Women's Roles: What Nurses Did In The South

In the early 1900s nursing was just beginning to take off and women were newly independent as far as work goes. After World War II there was a great demand for nurses, in which came the development of more nursing programs in the Untied States. Thanks to the World War II and the increase of demand of nursing Practical Nursing was created in order to help assist Registered Nurses. One of the first nursing schools to open was the Shepard Gill School of nursing in 1918 in Boston. As the years progressed nursing went

Nursing was even harder for women whose skin color did not favor them at the time, due to racism. A great example was Mary Seacole, a woman with a great determination to cure the sick and tend to the injured. After the many letters sent to Florence Nightingale, Mary Seacole receive a letter denying her petition to be part of her team of nurses (Carnegie, 1995). This could have been a setback for an ordinary person, but it did not stop well-determined Mary Seacole, she was everything but ordinary. Her persistence to serve those in need of medical care let her to travel more than 3000 miles to Crimea. With limited resources, she bought and opened a lodging house, in which she took care of the wounded soldiers (Carnegie, 1995). Long after the war was over, she received recognition for taking care of the wounded.

The Civil War, in terms of death, is considered the most brutal in United States history—but it was not because of the way the battles were fought that it was so disturbing, but because of the sheer amount of death in general. Approximately 620,000 soldiers died during the War Between the States, and from those, two-thirds died not in battle, but because of disease. Disease was so rampant and conditions so unhygienic that it not only wiped out hundreds of thousands of lives, but it also wiped out the gallantry that most soldiers hoped they would achieve when they entered the war, and the despair brought on because of disease is evident in the letters the soldiers sent home. Disease was the real enemy, because hygiene and organization were virtually unknown in medical practices, coupled with

In the Civil War, hospitals were unsanitary and crowded with many hospital beds full of patients. The army relied on male nurses more than female nurses even though most of them were untrained ("Hospitals, Surgeons," 2002). Surgeons in the Civil war usually didn’t really have clue what they were doing. Nobody knows what antiseptics were used, or that they know the relation of dirt to infection ("Hospitals, Surgeons," 2002). “Most physicians had a very limited understanding of the importance of sterilization and the risks of infection, and little practice treating the kinds of major cases seen during the war.” ("History of Medicine," 2011). Plus, anesthesia came into use halfway through the Civil War, and some drugs were inadequate ("Hospitals, Surgeons," 2002). “Perhaps the least unreliable statistics for the Union armies give 67,000 killed in action, 43,000 died of wounds, and 224,000 died of disease; an additional 24,000 are listed as dead from other causes-doubtless either wounds Or disease.” ("Hospitals, Surgeons," 2002). The hospitals beds were packed so close together that disease that was caught by one veteran could have been caught by another and passed on. The sanitation of Civil War hospitals and the lack of medicine needed for veterans was abysmal. But for these hospitals being in the condition they were in, lives were still able to be saved and recover from their

Soon after the start of the war, Mary began visiting nearby solider camps to deliver food and treat illness. At first both the officers and surgeons found Mary antithetical, but soon after they began respecting her. In June 1861, Mary Ann Bickerdyke, a well-known hospital matron, arrived in Cairo and gave Mary a basic nursing course. She then began working as a full-time nurse in both the hospitals, solider camps, and the neighborhoods surrounding them. In November 1861, Mary worked to nurse wounded soldiers at the Battle at Belmont, Missouri. As stated in the article “Mary Jane Safford” by Maggie Maclean, “During the battle, she courageously treated the wounded by walking the battlefield with a white handkerchief tied to a stick as her flag of truce amidst enemy fire.” She helped to transport more than 300 soldiers back to hospitals in Cairo. In February 1862, Safford worked with Bickerdyke to transport soldiers from Fort Donelson to Cairo. She worked in the hospitals for ten days with little sleep. This made Safford ill herself, and she was sent to nurse on the boat “City of Memphis”. She stayed on the boat as it made 5 trips transporting wounded troops, then made her way home to her brother’s house and to spend some time recovering. As stated by Mary Livermore in the article “Mary Jane Safford” by Maggie Maclean, “Miss Safford commenced her labors immediately, when Cairo was occupied. I think she was the very first women who went into the camps, and hospitals in the country; I know she was in the West. There was no system, no organization, nothing to do with. She systemized everything in Cairo, furnished necessaries with her own means, or rather with her brother’s, who is wealthy; went daily to the work, and though the surgeons and authorities everywhere were opposed to her efforts, she disarmed all opposition by her sweetness and grace

