Woman's Work in the Civil War: a Record of Heroism, Patriotism, and Patience

Part I. Superintendent of Nurses.

MISS DOROTHEA L. DIX.

Early history--Becomes interested in the condition of prison convicts-- Visit to Europe--Returns in 1837, and devotes herself to improving the condition of paupers, lunatics and prisoners--Her efforts for the establishment of Insane Asylums--Second visit to Europe--Her first work in the war the nursing of Massachusetts soldiers in Baltimore-- Appointment as superintendent of nurses--Her selections--Difficulties in her position--Her other duties--Mrs. Livermore's account of her labors-- The adjutant-general's order--Dr. Bellows' estimate of her work--Her kindness to her nurses--Her publications--Her manners and address-- Labors for the insane poor since the war. 97-108

Part Ii. Ladies Who Ministered to the Sick and Wounded in Camp, Field

AND GENERAL HOSPITALS.

CLARA HARLOWE BARTON.

Early life--Teaching--The Bordentown school--Obtains a situation in the Patent Office--Her readiness to help others--Her native genius for nursing--Removed from office in 1857--Return to Washington in 1861-- Nursing and providing for Massachusetts soldiers at the Capitol in April, 1861--Hospital and sanitary work in 1861--Death of her father-- Washington hospitals again--Going to the front--Cedar Mountain--The second Bull Run battle--Chantilly--Heroic labors at Antietam--Soft bread--Three barrels of flour and a bag of salt--Thirty lanterns for that night of gloom--The race for Fredericksburg--Miss Barton as a general purveyor for the sick and wounded--The battle of Fredericksburg-- Under fire--The rebel officer's appeal--The "confiscated" carpet--After the battle--In the department of the South--The sands of Morris Island-- The horrors of the siege of Forts Wagner and Sumter--The reason why she went thither--Return to the North--Preparations for the great campaign-- Her labors at Belle Plain, Fredericksburg, White House, and City Point-- Return to Washington--Appointed "General correspondent for the friends of paroled prisoners"--Her residence at Annapolis--Obstacles--The Annapolis plan abandoned--She establishes at Washington a "Bureau of records of missing men in the armies of the United States"--The plan of operations of this Bureau--Her visit to Andersonville--The case of Dorrance Atwater--The Bureau of missing men an institution indispensable to the Government and to friends of the soldiers--Her sacrifices in maintaining it--The grant from Congress--Personal appearance of Miss Barton. 111-132

HELEN LOUISE GILSON.

Early history--Her first work for the soldiers--Collecting supplies-- The clothing contract--Providing for soldiers' wives and daughters-- Application to Miss Dix for an appointment as nurse--She is rejected as too young--Associated with Hon. Frank B. Fay in the Auxiliary Relief Service--Her labors on the Hospital Transports--Her manner of working-- Her extraordinary personal influence--Her work at Gettysburg--Influence over the men--Carrying a sick comrade to the hospital--Her system and self-possession--Pleading the cause of the soldier with the people-- Her services in Grant's protracted campaign--The hospitals at Fredericksburg--Singing to the soldiers--Her visit to the barge of "contrabands"--Her address to the negroes--Singing to them--The hospital for colored soldiers--Miss Gilson re-organizes and re-models it, making it the best hospital at City Point--Her labors for the spiritual good of the men in her hospital--Her care for the negro washerwomen and their families--Completion of her work--Personal appearance of Miss Gilson. 133-148

MRS. JOHN HARRIS.

Previous history--Secretary Ladies' Aid Society--Her decision to go to the "front"--Early experiences--On the Hospital Transports--Harrison's Landing--Her garments soaked in human gore--Antietam--French's Division Hospital--Smoketown General Hospital--Return to the "front"-- Fredericksburg--Falmouth--She almost despairs of the success of our arms--Chancellorsville--Gettysburg--Following the troops--Warrenton-- Insolence of the rebels--Illness--Goes to the West--Chattanooga--Serious illness--Return to Nashville--Labors for the refugees--Called home to watch over a dying mother--The returned prisoners from Andersonville and Salisbury. 149-160

MRS. ELIZA C. PORTER.

