A Question about dangers to Nurses

[Harms88]

Last night, as I was listening to the news (not the happiest of passtimes), I heard once again about how doctors and nurses are being sniped by our kind dear friend Covid-19, including an elderly doctor from New York City that had constantly volunteered his time, written a medical book on how to deal with stress as doctor whose example benefited many of his community and profession.

As I listened to it, I had a bit of inspiration concerning a character I'm writing for my Civil War historical fiction series. My goal with the character has been to make her a Civil War nurse. Combination of patriotism for her adopted United States, her desire to help those in need, and mushy reasons (her hubby will join the Infantry and she wants to be near him). The inspiration was, what if perhaps trouble befell her as she was serving. Maybe she gets captured, wounded, fell seriously ill or even killed.

But when I went a Googling to see "numbers of Civil War nurses that were killed", nothing came up.

So I changed it to "how many nurses were killed". Nothing.

"How many nurses were wounded". No such luck.

The only one that resulted in any success was "Nurses that died during the Civil War". This lead me to a single nurse, a 50s year old widow who died in 1865 from typhoid contracted from sick soldiers she was tending too.

Problem is.....surely only one woman dying is stretching belief.

These women were serving both near and on the fields of battle. Surely some were captured with the wounded they were tending to when their army retreats, accidentally shot by wayward minies and cannon shells or else contracted illnesses due to their proximity to death and disease.

Does anyone have any data or info related to this? Maybe accounts of things happening to these nurses? I know that Civil War nurses services being recorded was pretty bare, but I'm sure that there is stories or so forth that shed some light on the subject.

 

[Kurt G]

The story of Anne Etheridge is very interesting . She served with a few Michigan regiments as a Vivandiere initially and then worked as a nurse , taking care of the wounded , writing letters for them , etc . She was wounded in the hand at Chancellorsville . She was awarded the Kearny Cross as well. .

 

[Harms88]

The story of Anne Etheridge is very interesting . She served with a few Michigan regiments as a Vivandiere initially and then worked as a nurse , taking care of the wounded , writing letters for them , etc . She was wounded in the hand at Chancellorsville . She was awarded the Kearny Cross as well. .

That's interesting. Do we know where she was at Chancellorsville when she got hit?

 

[Kurt G]

That's interesting. Do we know where she was at Chancellorsville when she got hit?

On May 2nd she was with the 3rd Michigan as they advanced . She was told to head back to safety and was just behind the lines when a volley killed an officer who was allegedly hiding behind her . She was wounded in the hand at that time . She was a very brave person and was highly thought of by the soldiers . She is said to have often ridden near the front of her regiment with bandages and a pair of pistols .

 

[Cavalry Charger]

I think you will find @JPK Huson 1863 has quite a treasure trove here on nurses also included in the Ladies Tea forum.

I'm sure she will be able to help.

 

[Cavalry Charger]

Here's one thread I found:

"First Women to Die for Humanity in the War of the Rebellion" | The Ladies Tea - War from a Feminine Perspective

During my research regarding the 21st Massachusetts Infantry, some of which I have shared here particularly concerning Clara Barton. I have also been trying to find information regarding another “Daughter” of the 21st, Carrie E, Cutter, who died at the age of 19, from spotted fever contracted...

civilwartalk.com

I think you will find a number of Catholic Orders of Nuns, along with other Christian Associations, provided nurses/nursing care to the wounded and dying so they may also provide some resources in answer to the question you are asking.

 

[Harms88]

Well, at the very least I have 2 examples of nurses dying from illnesses and 1 example of someone who was wounded.

That's 300% more knowledge on the subject than I had roughly the same time yesterday. lol

I have actually come across one other woman who was wounded while tending to the menfolk. Juliet Opie Hopkins, who received two hip wounds at Seven Pines and left her with a permanent limp.

 

[JPK Huson 1863]

Last night, as I was listening to the news (not the happiest of passtimes), I heard once again about how doctors and nurses are being sniped by our kind dear friend Covid-19, including an elderly doctor from New York City that had constantly volunteered his time, written a medical book on how to deal with stress as doctor whose example benefited many of his community and profession.