Hello, I’m Jane Wildhaber. I was a nurse during the Civil War. 1861 through 1865 were 4 long, horrible years, not because of the fighting. Many diseases were spread during this time due to cramped living conditions. One of the main diseases that us nurses worked with was typhoid fever. It is an acute intestinal infection caused by the salmonella typhi bacteria. It was spread by ingesting contaminated food and water or through close contact with someone already infected. It often afflicted soldiers in the elevated and more northern areas where Civil War armies fought and camped during the winter months. Typhoid Fever killed 81,360 Union soldiers, more than those who died of battle wounds. Symptoms are developed skin lesions called “rose spots”,

The failure to step up in the heat of battle—courtesy of the Medical Department—led to apoplectic and private citizens to help care for wounded soldiers. The incompetence of the Medical Department also led to the most powerful of organizations, such as the U.S. Sanitary Commission, to lobby Congress and the War Department to change the Army Medical Department and help fund hospitals and supplies (Hawk).

Women and nurses had a very big role in the civil war. They saved lives, and they also paved way for women in the future. Women were not only nurses in the civil war, but so much more.

There were many black young women who were very interested in nursing, and were dedicated to pursue their dream, and wouldn't stop trying until they were given equal rights and accepted into these nursing programs.  Some black women would follow along with the black soldiers in the Civil War and provide care to these wounded soldiers, as well as

Historians of the Southern woman during the Civil War can come to no agreement concerning the nature and the role of women in the conflict. According to A.P. Jones, author of The Flower of Southern Womanhood, Southern women a hundred years ago were “lazy, spoiled, and beautiful” (22). They cared only for themselves and subordinated their children, their husbands, and their servants to their own interest

Due to the advancements from the Industrial Revolution, weapons were more deadly and injuries were more severe. The Civil War had the most United States casualties than any other war, so women naturally became highly involved in the war effort. This meant that nursing shifted from a job to a necessity during the war. The common duties of a nurse included many tasks such as tending to patients’ wounds, cleaning the hospital, and comforting soldiers (Currie 48). Many times the women were not trained beforehand and this led to many mistakes due to inexperience and unpreparedness for the gruesome injuries and illnesses within the hospitals (49). However, women were drawn to become nurses for many reasons including staying involved in the war effort and a higher wage of $12 a month

The duties and responsibility of nurses at that time was different from the present. Rebecca Usher of Maine has explained that women nurses were not given the medical assistance job rather they were made focused on sanitation of wounded soldiers. Their job is to wash the clothes of ill soldiers, make food for them, distributing for them and some get the chance of helping the soldiers by reading and writing letters to their family. A woman from the rich family was only able to get the chance to be nurses at that time because they were accessed with the people of the hospital. In comparison to male nurses, women nurses were given low-level jobs. Women were given less chance than men. Only a few male from middle-class and upper-class family could get a job. Among these middle class also women close to the superintendent were able to get a job. In the introduction on pg. iv paragraph second it is mention that Dix (superintendent of woman nurses) kept the crop outside of the military chain of command, personal management style and traveled extensively. She could be considered as rude women of that time. As being women oneself, she should understand the feeling of other women. Dix showed a behavior like a rude dictatorship to other

The Civil War era was a period of major medical advancement. New breakthroughs during this time period had a great effect on the results of the battles and the war as a whole. Advancements in medical procedures, sanitation, infection control, field hospitals and triage, nursing techniques, and the development of the American Red Cross all greatly impacted the mortality rates of soldiers in both the Union and the Confederate armies during the American Civil War in both positive and negative ways.

For medical practitioners in the field during the civil war, germ theory, clean medical practices, advanced equipment, and organized hospitalization systems were virtually unknown. In the battle fields it was better known to amputate the hurt body part than to get medical help from the hospital. During battle in 1864 a solider had his leg amputated. Many more men like him have given up their arm, leg, toe, or even their whole foot to save their life. Hospitals were crowded upstairs and downstairs. Battlefields were overcrowded with amputated feet, legs, and many dead bodies. Nurse Walt Whitman

In 1861 with the permission of Judge John Robertson she converted his house into a 22-bed hospital. It was not yet understood that germs or filth could cause or worsen illness and/or infection, and the value of simple cleanliness in relation to well-being was not yet embraced by health care providers