Mrs. Porter's social position--Her patriotism--Labors in the hospitals at Cairo--She takes charge of the Northwestern Sanitary Commission Rooms at Chicago--Her determination to go, with a corps of nurses, to the front--Cairo and Paducah--Visit to Pittsburg Landing after the battle-- She brings nurses and supplies for the hospitals from Chicago--At Corinth--At Memphis--Work among the freedmen at Memphis and elsewhere-- Efforts for the establishment of hospitals for the sick and wounded in the Northwest--Co-operation with Mrs. Harvey and Mrs. Howe--The Harvey Hospital--At Natchez and Vicksburg--Other appeals for Northern hospitals--At Huntsville with Mrs. Bickerdyke--At Chattanooga-- Experiences in a field hospital in the woods--Following Sherman's army from Chattanooga to Atlanta--"This seems like having mother about"-- Constant labors--The distribution of supplies to the soldiers of Sherman's army near Washington--A patriotic family. 161-171

MRS. MARY A. BICKERDYKE.

Previous history of Mrs. Bickerdyke--Her regard for the private soldiers--"Mother Bickerdyke and her boys"--Her work at Savannah after the battle of Shiloh--What she accomplished at Perryville--The Gayoso Hospital at Memphis--Colored nurses and attendants--A model hospital-- The delinquent assistant-surgeon--Mrs. Bickerdyke's philippic--She procures his dismissal--His interview with General Sherman--"She ranks me"--The commanding generals appreciate her--Convalescent soldiers vs. colored nurses--The Medical Director's order--Mrs. Bickerdyke's triumph--A dairy and hennery for the hospitals--Two hundred cows and a thousand hens--Her first visit to the Milwaukee Chamber of Commerce--"Go over to Canada--This country has no place for such creatures"--At Vicksburg--In field hospitals--The dresses riddled with sparks--The box of clothing for herself--Trading for butter and eggs for the soldiers-- The two lace-trimmed night-dresses--A new style of hospital clothing for wounded soldiers--A second visit to Milwaukee--Mrs. Bickerdyke's speech--"Set your standard higher yet"--In the Huntsville Hospital--At Chattanooga at the close of the battle--The only woman on the ground for four weeks--Cooking under difficulties--Her interview with General Grant--Complaints of the neglect of the men by some of the surgeons-- "Go around to the hospitals and see for yourself"--Visits Huntsville, Pulaski, etc.--With Sherman from Chattanooga to Atlanta--Making dishes for the sick out of hard tack and the ordinary rations--At Nashville and Franklin--Through the Carolinas with Sherman--Distribution of supplies near Washington--"The Freedmen's Home and Refuge" at Chicago. 172-186

MARGARET ELIZABETH BRECKINRIDGE. By Mrs. J. G. Forman.

Sketch of her personal appearance--Her gentle, tender, winning ways-- The American Florence Nightingale--What if I do die?--The Breckinridge family--Margaret's childhood and youth--Her emancipation of her slaves-- Working for the soldiers early in the war--Not one of the Home Guards-- Her earnest desire to labor in the hospitals--Hospital service at Baltimore--At Lexington, Kentucky--Morgan's first raid--Her visit to the wounded soldiers--"Every one of you bring a regiment with you"--Visiting the St. Louis hospitals--On the hospital boats on the Mississippi-- Perils of the voyage--Severe and incessant labor--The contrabands at Helena--Touching incidents of the wounded on the hospital boats--"The service pays"--In the hospitals at St. Louis--Impaired health--She goes eastward for rest and recovery--A year of weakness and weariness--In the hospital at Philadelphia--A ministering angel--Colonel Porter her brother-in-law killed at Cold Harbor--She goes to Baltimore to meet the body--Is seized with typhoid fever and dies after five weeks illness. 187-199

MRS. STEPHEN BARKER.

