"I Want Whiskey! -- Barrels of Whiskey!"

John Hartwell

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Jane Gray Swisshelm:
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A little over a year ago, we had a thread telling of how nurse Jane G. Swisshelm appealed to the press to spread the word that the army hospitals needed “Lemons! LEMONS!” to help combat the spread of hospital gangrene. But she urged the people to keep them supplied with more than just lemons. In her first letter to the Boston Herald (June 23, 1863), she declared:“I want whiskey! -- barrels of whiskey!” She also demonstrates how she began to overcome Campbell Hospital’s prohibition of female nurses: by making herself invaluable. Miss Swisshelm writes:

I have been here, in the hospital, ten days, dressing wounds, wetting wounds, giving drinks and stimulants, comforting the dying, trying to save the living. The heroic fortitude of the sufferers is sublime. Yet I have held the hands of brave, strong men while shaking in a paroxysm of weeping. The doctors have committed to my special care wounded feet and ankles, and I kneel reverently by the mangled limbs of these heroes and I thank God and man for the privilege of washing them.​
I want whiskey! -- barrels of whiskey!-- to wash feet, and thus keep up circulation in wounded knees, legs, thighs, hips. I want pickles, pickles, pickles, lemons, lemons, lemons, oranges. No well man or woman has a right to a glass of lemonade. We want it all in the hospitals to prevent gangrene. I will get lady volunteers to go through the wards of as many hospitals as I can supply with drinks. My business is dressing wounds where amputation may be avoided by special care. I write this at the bedside of Arsanius Littlefield, Augusta, Me., wounded ankle -- where I have been since 2 o’clock this morning, his life hanging in doubt.​
Four days ago I unclasped the arms of A. E. Smith, of Belvedere, N. J., from around my neck, where he had clasped them, dying, as I knelt down to repeat the immortal prayer of the blind Bartemeus -- laid down the poor chilled hands, and ran to Mr. I…., then threatened with lockjaw. Oh, God, there is plenty of work; with the great advantages of the most skillful physicians, the utmost cleanliness and best ventilation, the exceeding, beautiful tenderness of ward masters and nurses, there is much to do, if the right persons appeared to do it. Dr. Baxter, physician in charge, will not permit female nurses here, and from the manner in which he cares for his patients and the reasons he gives for his decision I have no reason to quarrel with it. The chaplain, Rev. N. M. Gaylord, and lady, are indefatigable, and aid in the distribution of all comforts to the wounded.​
In answer to many letters, I say we would rather have fruit and wines than money. All sent to me at No. 424 L Street, will find gratuitous storage from Hon. D. M. Kelsey, of Illinois. I will find a person to keep account of all that comes, and acknowledge it, without paying clerk hire, and God do so to me and more also if I do not use my best efforts to have everything committed to my care go to comforting and sustaining our wounded men.​
JANE G. SWISSHELM​
 
Would have taken a brave man to have had a drink anywhere near her! Sadly all of her efforts were for naught in preventing and treating gangrene. She was a brave and compassionate woman dedicated to serving others. It is a shame that history has forgotten her and her service and I am pleased you have brought her back in the light.
Regards
David
 
Cleanliness and citrus were quite successful in staving off hospital gangrene if caught in its very earliest stages.

Corp. Arsanius Littlefield, the Mainer serving in the 2nd Rhode Island Regiment, was wounded at Salem Heights on May 3, 1863. His ankle wound was carefully tended, and gangrene never set in, and his foot was saved. He spent the last year of the war in the Veterans' Reserve Corps, and went home.
 
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