Nursing and Medicine
Of the American Civil War
Kristy Michelle Pickard-4756
History 2111 – Fall 2009
On April 12, 1861 in Fort Sumter, SC Confederate troops fired the first shots of the Four Year American Civil War. After the first few battles were fought, both sides faced the realization of how they desperately needed doctors and nurses to care for the injured soldiers. (1) The first nurses were recuperating soldiers (rebel) however; their own illnesses prevented them from providing proper care or returning to full military duties. These soldiers resented being appointed hospital duty. (2)
Within thirty days after the call of 75,000 men by President Abraham Lincoln, the Women’s Central Association of New York chose 100 women to
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Many wives and daughters of the Union or Confederate volunteer regiments were involved. These women were not officially recognized by either side. Second- These women organized societies for relief such as the Sanitary Commission and third – they established relief stations which were hospitals in their homes or donated buildings. (11)
One of the first nurses to see battle injuries was Ms. Fannie Beers who described the arrival of the first 200 soldiers at a makeshift hospital “they came with some form of disease whether on foot or stretcher, barefoot or on swollen feet”. (12) The battlefront hospitals were only that of open area sites with conditions anything but sanitary, with blood, human waste and amputated limbs covering the ground. The first battle women encountered was with their selves. Only their strong religious faith steeled them against sickening sights of disease and infection. These nurses learned to rein in their feelings and believed patients redemption hallowed their work.
These early nurses were quickly educated on the rigors of war and the primitive accommodations. Hundreds of women lasted little more than a month and for those that did last the work became gratifying and their Christian mission. At the bloodiest moments of the war, nurses braved heat of moment and offered selflessly to treat injured. These ladies
For decades, America has fought in many different wars with the need of health assistance for their soldiers. The American Red Cross is a worldwide organization that helped during the times of war but also provided a path for scientific advancements. Through the American Red Cross and other organizations of this time, they opened up the doors for women to take the chance to advance in the medical field by participating in scientific experiments and being at the aide of wounded soldiers. During this time of scrutiny, the Great War was a hidden opportunity for the encroachment of medical research with the contribution to the expansion of nursing.
Envision for a moment what the responsibilities of a working nurse consist of each day. As you can imagine their days are filled with patient care, paperwork, doctor calls, and busy hospital activities. That was not always the case, nursing during the 1940’s was nothing like today. There was a lack of Organized nursing because institutions providing formal nursing education were unavailable. In fact most nurses at that time were stay at home moms. These women volunteered at local military hospitals. Virginia Benson 2013 stated, “At first nurses of both sides confined their duties to religious counsel, aiding in mortally wounded soldier to face a “good death”, and writing about that death to his family.” All of these new changes for women occur during
For centuries, war has consumed millions of souls. It has caused heartache and has torn families apart. Today, properly educated doctors and nurses can treat wounds and injuries with proper care, but this taken for granted assistance wasn’t always readily available. In the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812, nearly 30,000 American soldiers died. However, rather than being killed on the battlefield, the majority of soldiers died while being treated in medical tents. More often then not, the work of doctors and surgeons resulted in worsening the state of their patients, frequently causing their death. Medical practitioners did more damage than deed to soldiers during the American Revolution to the War of 1812 because of their little attention to individual patients, housing for patients, poor work ethics and habits, lack of knowledge and because major medical advancements weren’t achieved for another half-century.
“Where there are men fighting, there are always nurses.” 2 Women worked on the front and at home during World War ll, unlike women nurses who were not in the fighting
Soon after the start of the war, Mary began visiting nearby solider camps to deliver food and treat illness. At first both the officers and surgeons found Mary antithetical, but soon after they began respecting her. In June 1861, Mary Ann Bickerdyke, a well-known hospital matron, arrived in Cairo and gave Mary a basic nursing course. She then began working as a full-time nurse in both the hospitals, solider camps, and the neighborhoods surrounding them. In November 1861, Mary worked to nurse wounded soldiers at the Battle at Belmont, Missouri. As stated in the article “Mary Jane Safford” by Maggie Maclean, “During the battle, she courageously treated the wounded by walking the battlefield with a white handkerchief tied to a stick as her flag of truce amidst enemy fire.” She helped to transport more than 300 soldiers back to hospitals in Cairo. In February 1862, Safford worked with Bickerdyke to transport soldiers from Fort Donelson to Cairo. She worked in the hospitals for ten days with little sleep. This made Safford ill herself, and she was sent to nurse on the boat “City of Memphis”. She stayed on the boat as it made 5 trips transporting wounded troops, then made her way home to her brother’s house and to spend some time recovering. As stated by Mary Livermore in the article “Mary Jane Safford” by Maggie Maclean, “Miss Safford commenced her labors immediately, when Cairo was occupied. I think she was the very first women who went into the camps, and hospitals in the country; I know she was in the West. There was no system, no organization, nothing to do with. She systemized everything in Cairo, furnished necessaries with her own means, or rather with her brother’s, who is wealthy; went daily to the work, and though the surgeons and authorities everywhere were opposed to her efforts, she disarmed all opposition by her sweetness and grace
