Nurses and Medical Practices During the American Civil War (1860–1865)
Nursing played a monumental role during the Civil War both on and off the battle field. These women and men were all volunteers who dedicated all of their time to the care of wounded and ill soldiers. Four of the most influential women include Louisa May Alcott, Sarah Emma Edmonds, Hannah Ropes, and Ada W. Bacot. These women were several of the thousands of women who fought injury and illness to serve their countries. Nurses often worked along side surgeons and doctors in military hospitals and on the battlefield. Medical technology was far behind what it is today, and many of the hospitals were inadequately supplied to treat all the men in need.
Common Medical Practices During the Civil War
Technology during the 1860’s was no where near as advanced as it is today. Often times doctors and nurses used bloodletting, blistering, purging, and mercury to combat infection and wounds. These practices have since been proved ineffective, but back then there was no other way. Doctors has minimal knowledge about the causes and cures of the many diseases that tore across camps (pneumonia, dysentery, measles, mumps, typhoid fever, tuberculosis, ect.)These deadly diseases were often treated by mercury, bleeding, alcohol(if available), opium, and even vegetables. These disease were common as camps lacked proper hygiene and were wildly over crowded. There were so many men the hospitals often used churches, pavilions, or any other available space to house the wounded and ill.
The lack of technology mixed with a short in medical supplies made for an almost barbaric medical scene during the war. The hospitals and battlefield tents quickly became overcrowded, understaffed, and under supplied. With little to no morphine to give out doctors were forced to preform battlefield amputations other forms of anesthetic, like chloroform. This helped very little as many men died from anesthesia complications. Those who didn’t die still suffered many of them left screaming in excruciating pain on the operating table. Many of the surgeons had to work fast and often missed the opportunity to wash their hands. This only added to the widespread disease. With an endless stream of amputations to get to, the doctors had little time for sanitation.
These medical practice were harsh, but they were the only available option. Though these concepts may seem archaic, the men and women who preformed them are regarded as heroes. The nurses and doctors who helped the dying soldiers were a large part of the war itself. They helped fight by treating the soldiers and saving many of them from becoming another name on the list of war complications. Nurses and doctors worked long hours under brutal circumstances, but they faced the challenge and became some of America’s greatest heroes.
Louisa May Alcott
Alcott served as a nurse for the Union during the Civil War. She coupled as the author of one of these most known American novels:The Little Women. She wrote about her experiences working in the hospital in her diary and later another book. At 30 years old Alcott volunteered as a nurse and moved to the hospital where she shared a room with two other women. On the daily she woke at six to begin her rounds. During which she opened windows, added blankets, checked bandages, and made jokes to lighten the mood. She loved her work, she said that it gave her a place to put her sympathy. Her patients became her children and her their mother. Her experiences where far from easy, however. In her hospital, there was no one person in charge. Her worked was filled with “indifferent nurses in surgeons” that only complicated the chaos. Her men where never quite satisfied as there was never quite enough food or medical attention to serve all of the soldiers. Louisa May Alcott nobly dedicated her life to the care of others. She is remembered widely for her work as a nurse and her influential novels.
Sarah Emma Edmonds
Edmonds was a battlefield nurse for the Union army during the Civil War. She wrote a diary of her time in the battle camp hospital, in which she told stories of the many horrific things she witnessed. The hospitals were tents made of cheap material, only housing 20–25 men each. In each tent there was approximately one attending surgeon, one helping surgeon, four nurses, and several other people there to be useful in any way possible (like cleaning and disposing of used materials). One of the foremost problems Edmonds expresses in her writing is the disaster caused by natural elements. The tents had to be drained regularly to ensure the patients were not exposed to the dangers of the elements. During her time on the battlefield Edmonds witnessed terrible things. The men she saw were “crushed and broken as if smitten by lightning bolts”, and she watched many of them die. Like Alcott, Edmonds dedicated her life to helping the sick and wounded and is widely respected for her work.
Hannah Ropes
Ropes was a prominent abolitionist turned nurse. Prior to the Civil War, Ropes was abandoned by her husband and left with all their children. Following this, she temporarily moved to Kansas to help sway the balance of people toward anti-slavery. After a year she moved back to Boston and became a Union nurse. She quickly became head matron for her hard work and organizational skills. She criticized the unsanitary conditions and the inhumane treatment of soldiers. As head matron, Ropes promoted treating patients with compassion. She trained her nurses to put the patients needs above their own desire for better working conditions, and fired the ones who failed to do so. Ropes continued to help the hospital by using her vast political and social connections to obtain desperately needed supplies for the hospital. Ropes was one of the most widely respected nurses during the Civil War. Her work helped push the boundaries set in place for women, in addition to saving and improving the lives of countless soldiers.
Ada W. Bacot
Bacot was a nurse in Charlottesville Virginia for the Confederates. Her experiences were used to write the novel A Confederate Nurse in the years following the Civil War. Her husband was a prominent plantation owner in the south when he was killed in a pre-war dispute. After her husbands death she was left a childless widower; she used this new freedom to join the war effort as a nurse. She documented her time at the hospital in Virginia through her diary. The Confederate states widely underfunded and understaffed their military hospitals based on the belief that the war would be quick and easy. Bacot was one of very few nurses who got in direct contact with wounded soldiers(many of the men in charged feared having women in the hospital). She was challenged with helping fight the soldiers depression. She was also tasked with changing bandages and writing letters to the wounded and ill’s loved ones. While Bacot’s work was less highly regarded than many of the union nurses, her diary provided valuable insight to the lives of Confederate nurses that has been previously unseen.
Together these women make up some of the greatest American heroes. Their efforts helped to organize and care for thousands upon thousands of wounded and ill soldiers. In addition they helped the advancement of women by proving their worth in hospital and battlefield situations. These are some of the most influential women for both the feminist movement and the advancement of medicine.
