Dorothea Dix: Fierce, stubborn, compassionate, driven

Bee

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Asst. Regtl. Quartermaster Gettysburg 2017
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Dec 21, 2015
I have stumbled onto a series of articles put out by The National Museum of Civil War Medicine that might be of interest (I apologize ahead of time if any of this information is redundant):

When the Civil War broke out in 1861, Dix sprang into action. She made her way to Washington, where an influx of wounded soldiers with gruesome injuries arrived daily. Unlike today, there was no organized system of battlefield-to-bedside care in place to treat the wounded. Dix wanted to help fix this. She introduced a radical idea: permitting women to enter the predominately-male profession of nursing, thereby increasing the number of available nurses while the men were off fighting. Dix convinced the Army to create the nation’s first female nursing corps … under her control of course.

As Superintendent of Army Nurses, Dix laid out guidelines for the recruitment of female Union nurses. She chose candidates between the ages of 35 and 50 and insisted they be “plain looking” to avoid tempting the male soldiers and doctors. Dix forbade her nurses from wearing jewelry, makeup, curls, bows, or hoop-skirts. Army doctors and nurses alike bristled at Dix’s demands. They began referring to her as “Dragon Dix” or the “Dictator in a Petticoat.” read further http://www.civilwarmed.org/dorothea-dix/
 
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Dorothea Dix: Mental Health Reformer and Civil War Nurse

Throughout her life, Dorothea Lynde Dix (1802–1887) worked in many different occupations to improve the lives of the less fortunate. Dix’s devotion to caring for others was evident from her youth. From an early age, Dorothea was a caregiver to her two younger brothers, and later, to her grandmother. At only fifteen years old, Dorothea began a small school for girls, who were not welcome in public schools at the time. Dix continued to teach for many years, until a troubling experience in a Massachusetts jail influenced her to take up a new cause. Emboldened by her observations of the appalling conditions that mentally ill prisoners were subjected to, Dix visited other prisons throughout the state and successfully petitioned for improvements. She then travelled throughout the US and parts of Europe evaluating prisons and mental hospitals and advocating for better treatment for the mentally ill and less fortunate. She was a caretaker for her family, a school teacher to girls, and an advocate and reformer for the mentally ill. In addition to this impressive list of efforts, during the US Civil War, Dix volunteered her services and directed a body of nurses to minister to injured Union soldiers. read further https://siarchives.si.edu/blog/dorothea-dix-mental-health-reformer-and-civil-war-nurse
 
Dorothea Dix pleads for a state mental hospital

Dorothea Lynde Dix, Memorial Soliciting a State Hospital for the Protection and Cure of the Insane, Submitted to the General Assembly of North Carolina, November, 1848, pp. 8–9, 14–15, 16–17, 26–28, 39–41.

[Insane persons kept in jails or poorhouses]
dorothea_dix_300.jpg

Dorothea Dix, in an undated portrait . About the photograph

I admit that public peace and security are seriously endangered by the non-restraint of the maniacal insane. I consider it in the highest degree improper that they should be allowed to range the towns and country without care or guidance; but this does not justify the public in any State or community, under any circumstances or conditions, in committing the insane to prisons; in a majority of cases the rich may be, or are sent to Hospitals; the poor under the pressure of this calamity, have the same just claim upon the public treasury, as the rich have upon the private purse of their family as they have the need, so have they the right to share the benefits of Hospital treatment. Urgent cases at all times, demand, unusual and ready expenditures in every community. Further information http://www.learnnc.org/lp/editions/nchist-newnation/4748
 
Dorothea Dix is incredibly significant as a women's rights advocate. What is she advocating? The right of women to work at something that matters. When nurses proved they could to the work, the walls of inequality were breached.
 
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I think she was one of three women that made a significant difference in the war.
Harriet Beecher Stowe put the arguments about slavery in a simple story form. They stopped being abstractions. It was an age of printing and publishing. Her book, Uncle Tom's Cabin, was a major factor in uniting the North.
Julia Grant made the institution of marriage work for herself and her husband. Because of her love and devotion Ulysses S. Grant ot the time to grow and mature as a human being and was ready for the momentous work. Well done, Mrs. Grant.
And this is the third person, Dorothea Dix, who didn't just advocate that women could be equal, she demonstrated that women were equally qualified to provide skilled nursing care.
 