As I listened to it, I had a bit of inspiration concerning a character I'm writing for my Civil War historical fiction series. My goal with the character has been to make her a Civil War nurse. Combination of patriotism for her adopted United States, her desire to help those in need, and mushy reasons (her hubby will join the Infantry and she wants to be near him). The inspiration was, what if perhaps trouble befell her as she was serving. Maybe she gets captured, wounded, fell seriously ill or even killed.

View attachment 353506

But when I went a Googling to see "numbers of Civil War nurses that were killed", nothing came up.

So I changed it to "how many nurses were killed". Nothing.

"How many nurses were wounded". No such luck.

The only one that resulted in any success was "Nurses that died during the Civil War". This lead me to a single nurse, a 50s year old widow who died in 1865 from typhoid contracted from sick soldiers she was tending too.

Problem is.....surely only one woman dying is stretching belief.

These women were serving both near and on the fields of battle. Surely some were captured with the wounded they were tending to when their army retreats, accidentally shot by wayward minies and cannon shells or else contracted illnesses due to their proximity to death and disease.

Does anyone have any data or info related to this? Maybe accounts of things happening to these nurses? I know that Civil War nurses services being recorded was pretty bare, but I'm sure that there is stories or so forth that shed some light on the subject.

It's one of my personal hobby horses. We know how many horses and mules died during the war, how many nurses? Nope. A LOT died. I'll bump a thread started to keep track of the few whose records I've been able to find. No one's kept count ( which seems awful ). Contacted officials and nope, those records begin with WW1. It's tougher than it looks. " Civil War Nurse " means women working as Army nurses, Sanitary Commission ' agents/nurses ', Christian Commission, same, any of the gazillion church and community organizations who both sent women to battlefield hospitals or nursed in towns and cities, Catholic Sisters AND private citizens who just, plain showed up to help. Really hard to keep track of all of them.

Disease killed ( and I have no proof except a document written by an church archivist, describing their diocese cemetery ) hundreds of Catholic Sisters alone. Guessing a good statistician could take what numbers are known, between Army nurses lost, Sisters and all the others and come up with a guesstimate.

There are quite a few excellent accounts by nurses written both during the war and post war- would you like links?

 

[Cavalry Charger]

I also had some other thoughts to add to this but wanted to wait until @JPK Huson 1863 had a chance to reply.

My understanding is nurses did become ill and die (which JPK has now confirmed), many would also have suffered exhaustion, been exposed to the same illnesses and elements as soldiers, and ultimately were nothing less than human themselves. Taking on a heroic task did not prevent them from succumbing to all the usual vagaries of life, and the other thing to note is that they were no more aware of our current understanding around medicine and hygiene practices than any of the rest of the medical profession at the time. They are, in a way, hidden amongst the plight of soldiers on the battlefield, and behind the medical professionals that stood in the front line of caring for those soldiers, namely the doctors and surgeons performing life saving surgeries.

We know they existed, and many were not professionally trained but came to the aid of communities in need. Which reminds me of Scarlett O'Hara of GWTW fame. She got roped in with Miss Melanie only to find she couldn't stand the work she was called on to do. It would have been horrifying, and no doubt nurses were called in to assist surgeons in their gruesome work. Otherwise, I'm assuming they would have fulfilled basic care tasks such as washing patients, feeding them, overseeing elements of wound care such as changing bandages, administering medicine, and so on. There was very little that was high tech about nursing in those days. They may also have helped in tasks of rehabilitation, which would have included helping patients regain their mobility, along with offering what comfort they could in terms of reassurance, writing and reading letters, potentially saying prayers and hearing last words of dying men.

Sherman made a now famous comment about one of the better known nurses, Mother Bickerdyke, when he stated 'she outranks me'.

Here is a little snippet from an article I will link about her, though I'm sure she may already have her own thread. And also because the anniversary of the Battle of Shiloh is near:

"The battle of Shiloh found her busy with the wounded. She had built a fire and her kettles were filled with soup to nourish the wounded when a surgeon, impressed by her efficiency, asked under whose authority she worked. Mother Bickerdyke never paused in her labors as she answered, "I have received my authority from the Lord God Almighty; have you anything that ranks higher than that?"