No Time For Fear: Voices of American Military Nurses in World War II by Diane Burke Fessler is a collection of personal narratives and oral histories that she bound together in order to provide “an important counterpoint to the strategy and planning of warfare so often chronicled by the male warrior”. She believes there is a “serious lack of recognition of nurses who were overseas with the soldiers, close to fighting, and caring for the wounded men”, so her goal for this collection is that the nurses who volunteered to join the Army and Navy in the 1940s will have their stories “recognized as an important part of that war’s strategy” because “American troops were not sent to battle in World War II without plans for medical care”. It was also
For most of this Word War, nurses were the only females to attend outside of Australia in any capacity, except for the Australian Women's Army Service. During this war the losses of nurses was much higher than the las war. Over 3,477 Australian Army Nurse Service (AANS) nurses served, and out of that only 71 never returned, which means they lost their lives during operating services while overseas. During World War II, many women serving as AANS nurses, including Vivian Bullwinkel, were taken captive of war by the Japanese forces in Japan. They experienced severe suffering, withdrawal, and illness helped to make this unpleasant war-time experience for themselves and also friends/family. Friendships, trustworthiness and mutual support attempted to help in these trying environments, but not all of the women survived. (see appendix
In addition to all the roles patriotic women played in helping America emerge victorious, one of the biggest methods was nursing. Battle nurses were organized into army ranks, the highest rank having been ‘matron’. Their necessity was so that the ratio for wounded soldiers to nurses was 10:1. Even George Washington himself had found female nurses indispensable--he demanded they be present to help nurse soldiers back to health on and off the battlefield (National History Education Clearinghouse).
First off the nurses were important because they were the ones who helped the injured ones or the sick ones. Normally it would be the nurses who would find out if the women disguised as men would actually be a woman and when they found out the truth they would have to go and tell a genreal the truth. Now between 2,000 to 5,000 women volunteered as nurses during the war. Nursing was a gruesome job that provided an upclose look at the horrific casualties of the war. Civil War nurses cleaned wounds, fed soldiers, dispensed medication and assisted surgeons during operations and medical procedure like amputations.
During the American Civil War, many women volunteered to become nurses who eventually impacted the lives of others. Before the Civil War era, the nursing profession consisted of only men, however that changed once the war began and led many woman to converge to join. As men were fighting a bloody war, women were fighting their own battles to prove that they can be strong just like men. Their situation required them to have real strength and stamina, in which they proved to the men they had. Some nurses even risked their lives to go out on the fields to aid soldiers or even pass off as soldiers. Women such as Clara Barton and Dorthea Dix provided care for those soldiers and became one of the most influential nurses in the American Civil War because of their work and
The medicines and medical techniques used during the Civil War were very primitive for their time. Extremely little was known about germs and the dangers of infections. In Recovery, it is stated that, “Treating wounds and illnesses with medication had become common—opiates, stimulants, sedatives, diuretics, purgatives, and more were widely available and used. The first pills had been made in the early 1800s. The stethoscope and the
The medical treatment during the Civil war was not sanitary or very efficient. The doctors and nurse would most of the times cut off the patient body part that was damage to save them. Hospitals during the Civil war were usually camps that were made on the go but sometimes they were set up in churches, barns, warehouse and other buildings that were not in use during the war(www.cprcertified.com.)
It is a full-length study of the history of the Army Nurse Corps in World War II. She interviewed with many “World War II women veterans- Army nurses, WACs, Women Marines, SPARS, and WASPs” to get their stories and personal memories of their experience in the field. She used information from personal interviews, meetings with former army nurses, official army reports, and the memoirs of Theresa Archbard and Ruth Haskell. Throughout the book, the author made sure to “emphasize the experiences of the nurses themselves, quoting them directly whenever possible in an effort to let the women speak for themselves”, but she also includes how the “U.S. Army Nurse Corps mobilized, expanded, and adapted to the demands of a world war”.
During the Civil War, they had to have many medicines, operations, and surgeries done to themselves or others in order to survive (Jenny Goellnitz, Paragraph 1). Some of these medicines we still use today. Medical technology and scientific knowledge have changed dramatically since the Civil War, but the basic principles of military health care remain the same. The deadliest thing that faced the Civil War soldier was disease. For every soldier who died in battle, two died from disease.
Have you ever wondered how medicine during the Civil war is different than how it is now? During the Civil War there wasn’t much medicine. It was known as the Middle Age of Medicine. Diseases went through the camps really fast which was the main cause of death. Doctors didn’t know much about diseases and medicine at this time.