Another one:
While Dix was gathering her forces in Washington, Mary Ann Bickerdyke was taking matters into her own equally dedicated hands in Galesburg, Ill. A 45-year-old juggernaut, Bickerdyke personified Dix’s ideal nurse. Before the war, she had received training in botanic and homeopathic medicine and had been engaged in private-duty nursing. Recently bereaved by the untimely death of both her husband and young daughter, she felt divinely called to spend her remaining life relieving human suffering.

http://www.historynet.com/civil-war-nurses
 
Nurses hold a very special place in my heart. My dad died in my arms with no other family members to comfort us, but I was not alone: I had two very compassionate nurses to fill the family void :smile:
 
I don't know how she felt about this nickname, but I loved it the second I learned of it. I hope there was at least a small part of her that considered it a compliment (though I know it probably wasn't meant as one).

One does not walk all over a dragon.
True. As it is said, "Do not meddle in the affairs of dragons, for you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup."
 
The examples are meant to illustrate that these people accomplished great things in both ways.
Working within traditional boundaries, Julia Grant accomplished something great for the nation and for herself.
Dorothea Dix was working out a new role, and it made a difference in casualty rates in the Union Army and had consequences down through the years.
 
Dorothea Dix pleads for a state mental hospital

Dorothea Lynde Dix, Memorial Soliciting a State Hospital for the Protection and Cure of the Insane, Submitted to the General Assembly of North Carolina, November, 1848, pp. 8–9, 14–15, 16–17, 26–28, 39–41.

[Insane persons kept in jails or poorhouses]
View attachment 143864
Dorothea Dix, in an undated portrait . About the photograph

I admit that public peace and security are seriously endangered by the non-restraint of the maniacal insane. I consider it in the highest degree improper that they should be allowed to range the towns and country without care or guidance; but this does not justify the public in any State or community, under any circumstances or conditions, in committing the insane to prisons; in a majority of cases the rich may be, or are sent to Hospitals; the poor under the pressure of this calamity, have the same just claim upon the public treasury, as the rich have upon the private purse of their family as they have the need, so have they the right to share the benefits of Hospital treatment. Urgent cases at all times, demand, unusual and ready expenditures in every community. Further information http://www.learnnc.org/lp/editions/nchist-newnation/4748

The state hospital that was opened in Raleigh, named after Dorothea Dix, is on its way to
becoming a city park now that it has been closed. Personally, I think it should have stayed
open serving those with mental and emotional issues. There have been dramatic cuts in
services for the mentally ill now that drugs are used to treat them in many cases and due to
this, there are a lot of poor souls out in society that could use instutional care.

My Great Grandfather, Daniel Honeycutt, the son of David Honeycutt who is one of the
Civil War ancestors listed in my signature was for a time the head guard in charge of the
criminally insane in the state prison known as Central Prison in Raleigh, N.C. He had a
brother who became warden in the 192os. My grandmother told me that he hated having
duty on nights with a full moon because the prisoners would be on their worst behavior.
 
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It's not well known that Dorothea Dix also had a small part in the planning that allowed President-elect Lincoln to safely reach Washington in February, 1861. Samuel M.Felton, president of the Philadelphia and Baltimore Railroad, who was instrumental in keeping open the routes from the North, and also in "smuggling" Lincoln into the capitol, tells the story:

Early in the year 1861, Miss Dix, the philanthropist, came into my office on a Saturday after-noon. I had known her for some years as one engaged in alleviating the sufferings of the afflicted. Her occupation had brought her in contact with the prominent men South. In visiting hospitals, she had become familiar with the structure of Southern society, and also with the working of its political machinery. She stated that she had an important communication to make to me personally; and, after closing my door, I listened attentively to what she had to say for more than an hour. She put in a tangible and reliable shape, by the facts she related, what before I had heard in numerous and detached parcels. The sum of it all was, that there was then an extensive and organized conspiracy throughout the South to seize upon Washington, with its archives and records, and then declare the Southern conspirators de facto the Government of the United States. The whole was to be a coup d'etat. At the same time, they were to cut off all modes of communication between Washington and the North, East, or West, and thus prevent the transportation of troops to wrest the capital from the hands of the insurgents. Mr. Lincoln's inauguration was thus to be prevented, or his life was to fall a sacrifice to the attempt at inauguration. In fact, troops were then drilling on the line of our own road, and the Washington and Annapolis line, and other lines; and they were sworn to obey the commands of their leaders, and the leaders were banded together to capture Washington. As soon as the interview was ended, I called Mr. N. P. Trist into my office, and told him I wanted him to go to Washington that night, and communicate these facts to General Scott. I also furnished him with some data as to the other routes to Washington, that might be adopted in case the direct route was cut off.
Based on this intelligence, Mr. Felton began devising ultimately successful plans for the protection of the rail lines and guaranteeing the President's safe arrival.


The full text of the Narrative of Samuel M. Felton appears as Document #33 of A Civil War Miscellany.
 
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