Family of Mrs. Barker--Her husband Chaplain of First Massachusetts Heavy Artillery--She accompanies him to Washington--Devotes herself to the work of visiting the hospitals--Thanksgiving dinner in the hospital--She removes to Fort Albany and takes charge as Matron of the Regimental Hospital--Pleasant experiences--Reading to the soldiers--Two years of labor--Return to Washington in January, 1864--She becomes one of the hospital visitors of the Sanitary Commission--Ten hospitals a week-- Remitting the soldiers' money and valuables to their families--The service of Mr. and Mrs. Barker as lecturers and missionaries of the Sanitary Commission to the Aid Societies in the smaller cities and villages--The distribution of supplies to the disbanding armies--Her report. 200-211

AMY M. BRADLEY.

Childhood of Miss Bradley--Her experiences as a teacher--Residence in Charleston, South Carolina--Two years of illness--Goes to Costa Rica-- Three years of teaching in Central America--Return to the United States--Becomes corresponding clerk and translator in a large glass manufactory--Beginning of the war--She determines to go as a nurse-- Writes to Dr. Palmer--His quaint reply--Her first experience as nurse in a regimental hospital--Skill and tact in managing it--Promoted by General Slocum to the charge of the Brigade Hospital--Hospital Transport Service--Over-exertion and need of rest--The organization of the Soldiers' Home at Washington--Visiting hospitals at her leisure--Camp Misery--Wretched condition of the men--The rendezvous of distribution-- Miss Bradley goes thither as Sanitary Commission Agent--Her zealous and multifarious labors--Bringing in the discharged men for their papers-- Procuring the correction of their papers, and the reinstatement of the men--"The Soldiers' Journal"--Miss Bradley's object in its establishment--Its success--Presents to Miss Bradley--Personal appearance. 212-224

MRS. ARABELLA GRIFFITH BARLOW.

Birth and education of Mrs. Griffith--Her marriage at the beginning of the war--She accompanies her husband to the camp, and wherever it is possible ministers to the wounded or sick soldiers--Joins the Sanitary Commission in July, 1862, and labors among the sick and wounded at Harrison's Landing till late in August--Colonel Barlow severely wounded at Antietam--Mrs. Barlow nurses him with great tenderness, and at the same time ministers to the wounded of Sedgwick Hospital--At Chancellorsville and Gettysburg--General Barlow again wounded, and in the enemy's lines--She removes him and succors the wounded in the intervals of her care of him--In May, 1864, she was actively engaged at Belle Plain, Fredericksburg, Port Royal, White House, and City Point-- Her incessant labor brought on fever and caused her death July 27, 1864--Tribute of the Sanitary Commission Bulletin, Dr. Lieber and others, to her memory. 225-233

MRS. NELLIE MARIA TAYLOR.

Parentage and early history--Removal to New Orleans--Her son urged to enlist in the rebel army--He is sent North--The rebels persecute Mrs. Taylor--Her dismissal from her position as principal of one of the city schools--Her house mobbed--"I am for the Union, tear my house down if you choose!"--Her house searched seven times for the flag--The Judge's son--"A piece of Southern chivalry"--Her son enlists in the rebel army to save her from molestation--New Orleans occupied by the Union forces-- Mrs. Taylor reinstated as teacher--She nurses the soldiers in the hospitals, during her vacations and in all the leisure hours from her school duties, her daughter filling up the intermediate time with her services--She expends her entire salary upon the sick and wounded-- Writes eleven hundred and seventy-four letters for them in one year-- Distributes the supplies received from the Cincinnati Branch of Sanitary Commission in 1864, and during the summer takes the management of the special diet of the University Hospital--Testimony of the soldiers to her labors--Patriotism and zeal of her children--Terms on which Miss Alice Taylor would present a confederate flag to a company. 234-240

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