show him a written order, for bidding me to allow a single civilian to leave Alexandria on a hospital boat, so great was the demand for sick transportation. However, I did break that order in his case and gave him food and transportation, and he has been at heart my enemy ever since. He thought I had neglected and had failed to appreciate him that day at Alexandria.
 
Gee whiz. There was an early prejudice against female nurses and this fellow seems not to have shed it.Before anyone runs away with the idea he may have had a point, given how his opinion of our Sisters was extremely positive, we lost an awful lot of them. Heroically self sacrificing, the Sisters simply ignored conditions which were crazily antithetical to human survival. Note the surgeon seems impressed they shared one room, for 14- his idea, one imagines, of adequate. Think for a minute of the crushing, grinding work they did. Getting adequate rest would seem mandatory.

I don't know. Am inclined towards ' misogyny ' , as a diagnosis. Bickerdyke, Bucklin, and a few others famously came into collision with doctors. As wonderful as doctors could be and were, working around the clock, asleep on their feet, some remained adamant on the topic of female nurses. One good, across the board sampling of dozens of nurses can be found just in " Our Army Nurses ". Not a word, cover to cover, from one of them about lack of comfort, female sniping or unreasonable expectations. Or grips on money- weird since a large chunk never were paid.

Quite a few comment on doctors, however. Some seem reluctant to discuss them.

Bravo, Annie!! "Misogyny" came into my noggin, too, having spent my early career in healthcare as an R.N., and having been treated as a "wretch", a few times verbally abused by 20th Century doctors, for example under the stress of surgeries going bad... for sure not war, but the battle for a patient's life, when a doctor feels loss of control and seeks someone to attack. The old male-superiority/dominance habits die hard.
 
Sexist though he may have been, the old grump was right to be irritated by the volunteer nurses asking for their own room. He should have jabbed a thumb at the wounded and sick soldiers lying in rows and quipped, "If a sharing a single room is good enough for them it is also good enough accommodation for you."
 
Bravo, Annie!! "Misogyny" came into my noggin, too, having spent my early career in healthcare as an R.N., and having been treated as a "wretch", a few times verbally abused by 20th Century doctors, for example under the stress of surgeries going bad... for sure not war, but the battle for a patient's life, when a doctor feels loss of control and seeks someone to attack. The old male-superiority/dominance habits die hard.
Well, he liked the women "who did what they were told!" What more do you want? :nah disagree:
 
It seems to me that the men who were most critical were the ones that seemed most threatened by women having any place in the hospital operation. I realize that some of the volunteers were a pain in the neck, but in the long run it seems that rather than embracing all offers for help. This surgeon only appreciated those who were content to be subservient, or who knew their place.
 
Both men and women provide excellent care to the wounded on both sides during the ACW. Dr. John Hill Brinton should have had the opportunity to work with Phoebe Yates Pember who was appointed Matron and she took over the large Chimborazo Hospital complex and ran it efficiently while cooperating with the medical staff. Hearing complaints about women staffing the hospital she made the following comment:

"In the midst of suffering and death, hoping with those almost beyond hope in this world; praying by the bedside of the lonely and heart stricken; closing the eyes of the boys hardly old enough to realize man’s sorrows, much less suffer man's fierce hate, a woman must soar beyond the conventional modesty considered correct under different circumstances."*

She certainly established that women could and should be involved in care of wounded soldiers in all aspects. My sister is an RN.
Regards
David
*https://www.civilwarwomenblog.com/category/civil-war-nurses/
 
I always kinda cringed at some of my fellow man's actions. I always appreciated the efforts of the women. Bringing softness in a ridiculously hard environment. There is a positive morale effect alone just by there presence. Alot of these "men" in the hospitals etc were just boys and Mom goes along way.
 
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