Category: Civil War Nurses

Nurse for the Union Army While serving as a Union Civil War nurse Lucy Bainbridge was called Sister Ohio because she wore the badge of the Ohio Soldiers’ Aid Society. She was given that name by a Union trooper with both arms wounded to whom she brought water and food. She described her experiences on the battlefield in her autobiography, Yesterdays. Lucy Elizabeth Seaman was born in Cleveland, Ohio on January 18, 1842. She was tutored at home until she was nine years old. She then attended grade school, high school, and the Cleveland Female Seminary for one year. She was then transferred to a seminary at Ipswich, Massachusetts. Her extensive education was unusual for females living in that era….

Teacher, Author and Nurse from Michigan Julia Susan Wheelock volunteered as a nurse for the Michigan Soldier’s Relief Association. In newspaper accounts, she was referred to as The Florence Nightingale of Michigan. After the war, she worked as a clerk at the Treasury Department in Washington, DC. Julia was born in Avon, Ohio, on October 7, 1833. When she was four, her father moved the family to Erie, Pennsylvania. Her father died when she was 11 years old, and her mother died when she was 21. Julia then moved to Michigan to be near her brothers, Orville and Chapin. In 1858, she entered Kalamazoo College, majoring in Latin and mathematics. After graduating, she began teaching. In September 1861, Julia’s brother,…

Confederate Nurse at the Battle of New Market Eliza Clinedinst Crim was a young woman living in New Market, Virginia at the time of the Battle of New Market in the Shenandoah Valley on May 15, 1864. Following the long Sunday fight, several of the VMI cadets were taken to Crim’s home, where she fed and cared for them. Crim continued a correspondence with many of the cadets she first met in the aftermath of the battle and became known as the Mother of the New Market Cadets.” Image: Tinted copy of a photo taken circa 1864 Summary of the Battle of New Market: As a part of his spring offensive, General Ulysses S. Grant ordered Federal General Franz Sigel…

Nurse at the Battle of Gettysburg Cornelia Hancock was a nurse for the Union Army whose work at the Battle of Gettysburg where her work was exemplary. The ground was littered with dead and wounded after Pickett’s Charge, and more than 5000 injured Confederate soldiers were left behind when General Robert E. Lee retreated after the three-day battle. The letters Hancock wrote to relatives about her experiences at Gettysburg are priceless. Cornelia Hancock was born February 8, 1840 in southern New Jersey. She was one of five children in a Quaker family. When the Civil War began, her only brother and her cousins went to war against the South, and Cornelia wanted to do her part for the Union cause….

Civilian at the Battle of Averasboro Janie Smith lived on a huge plantation near Averasboro, North Carolina. She was eighteen years old when General William Tecumseh Sherman plowed through the Carolinas with his scorched-earth policy, hoping to end the civil war that had dragged on for four long years. Janie lived with her parents and her nine brothers and two unmarried sisters; eight of her brothers were serving in the Confederate Army. Following the Battle of Averasboro, North Carolina – March 15 and 16, 1865 – eighteen-year-old Janie Smith (1846-1882) wrote an insightful letter on scraps of wallpaper (due to the paper shortage during the war) about the battle and her family’s experiences to her friend Janie Robeson in Bladen…