Nurses During the Civil War- Kiera Crowder by Kiera Crowder

Nurses during the Civil War

kieracrowder2 — 2025-04-19 02:33:41 UTC

Women were not known to have jobs outside of being a homemaker until the Civil War. When the war started, men, who were originally the nurses, were sent to fight for their country. Women had to take over the role of men and care for the wounded soldiers. Most ladies were thrown into this field not knowing what a nursing role was or knew what it was and had never had any experience. They worked as caregivers to the soldiers, helping them medically, but also helped them by playing music and keeping them as happy as they could be. A few ladies that I am going to talk about are Adalaide Spurgeon, Caroline Burghardt, Sarah E. Thompson, Emma Southwick Brinton, Mary Ann Bickerdyke, Mary Livermore, and Amanda Akin. These ladies had very interesting stories on how they became a nurse or what they were while they were a nurse. Two of the ladies, Mary Livermore and Amanda Akin, wrote autobiographies to talk about their war experience. These women experienced something that someone today would have no idea about.

Adalaide Spurgeon

kieracrowder2 — 2025-04-19 02:36:36 UTC

Adelaide Spurgeon was originally born in England, but came to the United States in 1860. She worked with smallpox patients while other nurses did not want to. She got sick with blood poisoning, but this led to her second job, keeping soldiers in line.

Caroline Burghardt

kieracrowder2 — 2025-04-19 02:40:39 UTC

Caroline Burghardt was related to one of the Generals, but she still had to get special permission to become a nurse due to her being under 30 years old. At this time, a woman had to be 30 or older to become a nurse for the war. She was able to get the role easier because she did have some experience at a previous hospital. Unfortunately, “During her years of service, she contracted smallpox and yellow fever, which allowed her to receive an invalid's pension” (Lange). She was highly respected by Dorothea Dix, “Superintendent of Army nurses” (Lange).

Sarah E. Thompson

kieracrowder2 — 2025-04-19 02:44:15 UTC

Sarah E. Thompson did not start out as a nurse for the Civil War. At 16, she married Sylvanius Thompson and also gave birth to two daughters. Sylvanius joined the Army as a recruiter and she worked alongside him. During this time, her husband was killed by the other side, so she did all she could to find the man that did this. John H. Morgan, the person that shot Thompson’s Husband, was found by her and was shot and killed. After this she served as Army nurse throughout the war. She then made a living by talking about her experience in the war. She still had to support her daughters.

Emma Southwick Brinton

kieracrowder2 — 2025-04-19 02:46:18 UTC

Emma Southwick Brinton first started working at Mansion House Hospital, then moved to Armory Square Hospital during the war. She was one of very few nurses who was sent to Virginia to work in 10 buildings where men were very hurt and could not care for themselves. “the nurses slept on the floor in the slave quarters of one of the houses.” (Lange). She became sick with typhoid fever and received an invalid’s pension. When the war was over, she married a Civil War surgeon, but he died around 30 years later. After that she worked for the newspaper and traveled.

Mary Ann Bickerdyke

kieracrowder2 — 2025-04-19 02:48:46 UTC

Mary Ann Bickerdyke focused more on herbs and medicine and today would be known as a nutritionist. She is so well known for this that she got the nickname ““Mother”” (Sartin).

Mary Livermore

kieracrowder2 — 2025-04-19 02:50:49 UTC

Mary Livermore was born into a rich family and was a writer and school teacher. At a young age, she witnessed slavery and was “bitterly opposed” (Choperena) which led her to fight for abolition of slavery for the rest of her life. When the war started, she became a nurse and helped in the “frontlines and in offices” (Choperena). Livermore helped wounded soldiers, obtained supplies for them, and helped make sure areas and surfaces were sanitized so it would be less likely for an infection to occur if a soldier had an open wound. After the war, she lectured like a lot of women did to talk about their time in the war, but she also wrote a book called My Story of the War (Choperena). In her book, since she was for women’s rights, she talked about her experience as a nurse showing what women can do and what they should be able to do. At this time, women were starting to have jobs like men did instead of being a homemaker, but this brought along issues. “The debate about women's rights became generalized, and a social scenario in which women could publicly examine their own lives was promoted (Conway, 1998; Piepmeier, 2004)” (Choperena), but some people, mostly men, were still against this. Going back to nursing, there were no specialized nurses during the Civil War. Livermore writes in her autobiography that she helped a surgeon when he needed to be assisted dressing a wound (Choperena). She did so many jobs as a nurse, people today would be impressed by what women had to do in the nursing field during the Civil War.

Amanda Akin

kieracrowder2 — 2025-04-19 02:53:26 UTC

Amanda Akin's day as a nurse would start at 6:00am and not end until 9:00pm. After dinner time, probably around 5:00pm or so, their medical tasks would be done and they would “[write] letters for the men and attending to the many hospital visitors.” (Small). Instead of just doing the nursing duties for these men, they were their entire caretakers. They would entertain them with music and make sure that they weren’t bored. Some of the letters that she wrote were to be sent to her sister talking about what was happening and was also a way to vent. Akin talks about how seeing some soldiers being brought through with missing limbs almost brought her back to reality realizing home much she had become immune to being around the injured, and not seeing it as any different than any other day. At the place that she worked, they had a paper called the ““soldier paper”” (Small) where the soldiers and nurses would submit pieces, such as inspiration, religious pieces, or an informative of who had passed. It even included letters from their friends and family. Newspapers were the way to keep people updated on what was happening during the war.

Location

kieracrowder2 — 2025-04-19 02:59:34 UTC

The nurses were located in the North and South. Most of the ladies I mentioned worked in Washington, D.C or Virginia because that is where the hospitals they worked at were located.