Mother Bickerdyke: The Woman Who Outranked Sherman | Argunners Magazine

www.argunners.com

 

[Harms88]

It's one of my personal hobby horses. We know how many horses and mules died during the war, how many nurses? Nope. A LOT died. I'll bump a thread started to keep track of the few whose records I've been able to find. No one's kept count ( which seems awful ). Contacted officials and nope, those records begin with WW1. It's tougher than it looks. " Civil War Nurse " means women working as Army nurses, Sanitary Commission ' agents/nurses ', Christian Commission, same, any of the gazillion church and community organizations who both sent women to battlefield hospitals or nursed in towns and cities, Catholic Sisters AND private citizens who just, plain showed up to help. Really hard to keep track of all of them.

Disease killed ( and I have no proof except a document written by an church archivist, describing their diocese cemetery ) hundreds of Catholic Sisters alone. Guessing a good statistician could take what numbers are known, between Army nurses lost, Sisters and all the others and come up with a guesstimate.

There are quite a few excellent accounts by nurses written both during the war and post war- would you like links?

This is one of those weird things when you think about it. We have a pretty accurate number of beasts of burden, but heaven forbid we get an actual accurate number of human lives lost. Like supposedly we need to increase the official death count by 20%, and that's just including the soldiers. We have few numbers regarding the civilians who also got lost, but I've read that there was 80,000 Southern refugees by the end of the war and over 50,000 died as a direct result of the war.

But yeah, I would be interested any any links or info you've been able to compile. I'll check out the topic you bumped as well.

 

[Mrs. V]

If you read Ms. Alcotts diary, you will see some of the normal duties of a nurse in a hospital. I love the fact that they sang! But yeah, not much info on the number of nurses who died in the war. You know, cause we were just women..

 

[Cavalry Charger]

If you read Ms. Alcotts diary, you will see some of the normal duties of a nurse in a hospital.

Can we just clarify, is that Louisa May Alcott?

I didn't know they sang, but I'm sure that helped to lift the soldier's spirits.

I remember when I was nursing, we had a little boy about two years old who had fallen down a set of stairs in an apartment building several months prior when he got out the front door in his 'walker'. He wasn't comatose, but was unresponsive in general. One day while I was caring for him I began to sing a nursery rhyme. I think it was Mary Had a Little Lamb. He turned his eyes to look at me and was responsive to the singing. The head nurse called in the doctors and specialists and I had to sing again in front of them to this little chap so they could see his reaction. I still remember his name. It was Adam. And it was a milestone in understanding both the implications around the little boy's level of brain activity and also the benefits of music. That was long before music was officially recognized as a form of therapy, but those who love it have probably always recognized it as so.

 

[Ole Miss]

Friendship Cemetery, in Columbus, MS, contains a grave for a woman marked Civil War Nurse. I can't find my photo and due to the quarantine and stay home in place edict, I am unable to go there and take another photo.
Regards
David

 

[Harms88]

Friendship Cemetery, in Columbus, MS, contains a grave for a woman marked Civil War Nurse. I can't find my photo and due to the quarantine and stay home in place edict, I am unable to go there and take another photo.
Regards
David

These stay at home orders haven't affected me as much. Both my full-time and part-time jobs still happen and they were telling me that the only people being pulled over by the cops are people traveling from city to city on the highway.

Honestly the only thing that's been affected is church, but beyond that, its pretty much business as usual for me.

 

[Ole Miss]

I also miss Sunday School and Church
Regards
David

 

[JPK Huson 1863]

Friendship Cemetery, in Columbus, MS, contains a grave for a woman marked Civil War Nurse. I can't find my photo and due to the quarantine and stay home in place edict, I am unable to go there and take another photo.
Regards
David

When it's possible, love to have an image of her grave, thank you! We know the vets cherished them- none of them are here any more but it still brings tears to your eyes reading of post-war encounters between vets and nurses. They just never forgot the care. Somehow it's been lost.

 

[JPK Huson 1863]

I didn't know they sang, but I'm sure that helped to lift the soldier's spirits.

