Civil War Nurses

During the Victorian Era, which coincided with the Civil War era, it was understood that a woman’s place was in the home. A well-bred, educated woman, a “lady” as it were, was supposed to confine her efforts to making her family comfortable and her home hospitable. To do otherwise, to work outside the home, was considered to be the realm of the ill-bred or uncouth woman.

Yet despite these societal restrictions, an estimated 2000-8000 women served as nurses during the American Civil War, defying the social mores of the time and even risking their lives to help those who were casualties of the war.

The very fact that even the number of women who served as nurses during the Civil War is unknown is a testament to the perception that many women of the time had about documenting their service. Although many of the women who nursed soldiers during the war were given a pass by their peers for serving in an occupation that was considered filthy and uncivilized by those with social standing, the majority of these women, several among them well-known authors, did not leave any record of their experience as nurses during the Civil War, preferring to leave the experience on the battlefield, in the hospital, in the past.

Perhaps the two best-known nurses of the Civil War era, nurses who did not shun their service after the war, were Clara Barton and Dorothea Dix.

Dix, a nurse before the war who was renowned for her work to improve the conditions of those in treatment for mental illness, served in the Army Medical Bureau, and against the opposition of military personnel, began to recruit other women to serve as nurses as well.

Despite her dedication to recruiting female nurses, Dix was not without her own prejudices, a reflection of the Victorian era, and famously recruited only middle aged, non-descript women for service. Many young, attractive ladies who wished to serve were rejected by Dix.

Barton, an employee of the U.S. Patent Office when the war began, joined the war effort by supplying the Union army with medical supplies before moving on to riding with the U.S. Army ambulance corps to provide care and comfort to soldiers being transported from the battlefield to the hospital. Eventually gaining the freedom to travel behind battle lines and treat soldiers on the field, Barton later recalled that “I went in while the battle raged.”

After the war, Barton was instrumental in the formation of the American Red Cross, leaving an indelible impression on Americans and the entire world.

Although the majority did not, several women who served as nurses during the Civil War did leave record of their wartime experiences. Among them were famed author Louisa May Alcott, Jane Stuart Woolsey, and Katharine Prescott Wormeley.

Those women who defied traditional female expectations to serve as nurses during the American Civil War blazed a trail for all the nurses who came after them, breaking out of the roles imposed on them by society to take an active role in support of the soldiers who served.