Tag: Civil War nurses

Civil War nurses
African Americans, Civil War Women, Educators

Fannie Jackson Coppin

• Maggie

Teacher of African American Children For 37 years Fannie Jackson Coppin was teacher, then principal at the Institute for Colored Youth in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, making her the first African American woman to receive the title of school principal. During her tenure, she made many improvements at the school, believing that a broader range of education would be necessary to enable African Americans to become self-supporting. Fannie Jackson was born a slave in Washington, DC, on October 15, 1837. Fannie’s grandfather bought his own freedom and that of four of his children, being one. But Fannie’s mother, Lucy, remained a slave. In 1849 her aunt Sarah Orr Clark bought Fannie’s freedom for $125. Fannie was sent to live with another aunt…

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Civil War Nurses, Civil War Women, Generals Wives

Arabella Griffith Barlow

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Civil War Nurse and Wife of General Francis Barlow Arabella Griffith Barlow became a Civil War nurse after her husband, Francis Barlow, joined the army in 1861. Barlow began the war as a private in the Twelfth Regiment of the New York Militia. Arabella became attached to the Sanitary Commission in 1862, but nursed her husband back to health after he was wounded several times. She cared for the wounded following several battles, including Chancellorsville and Gettysburg, but soon her own health began to suffer. Arabella Griffith was born in February 1824 in Somerville New Jersey. She was raised and educated by Miss Eliza Wallace of Burlington, New Jersey, a relative on her father’s side. Francis Channing Barlow was 27…

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Civil War Women, Women in Business

Martha Coston

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Inventor of Night Signal Flares for the U.S. Navy Martha Hunt Coston was born in 1826 in Baltimore, and moved to Philadelphia with her widowed mother, brothers, and sisters in the 1830s. At the age of 16, Martha eloped with Benjamin Franklin Coston, a promising young inventor. The young couple were living a charmed life. Benjamin was appointed Master in the Naval Service and placed in charge of the Naval Laboratory in the Washington, DC. During this time, he developed a cannon percussion primer. A dispute arose between Benjamin and the Navy, concerning compensation he was to receive for their use of his primer. This disagreement eventually led to his resignation in August 1847. Coston then accepted the position of…

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Civil War Spies, Civil War Women

Antonia Ford

• Maggie

Confederate Spy in the Civil War Antonia Ford was a Confederate spy credited with providing the military information during the First Battle of Manassas (1861), and during the two years following. In 1863 Ford was accused of spying for John Singleton Mosby after his partisan rangers captured Union general Edwin Stoughton in his headquarters. Mosby denied that Ford ever spied for him, but she was arrested and incarcerated at Old Capitol Prison. Antonia Ford was born in Fairfax, Virginia, in 1838, daughter of prominent merchant and secessionist, Edward R. Ford. Antonia was living a life of quiet comfort when the Civil War began. She was 23 years old and unmarried. Their home was located across the road from the Fairfax…

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Abolitionists, African Americans, Civil War Women

Sarah Parker Remond

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Lecturer for the American Anti-Slavery Society Sarah Parker Remond was an African American abolitionist, doctor and lecturer for the American Anti-Slavery Society. She delivered speeches throughout the United States on the horrors of slavery. Because of her eloquence, she was chosen to travel to England to gather support for the abolitionist cause in the United States. Sarah Parker Remond was born in 1826 in Salem, Massachusetts, one of eight children. Her mother Nancy was the daughter of a man who fought in the Continental Army. Her father John was a free black who arrived from the Dutch island of Curacao as a boy of ten. The Remonds built a successful catering and hairdressing business in Salem. Sarah received a limited…

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Civil War Women

Civil War Thanksgiving

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National Day of Thanksgiving The first Thanksgiving dinner was held by the Pilgrims in October 1621, as a harvest festival in Plymouth Colony. President George Washington declared a day of Thanksgiving for the new nation in 1789, and another in 1795. Image: Thanksgiving in Camp Drawing by Alfred R. Waud Thursday November 28, 1861 However, our national day of Thanksgiving came not from the Pilgrims, but from President Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War, and from Sarah Josepha Hale, the editor of a popular women’s magazine, Godey’s Lady’s Book. For 40 years Hale had written editorials and letters to governors and presidents, trying to have Thanksgiving declared a holiday. Sarah Josepha Hale, born in 1788, was also known for her…

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Civil War Nurses Memorial
Civil War Nurses, Civil War Women

Union Nurses of the Civil War

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Women Who Served as Nurses for the Union Army Soon after the Civil War began, the United States government established the Army Nursing Service and appointed Dorothea Dix as its Superintendent of Women Nurses. The 60-year-old Dix quickly established stringent qualifications for her volunteer nurses. Image: Civil War Nurses Memorial Washington, DC Each nursing candidate had to be “past 30 years of age, healthy, plain almost to repulsion in dress and devoid of personal attractions.” They had to be able “to cook all kinds of low diet” and avoid “colored dresses, hoops, curls, jewelry and flowers on their bonnets.” They could not associate with either surgeons or patients socially, and they must always insist upon their rights as the senior…

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Civil War Nurses, Civil War Women

Nursing in the Civil War South

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Volunteer Confederate Nurses American nursing was still in its infancy at the outbreak of the Civil War. In the antebellum South, women usually served as nurses within their own families. On large plantations, the master’s wife nursed her husband, children, and slaves. Many Southern women were already accustomed to caring for ill patients, and nursing was considered a woman’s duty. Image: Artist’s Sketch of a Civil War Hospital Still, it was not a job that ladies of breeding and stature would volunteer for. The Southern woman was regarded as delicate and modest. When Fort Sumter was fired upon, and the wounded and dying came pouring in from the battlefields, the South found itself unprepared to care for its casualties. The…

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Civil War Nurses, Civil War Women, Educators

Linda Richards

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America’s First Trained Nurse Linda Richards (1841–1930) was the first professionally trained nurse in the United States. Her experiences with nursing her dying mother and her husband, who was wounded in the Civil War, inspired Richards to become a nurse. She was the first student to enroll in the first nurse training school at the New England Hospital for Women and Children in 1872. She established nurse training programs in the United States and Japan, and created the first system for keeping individual medical records for hospitalized patients. Linda Richards was born on July 27, 1841, the youngest daughter of Sanford Richards, an itinerant preacher who christened her Malinda Ann Judson Richards by her father, in hopes she would someday…

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Authors, Civil War Women

Caroline Gilman

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Novelist, Poet and Magazine Editor Caroline Gilman was one of the most popular women writers of the nineteenth century. Despite her northern origins, Caroline Gilman’s loyalties gradually shifted toward the South, and she became known as an important southern woman writer during the 1830s and 1840s. Her books promoted domestic tranquility as a solution not only for her heroines’ ills but also for those of the nation. Caroline Howard was born in Boston on October 1, 1794. Her parents were prosperous and well-connected. Her father died when she was two, and she was raised by an older sister after her mother’s death in 1804. Her formal education was limited, but Caroline developed an early interest in literature. She wrote poetry…

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