The Greenville journal. [volume] (Greenville, Ohio) 1850-1918, 1907-05-30
Copyright by ]. b. Bowlesg

CDR Anita Newcomb McGee Is the one
woman in this country who has held a
States army. During the Spanish Amer
lean war, as director of the hospital corps
organized by the Army and Navy chapter
of the Daughters of the American Revo-
lution, of which society she was Vice-pres-
ident-general, DR.. MCGEE was regularly
appointed assistant surgeon of the army.
During the war she was constantly on
duty, visiting hospitals and battletields in
her capacity of director and supervisor OF
the army's trained nurses; She was
prominently connected with the japanese
hospital service during the late war with
Russia, Dr. MCGEE studied abroad at
Cambridge and the University of Geneva
She was graduated from Columbia uni
Versty of Washington in 1889. Later she
took a special course at Johns Hopkins
hospital. She is fellow of the American
Association for the Advancement of
Science.)
An army has always two parts.
One part is the actual fighters, who
work, suffer and die and at the end
receive all the glory. The other part
is those who provide for the fighters.
They also work and suffer and die,
but at the end they are ignored and
afterward forgotten.
There are naturally very few WON.
en- who have achieved glory in the
fighting part of an army, though the
amazons are we'll known and Semira-
mis-, Zenobia and Jeanne dare were
commanders of armies. In former
times, however, many a woman con-
cealed her sex and took her place in
the ranks as man, though, from the
nature of the case, not many of their
names are known. Among those who
enlisted in our revolutionary army
were Deborah Sampson, Elizabeth
Canning and Molly Macauley, and the
last-named won the grade OF sergeant
before being discovered 1t has been
estimated that during our civil war no
less than 400 women contrived by
some means or other to enlist as sol
diers The most recent instance of
fighting women was in the Transvaal
war when many burgher's wife han
died a weapon at his side and many
were taken prisoners, some of them
being dressed as men. 1t is quite
common for the royal women of Eu.
rope to-day to hold honorary commits.
though not expected to take command
in time of actual war, they do wear
their uniforms and ride with their
troops on occasions of ceremony.
But, after all, the true story, OF
women in armies relates to their part
in providing and caring for the fight
ers. The present elaborate organiza
ton of armies is of comparatively re
cent growth, and originally the
greater part of the cooking and of the
nursing of soldiers was done by theil
hardy female relatives, who were as
well able as themselves to bear the
fatigues of the campaign. 1t is al
ways easier to procure new soldier
than it is to cure one who is sick ol
wounded, and the humane medica
corps, as one of the departments O.
an army, was a growth of the las
century. During the middle ages the
care of the sick was largely left tt
the great catholic order of knight:
and the orders of sisters who were
affiliated with them. On the continen
of Europe to-day, although a large
majority of army nurses are men, ye
in most countries there are a few
sisters of catholic orders who not onl!
continue to follow the troops in tins
of war, but who serve as head nurses
in large army hospitals in time o
peace
About the beginning of the last cen