Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1886-06-07
miscellaneous.
A typical Army Nurse.


and death, foul with fostering and un-
washed wounds and unclean garments.
inexperienced surgeons stood aghast. and
felt almost powerless to cleanse and purI-
fly; while arrogant, negligent and merci-
less men fell back on army routine and
technicalities, and said that soldiers. when
they entered the army, must expect to die.
and recovery from amputations must be
the rare exception, the prairie pillow and
the thunder storm were needed. and they
came in the person of Mrs. Bickerdyke.
A pythoness if her precious boys. as she
called them, were assaulted, she was gen.
tie and tender as loving mother to every
sick aad wounded soldier. Woe be to the
man, no matter what his rank, who tram
pied on the rights OF the boys in blue.
Her organized laundries saved hun
dreds of thousands of dollars to the gov
eminent and to the Sanitary Commission,
bv washing what would otherwise have
been destroyed, to say nothing of the
health and comfort they bestowed upon
the sick. The surgeons admitted that she
had no rival in extemPorizing, organizing
and running hospitals The chief militia
nv men were her firm friends, and sup
piled her with facilities to carry on her
work teams. detailed soldiers and rail-
road transportations.
At the commencement of the war. Mrs.
Bickerdyke was a widow with two young
sons, residing in Galesburg, Illinois. DR..
Woodruff. Surgeon of the 22d Regiment
Illinois Volunteers, was from the same
place, and wrote from below to his friends
OF the sufferings of the army. The letter
was read in church. She heard it. Being
a famous nurse and housekeeper, with a
tender. patriotic heart. she felt called upon
to 90. Her friends and neighbors agreed
with her. and placed at her disposal $500
worth of sanitary stores to take to the hos
pitfalls.
She took charge of the nursing in the
amputation ward in the brick hospital at
Cairo, and astonished all by her skill and
endurance. The men, strange to were
made comfortable. After the battle of
Donelson, where many of the wounded
men lay in the cold and storm more than
twenty-four hours without relief, she went
up to the fort on the hospital boat to take
charge of them in tr0nSitu. She accom-
panied and attended five boat-loads of these
freshly wounded men to Paducah, Mound
City, Cairo, Evansville and Louisville.
What superhuman strength and endur-
ance. executive ability and fertile genius,
such work at such time required, can
not be comprehended by any who have
not witnessed such scenes and worked
upon hospital transports.
After depositing her precious but heart
rending freights. she accompanied the 21st
Regiment of Indiana Volunteers to Pitts
burg Landing to take charge of their hos
pial With wonderful forethought and
resolution, appreciated only by those who
have seen the filthy and offensive cast-off
clothing of wounded men. she had all this
material in use after the battle OF Donel-
son boxed up and placed on the boat.
After the 2lst Indiana disembarked, she
succeeded in having an order issued for
the boat to back down to Savannah with
these hideOus boxes. She there assorted
them herself and had many thousands
of pieces washed by "contrabands" hired
for that purpose. This clothing was thor
oughly dried and repacked. in readiness
proved to be of untold value.
At Memphis, the following year, "the
smallpox hospital had become charnel
house. and there seemed none to regener-
ate it Nine men lay in the dead house,
and numbers were on the road to Join
them. The medical director consulted
with Mrs. Bickerdyke. She at once pro-
posed to enter and purity it. He objected,
on the score of her overwhelming duties !;
for in addition to her hospital labors, she
was running laundry that washed all
the clothes of the hospital at Memphis
She said in reply that the hospitals were
running so finely that she could be spared
few weeks; and as to the infection, she
pledged herself that it should not spread.
The doctor had learned to trust her, and
gladly consented. She at once took
charge of the revolving place. ran the prai-
rie pillow through the filthy grounds and
out-houses, overturning cots and disem-
boweling foul beds, let in the air and
hight of heaven, whtewashed the walls.
cleansed the men, supplied them with
fresh clothing and wholesome sick food,
scattered disinfectanis broadcast, and in
three weeks had pure, clean hospital
where few men died and all made as COM
Portable as the loathsome disease would
permit.
"She remained with Sherman's army
through the entire series of his brilliant
victories and bloody fights. receiving and
caring for its wounded, running and con-
solidating hospitals and experimenting
laundries. She superintended the cooking
OF hundreds of tons of sanitary stores and
vegetables. Sometimes, when transport
tation was impossible and forage. unsuc-
cesstul, she sold the clothes that had been
sent by the Sanitary Commission to make
her comfortable, for butter, eggs and milk
for the hospitals. If in her JOURNEYS she
found men suffering with wounds Tester
ing for lack of clean bandages, her own
clothing was torn into strips, and her own
night-dresses taken for clean covering for
the poor emaciated soldiers, No exigen
eies baffied her skill and self-denial.
Such work read TODAY as having been
done by woman seems almost incredible
Mrs. Bickerdyke is still living, and has,
since the war. by the work of her own
hands supported herself; assisted, indeed.
by the occasional contributions from vari-
Gus posts of the Grand Army. As she is
now over 20 years of age. it is thought by
her friends that she should be pensioned
by the government and thus relieved from
further labor. Among the Western soldiers
she is tenderlv known and revered as
Mother" Bickerkyke. To a unit the
Grand Army posts desire that she should
be pensioned. Generals Grant, Sherman,
Pope and Logan Have all testified to her
invaluable service. We learn that a bill
granting pension to Mother Bickerdyke
49,, 1 Al 4