The North’s Unsung Sisters of Mercy - September ‘99 America’s Civil War Feature

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The North's Unsung Sisters of Mercy

By Alice P. Stein

A cadre of dedicated Northern women from all walks of life traveled to the charnel houses of the Civil War to care for the sick and wounded.

They came from the paneled drawing rooms of the nation’s great mansions, the log lean-tos of the far frontier and the chaste confines of Eastern convents. Lacking professional training but endlessly resourceful, the volunteer nurses of the Civil War labored tirelessly to bring aid and comfort to the sick and wounded soldiers on both sides of the fighting.

At the outbreak of the war, the nursing profession was in its infancy and dominated by men–women generally were considered too frail to cope with the rigors of administering to the sick. There were only about 150 hospitals in the entire country, and no formal nursing schools existed. The massive numbers of sick and wounded men who needed care during the Civil War exacerbated the lack of medical professionalization, and wartime hospital facilities, particularly early in the conflict, were primitive and disorganized. Military and societal protocol banned women from field hospitals, so most nursing duties continued to be assigned to men. Increasing numbers of casualties and the overburdening of aide facilities, however, soon broke down gender-related strictures on nursing and spurred the nation’s women into taking immediate and decisive action to help correct the situation.

Clara Barton, who later founded the American Red Cross, brought supplies and help to the battlefronts before formal relief organizations could take shape to administer such shipments. Acting entirely on her own, the Massachusetts-born Barton personally collected food, clothing and medical supplies for the hard-pressed Union Army after the Peninsula campaign in 1862. She later served in a similar capacity at other engagements.

Religious orders also responded to this new opportunity for service by sending their own trained nurses to staff field hospitals near the front. Within a few months of the war’s onset, some 600 women were serving as nurses in 12 hospitals. In all, eight Catho-lic orders sent nuns to serve in the war.

In April 1861, Dorothea Dix and a hastily assembled group of volunteer female nurses staged a march on Washington, demanding that the government recognize their desire to aid the Union’s wounded. Although not a nurse, Dix was nationally known as a crusader for enlightened care of the mentally ill, and her grandfather, Elijah Dix, had been a prominent Boston physician. Secretary of War Simon Cameron quickly named her to superintend the women nurses assigned to the U.S. Army. Cameron’s nominating citation read in part: “She will give at all times all necessary aid in organizing military hospitals for the care of all sick and wounded soldiers, aiding the chief surgeons by supplying nurses and substantial means for the comfort and relief of the suffering.” Despite such responsibilities, however, neither she nor her nurses were granted military appointments.

By nature compassionate and giving, Dix was also a no-nonsense and often quirky leader. At first she required nursing applicants to be at least 30 years of age–old by the standards of the time–and “plain looking,” wearing brown or black clothing with no ornaments, bows, curls, jewelry or hoops. She steadfastly denied admission to nuns or other representatives of religious sisterhoods. Despite these stringent requirements, some 2,000 women across the country laid aside their cherished jewels and laces to pass Dix’s austere muster.

As casualties mounted, Dix was forced to relax her standards, and after the First Battle of Bull Run in July 1861 she accepted anyone willing to work. Her nurses were paid 40 cents a day plus rations, housing and transportation, while male nurses received $20.50 a month plus superior benefits.

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