Angels Of Mercy....In Trousers; Army Nurses On Muster Rolls, Who Knew?

JPK Huson 1863

Brev. Brig. Gen'l
Joined
Feb 14, 2012
Location
Central Pennsylvania
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Attending wounded men in hospitals and on battlefields, devoted, selfless nurses of the ACW have become legendary- and legendarily women. With legendary stories. But. There were boy angels of mercy, too. Go figure!

Regimental rosters listed in era papers as having been engaged at Bull Run bafflingly include a regimental nurse. On the roles as Franks, Henrys, Alberts and Oscars it's not a stretch assuming some norm existed whereby the Army, as a matter of course employed men in the role traditionally, in our heads, cast by women.

Disconcerting. " Our Army Nurses " contains not, one biography written by a guy nor can I find a male nurse leaving his memoir from days spent attending wounded. They were there- no idea how long or how many.

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" Hospital Corps of Male Nurses ", from 1862.

Despite Dix's excellent work on the part of Union wounded, the Sanitary Commission, Christian Commission and dozens of other groups who sent women to care for wounded, it was not without protest. Again- who knew? ............. from an article on Mansion House Hospital, Alexandria

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Alexandria, Mansion House Hospital is the one referred to in this article- I just truncated it for brevity.
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Still in 1861, the great wheel were turning- without looking into it hugely ( and creating a long, boring thread ), have no idea who-ordered-what-and-why. I would like to find more on the nurses themselves, if we had males nurses by war's end and if so, bring their stories here.

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" Superintendent of the Women Nurses ", something I'd never run into before- anyone else familiar with this, please? Brand, new information that she'd been hired as a kind of ' women only ' boss- it simply did not occur to me- and of course it meant a ' Superintendent of the Male Nurses ' had an office next door. ( just made that up- no idea where their offices were located ).

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From 1861, regiments at Camp Griffin outside Washington, would have included in their rosters a nurse. In pants. Who knew? ( Well, a few of you experts of course did .......)

Will dig around for more in my imaginary spare time. :angel:
 
Very interesting.
I don't know as "superintendent of woman nurses" was so much a title as the description of the job being done. Dorothea Dix' official title official title was simply "Superintendent of Army Nurses," though I haven't heard she had any authority in regards to male nurses. Most of the latter were military personnel, of course, and early in the war they were far the more numerous. But, what about male civilian nurses? As you say, one never hears about them.

As to the article you post: "The soldiers do not seem to desire their presence; they irritate and annoy them. ... Almost the only complaint, strange as it may seem, is of the women..." And, the Matron advocates
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Womens' Rights! I think it's a matter of who you are listening to and what you want to hear. The source, note, is "H.M. Pierce, General Superintendent of the hospital corps of male nurses," whose toes (and ego) are being trod upon by this bossy, hard working Matron and her female cohorts. We have far, far too many testimonies from wounded soldiers themselves as to their appreciation of and gratitude to these women to have much sympathy for his griping. Women in military nursing was something new -- and, for some, to be feared.

[I also think we have to be clear that in speaking of nurses "in pants," we mean male nurses -- not female nurses wearing (heaven forbid!) trousers.]
 
I remember reading that Dix only wanted matronly women in plain get-up, no make-up, no girls, no Catholics. She also made a lot of her superiors and colleagues angry by her brusque manner. Eventually she grew tired of the whole army experience.
Thomas Wentworth Higginson observed that Miss Dix was "a lady who had something of the habitual despotism of the saints, and had somewhat exasperated the soldiers by making anything like youth or good looks an absolute bar to hospital employment." She wanted no romance-minded young girls in search of soldier husbands, who would quit nursing as soon as they had found one, all their training having gone to waste.
 
Thomas Wentworth Higginson observed that Miss Dix was "a lady who had something of the habitual despotism of the saints, and had somewhat exasperated the soldiers by making anything like youth or good looks an absolute bar to hospital employment." She wanted no romance-minded young girls in search of soldier husbands, who would quit nursing as soon as they had found one, all their training having gone to waste.
Absolutely correct!
 
Thomas Wentworth Higginson observed that Miss Dix was "a lady who had something of the habitual despotism of the saints, and had somewhat exasperated the soldiers by making anything like youth or good looks an absolute bar to hospital employment." She wanted no romance-minded young girls in search of soldier husbands, who would quit nursing as soon as they had found one, all their training having gone to waste.


I've slowly changed my mind on why Dix may have had such stringent and to us absurd requirements? It's just a theory. There was an awful lot of push-back over female nurses. OH the gnashing of testosterone. It's funny, you can't find a breakdown on exactly why women were objected to as nurses ( we girls weren't strong enough and we might have to see someone in the buff, so far, is what I can find ) and we know barring a kind of running war on them by a few testy docs female nurses swiftly became the norm. Still, there was a ton of negative commentary.

It could be Dix also just wished to be able to dispense with problems before they began, as in accusations any ' funny business ' was afoot. By having women thought too long in the tooth and not attractive, took the wind out of a few male sails on arguments having women in the wards would be disruptive.

What you also can't find is a ton on the men who served as nurses. We lost some, I think quite a few under fire because at least in 1861 they were assigned within regiments, too. You can find them in the post battle lists printed in newspapers, killed and wounded. I'm not sure what killed John Shook and was surprised to see a male nurse in 1863- found this years ago when trying to find more on who-were-our-nurses.

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I'm not sure what killed John Shook and was surprised to see a male nurse in 1863- found this years ago when trying to find more on who-were-our-nurses.

