JPK Huson 1863
Brev. Brig. Gen'l
- Joined
- Feb 14, 2012
- Location
- Central Pennsylvania
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.
" 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
Alexandria, Mansion House Hospital is the one referred to in this article- I just truncated it for brevity.
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.
" 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 ).
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.