The National Museum of Civil War Medicine has installed a new permanent exhibit on nurses in the Civil War.

The exhibit includes informational panels on female nurses, male nurses, the Sisters of religious orders who offered their services, excerpts from nurses’ letters and diaries, and re-creations of a Civil War nurse’s schedule. Seven Union and seven Confederate nurses are highlighted on a flip-door panel, complete with photographs and information on each nurse. A habit, identical to the type worn by the Daughters of Charity during the Civil War, is on display in a custom exhibit case. The habit is on loan from the Daughters of Charity, Emmitsburg, MD. In addition, various items used by the nurses in the hospitals are on display throughout the gallery.

Nursing became an established profession during the Civil War. Prior to the war, there were no formal training schools available. Most medical care was focused in the home, and in this setting many women served as health care providers for their families. With the outbreak of war, women on both sides sought ways to put their valuable talents to work. In the north, Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell organized a training program for female nurses in the city hospitals of New York. Dorothea Dix, a well-known mental health reformer, convinced the Army Medical Bureau to establish a corps of female nurses with herself as its superintendent. Over the next four years, thousands of women served in the general hospitals, the field hospitals and on the hospital transport ships.

In the south, no formal training programs for nurses were established during the war. Some women, like Ella Newsom, volunteered in city hospitals before offering their services to the army. In September 1862 the Confederate Congress, recognizing the contributions of these women, passed an Act authorizing the enlistment of female hospital workers. Women also played a valuable role in the establishment and support of the hospitals.

Male nurses contributed as well. Many Civil War nurses were convalescent soldiers who were given extra duties until they were able to return to their regiment. If a soldier showed particular aptitude for nursing duties, the surgeons would often request that he be reassigned to hospital work. In 1863, the Union Veteran Reserve Corps was established for soldiers who were unfit for active duty due to wounds or disease, but who were still able to perform limited service. The Veteran Reserve Corps supplied nurses, clerks, wardmasters, guards and cooks to the general hospitals.

Communities of religious women were the only well-established groups with nursing experience at the beginning of the war. At least twenty-one different communities from twelve separate Catholic orders contributed the services of over six hundred sister nurses during the Civil War. These sisters served hospitals, battlefields, camps and prisons for the armies of both the Union and the Confederacy.

For More Information:
National Museum of Civil War Medicine
48 East Patrick Street, Frederick, MD
(301) 695-1864
www.civilwarmed.org