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If I might expand on that clipping, the nurse in question was John W. Shook, private, Co. B, 69th Ohio Vols., who had been on detached duty as a nurse for some time. The article you give is only an excerpt from a much longer article regarding "Disloyal Letters and their Effect," published in full in the Indianapolis Journal (it is attached in full below, as reprinted in Evanston on March 27, 1863). It doesn't give the cause of his death, but explains the background.

As Pvt Shook lay on his deathbed, a letter arrived from his uncle Josiah Shook of Indianapolis. He asked to have it read to him. The Steward of Hospital No. 1, James L. Ayres, looked over the letter, finding that it concluded:
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This is what inspired Ayres to write his stinging rebuke to Uncle Josiah, in which he also notes:
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I have to put in a shout-out to Walt Whitman on this one. No, we was on no muster rolls, but what a nurse!
As a former hospital nurse myself, I so love this verse from his Leaves of Grass:
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He did keep a diary during his years of service in the D.C. hospitals during the war, but have only seen snippets of it. Here’ a good little paperback on that part of his life with a book summary:
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Yes, the more Whitman you read the more respect you have for his work with wounded. There's another nurse, ' Julia Wheelock, who came through it similarly shattered albeit not as able as Whitman to express it. You should read her book " Our Boys In White ", the woman's torment is tough to witness. It was the sheer barbarity, the waste and suffering and death that got to them. For every soldier who had PTSD, nurses suffered too. They watched 100's, some probably thousands of deaths- and too many tragic stories.

You know the book " Our Army Nurses ", the excellent compilation put together postwar? Some nurses sent long chapters, some are briefer, some simply stated they could not speak of what they saw.
 
Yes, the more Whitman you read the more respect you have for his work with wounded. There's another nurse, ' Julia Wheelock, who came through it similarly shattered albeit not as able as Whitman to express it. You should read her book " Our Boys In White ", the woman's torment is tough to witness. It was the sheer barbarity, the waste and suffering and death that got to them. For every soldier who had PTSD, nurses suffered too. They watched 100's, some probably thousands of deaths- and too many tragic stories.

You know the book " Our Army Nurses ", the excellent compilation put together postwar? Some nurses sent long chapters, some are briefer, some simply stated they could not speak of what they saw.
I thank you much for starting this thread. I spent the better part of yesterday reading about the men and women to served our soldiers medically. I will get those two books you recommended.
I do have a copyright question. I found two amazing sources yesterday on male nurses, complete with their cab.cards or cdv’s. Here are the two citations:

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Since I used the public “www.jstor.org” site, would I be able to post the relevant portions of these articles?
Also, on issue of copyright, what about a blog site? A great account of a soldier ho was a nurse in the 93rd Pennsylvania, Co. B., with his photograph.
One more question. And this may be more suitable to ask on another forum. I do not have any ancestors who fought for the North. But, I have had occasions to research via fold3, the CMSR’s of men who fought from Pennsylvania. No service records! One index card. Period.
Why are the Confederate records so complete (relatively), and the Union records are non-existent, except for the USCT soldiers?
Sorry for the lengthy post, but you quite well-schooled on this website, and I would really value your input!
Thanks,
Marty
 
I thank you much for starting this thread. I spent the better part of yesterday reading about the men and women to served our soldiers medically. I will get those two books you recommended.
I do have a copyright question. I found two amazing sources yesterday on male nurses, complete with their cab.cards or cdv’s. Here are the two citations:

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View attachment 362920
Since I used the public “www.jstor.org” site, would I be able to post the relevant portions of these articles?
Also, on issue of copyright, what about a blog site? A great account of a soldier ho was a nurse in the 93rd Pennsylvania, Co. B., with his photograph.
One more question. And this may be more suitable to ask on another forum. I do not have any ancestors who fought for the North. But, I have had occasions to research via fold3, the CMSR’s of men who fought from Pennsylvania. No service records! One index card. Period.
Why are the Confederate records so complete (relatively), and the Union records are non-existent, except for the USCT soldiers?
Sorry for the lengthy post, but you quite well-schooled on this website, and I would really value your input!
Thanks,
Marty
Fold3 is gradually digitizing all the CSRs, and Pennsylvania's will be online 'eventually' (whatever that means). It requires hundreds of thousands of man-hours to do it. Special funds were contributed (by whom I don't know) to do some records: Confederate, USCT, etc. Other states they're doing one at a time, and some are available (I was lucky, the Mass. records I most often use have all been done). I suppose if somebody wanted to donate a sizable sum to complete Pennsylvania, it could be fast-tracked, but otherwise it's 'wait your turn.'

I really don't know about JSTOR copyright rules. Probably best to ask them. I expect a typed transcription of excerpts (properly cited, of course) would be ok.
 
Fold3 is gradually digitizing all the CSRs, and Pennsylvania's will be online 'eventually' (whatever that means). It requires hundreds of thousands of man-hours to do it. Special funds were contributed (by whom I don't know) to do some records: Confederate, USCT, etc. Other states they're doing one at a time, and some are available (I was lucky, the Mass. records I most often use have all been done). I suppose if somebody wanted to donate a sizable sum to complete Pennsylvania, it could be fast-tracked, but otherwise it's 'wait your turn.'

I really don't know about JSTOR copyright rules. Probably best to ask them. I expect a typed transcription of excerpts (properly cited, of course) would be ok.
Thank you so much! I have wondered about this for quite awhile....and yes, I have noticed a few Northern states have added them.
And to the donors of the Confederate records: Thank You!!
Appreciate your response, John
Marty
 
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