Helen Gilson, one of the nurses who lost her life always makes me think of our singing @Mrs. V - not, please God, because anything happened to Mrs. ., because she sang to uplift spirits. There's an awesome story from Marye's House- literally packed with wounded, the kind of bloody shambles we saw post battle. Doctors, nurses, civilians, stewards frantically providing care, entire yard packed with wounded. Helen Gilson gets it into her head to sing. Whole place stops. It's just Helen singing, One description had wound crawling to get closer and men weeping it was such a lovely break in al the horror. Music heals. We'll never know why it just does.

 

[Cavalry Charger]

Music heals. We'll never know why it just does.

I think it reaches into people's souls. Just my opinion.

Unless you're Grant, of course, and then it just grates on your senses!

 

[JPK Huson 1863]

But yeah, I would be interested any any links or info you've been able to compile. I'll check out the topic you bumped as well.

Thanks for including this topic in your book! It's not addressed much. I don't think there's been a deliberate attempt not to- it was a massive shambles from beginning to end plus ' Civil War Nurse ' was tough to define. There's no single record, even Army records aren't complete, of those Dix enrolled. Need was too great, everything moved too swiftly to get all the i's dotted. My grgrgrandmother ended up being a ' Civil War Nurse ' without meaning to- the ' public house ' they ran was scooped up as a hospital post Bull Run.

Woman's work in the Civil War : a record of heroism, patriotism and patience / by L. P. Brockett and Mary C. Vaughan ; with an introduction, by Henry W. Bellows ...

Women of the War : their heroism and self-sacrifice / by Frank Moore

The Sanitary Commission bulletin v.2 no.13-24 1864.

The Sanitary Commission bulletin v.3.

Hospital sketches. By L. M. Alcott ...

There are around 20 more, if not 30- these are just the ones in my more recent bookmarks. I'll make a point of getting to the bios- there's Bickerdyke's and around 10 more like her. Fair warning, you'll get lost for weeks and weeks reading this stuff. The Sanitary Commission reports alone contain various letters, etc. sent back from battlefields and hospitals you won't be able to stop reading, especially since you have a character in your head.

Seriously, thanks for getting into this topic. History tends to do this ' thing ' where one or a few names get to represent all of them you know? Everyone knows Clara Barton- and should. She was beyond remarkable. The thing is, the rest are not as well known 150 years later, it's a little crazy. I've been thinking more and more of of them these last weeks because they're all out there again, Bless all of them.

 

[Mrs. V]

Thanks for including this topic in your book! It's not addressed much. I don't think there's been a deliberate attempt not to- it was a massive shambles from beginning to end plus ' Civil War Nurse ' was tough to define. There's no single record, even Army records aren't complete, of those Dix enrolled. Need was too great, everything moved too swiftly to get all the i's dotted. My grgrgrandmother ended up being a ' Civil War Nurse ' without meaning to- the ' public house ' they ran was scooped up as a hospital post Bull Run.

Woman's work in the Civil War : a record of heroism, patriotism and patience / by L. P. Brockett and Mary C. Vaughan ; with an introduction, by Henry W. Bellows ...

Women of the War : their heroism and self-sacrifice / by Frank Moore

The Sanitary Commission bulletin v.2 no.13-24 1864.

The Sanitary Commission bulletin v.3.

Hospital sketches. By L. M. Alcott ...

There are around 20 more, if not 30- these are just the ones in my more recent bookmarks. I'll make a point of getting to the bios- there's Bickerdyke's and around 10 more like her. Fair warning, you'll get lost for weeks and weeks reading this stuff. The Sanitary Commission reports alone contain various letters, etc. sent back from battlefields and hospitals you won't be able to stop reading, especially since you have a character in your head.

Seriously, thanks for getting into this topic. History tends to do this ' thing ' where one or a few names get to represent all of them you know? Everyone knows Clara Barton- and should. She was beyond remarkable. The thing is, the rest are not as well known 150 years later, it's a little crazy. I've been thinking more and more of of them these last weeks because they're all out there again, Bless all of them.

I am reading Angels of the Battlefield. Recounting the experiences of the women religious during the war.