Women Nurses in the Civil War

Paper Summary:

In this article, the writer introduces, discusses and analyzes the topic of the Civil War. Specifically, it discusses women nurses in the Civil War and looks at the difference they made in health and patient care. The writer notes that nursing during war is never easy, but the nurses of the Civil War had to deal with horrible conditions and wounds, shortages of medicine and beds and many other difficulties. The writer concludes that without the women nurses of the Civil War, there would have been many more casualties on both sides and much more suffering and pain.

From the Paper:

"It is interesting to note that even nursing the horribly wounded from the battlefield, female nurses were expected to be homely rather than pretty, so as not to distract or tantalize their patients. Dorthea Dix, who headed the Union nurse corps from 1861 onward, would only hire nurses who were over thirty and plain in appearance. Some women ignored the stipulation and volunteered anyway, but older, plain women were much more acceptable as nurses in most others' eyes. It seems incongruous that such concerns might have kept some qualified women from serving as nurses, but the mores of the 19th century were strict, and many people still did not believe women, and certainly not the pretty ones, belonged anywhere near the battlefields. In fact, many people believed women were not practical as nurses during war."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Brockett, L. P., and Mary C. Vaughan. Woman's Work in the Civil War: A Record of Heroism, Patriotism and Patience. Philadelphia: Zeigler, McCurdy, 1867.
• Clinton, Catherine and Nina Silber, eds. Divided Houses: Gender and the Civil War. New York: Oxford University Press, 1992.
• Faust, Drew Gilpin. Mothers of Invention: Women of the Slaveholding South in the American Civil War. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 1996.
• Grant, Susan-Mary. "New Light on the Lady with the Lamp: Susan-Mary Grant Looks at Florence Nightingale's Influence on Medical Care in the Crimea and the US Civil War." History Today, September 2002, 11+.
• Hancock, Cornelia. Letters of a Civil War Nurse: Cornelia Hancock, 1863-1865. Edited by Henrietta Stratton Jaquette. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press, 1998.

More papers on Women Nurses in the Civil War:

• Essay # 56631 : "Women's Contributions to the American Civil War"
• Analytical Essay # 9620 : "Soldiering in the Civil War"
• Essay # 137331 : "Dorothea Dix"

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