Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1902-10-09

National President Army Nurses Association Civil
War.
the last shot was fired, until the last
wounded man was carried off the field 1t
is these women whom the soldiers revere
today.
The Early Hospitals.
The war had been in progress nearly a
year and a half. Bull Run had been fol-
lowed by Fort Henry. Fort Donelson, Shi-
lob, Fort Pillow. Fair Oaks, Manassas and
Antietam. Notwithstanding the awful
slaughter Of Union men in the battles men,
toned the government seemed to be abso-
lutely paralyzed so far as looking after the
sanitary conditions of the troops was con-
cerned.
A soldier wrote from the camp hospital,
near Washington, under date Of November
II, 1851: Our hospitals are so bad that
the men fight against being sent to them.
They will not go until compelled to do so,
and many brave 1t out only to die in camp
L really believe they are more comfortable
and better cared for in camp with their
comrades than in hospitals. The food is the
same In both places, and the medical treat
ment the same. when there is any. In the
hospital the sick men lie on rotten straw;
In the camp we provide clean hemlock or
pine boughS, with the stems cut out or
husks when we can jerk them from a Sc
ceSh cornfield. In the hospitals the nurses
are convalescent soldiers, so nearly sick
themselves llldl lneN ought 10 De IN the
WARDS. and from their feebleness they are
selfSh and sometimes inhuman in their
treatment of patients"
The letter was written while Mcclellan
was SUN strategizng' and the war hardly
begun. In December, 1862, Mrs Mary A.
Ltvermore, who went on q tour of inyesti-
CATION, found that this state of affairs still
continued. She visited the hospital camp
near Alexandria, known as Camp Misery"
and found there II, 600 convalescent soldiers,
nf oil hinp md
1uel In another camp hospital 800. and
IN all the military hospitals around Wash
lngton, numbering about forty, she found
SO,oOO sick and wounded soldiers to whom
the care that Is bestowed on Texas cattle
by ranchmen would have been a boon. 1t
would have at least afforded them shelter,
food and clean straw for bedding. Most Of
the poor fellows were wretchedly clad and
straw to lie upon, though they ought to
nave had all these things, as many of them
mad half years pay due them.
In Tents Without Floors.
These sick and wounded boys were lodged
in the worst weather of a terrible winter
in small Sibley tents without floors and no
fire or means of procuring either and the
bare floor was frozen thard. They had to
do their own cooking, procuring their own
fuel, and they slept on tie frozen ground or
In the mud, as the case might be. Their
rtod was the uninviting rations furnished
a healthy man. The surgeons only visited
these so-called hospitals" once a day. As
the camp hospital wassfulfdto overlooking
all the time, many who were seriously Ill
We're turned away each day to remain In
their fireless and bedless tents
such restitution, saualort and helpless
ness I never beheld," reported Mrs. Liver
more to the authorities This was the con-
dition of affairs in the Hospitals when the
women We're at last accepted as nurses by
the government. 1t was not9until 1862 that
these war women got away south, but
they remained after they we're once there,
and were mustered out only when Lee had
lain down his sword.
Organizing the Corps.
Miss Dorothy Dix was made superintend-
emit and charged with the mastering in Of
the army of nurses, and before her each wo-
man who wished to serve had to pass in re-
view. Miss Dix was gentle and sweet
voiced and dainty, but hard as rocks" on
some subjects. For instance, she insisted
that the nurses who desired to do war hos
pital work must be middle aged. and for
once beauty was bar. She absolutely re-
fused to permit a pretty woman to enter the
service. "A pretty woman always likes 70
fiirt. I cannot have flirting among my
nurses she said. W..
There was often wailing among the young
er women who wished to follow their nus
bands or sweethearts into the service over
this ediet Of Miss Dix. but she was STUB
born Many Of the applicants applied TO
President Lincoln or to Secretary stanton.
and by this means got into the service over
Miss Dix's head.
The women had to dress themselves as
plainly as possible. Rations to the amount