| Whether you call them "angels of the battlefield" | | | | wounded in battle. Her efforts eventually became |
| or "madams of mercy" there is no doubt that | | | | the American Red Cross. |
| nurses from the civil war made a tremendous | | | | More than Just Hand Holders |
| contribution to the health and well being of this | | | | Civil war nurses and volunteers performed a |
| nation as it struggled to remain unified. The | | | | variety of jobs. From battlefield clean up and |
| American Civil war was a bloody and brutal | | | | surgical technicians to cooks and care providers, |
| conflict that tested the resolve of the union and | | | | unit hospital workers saw it all. Many nurses were |
| put individual human beings through extraordinary | | | | empowered to give medications such as |
| circumstances. Nurses not only endured those | | | | morphine, and others used their skill not just in |
| circumstances, but created the profession of | | | | nursing but in reading and writing to help soldiers |
| nursing and organizations such as the Red Cross | | | | send last comments to loved ones. A civil war |
| through their sacrifice. Here is some of the history | | | | nurse followed up with soldier's kin after their |
| of the contributions that nurse made during this | | | | death and returned their goods to their families. |
| conflict. | | | | They created the holistic approach of total care, |
| Dorothea Dix | | | | as well as the hospice idea of allowing people to |
| Dorothea Dix had worked with the infirm and | | | | die with dignity. |
| mentally challenged for a long time before the civil | | | | Nurses at Home |
| war started. When she recognized the need for | | | | With the men and the doctors off fighting the |
| battlefield nurses she challenged the military | | | | war, civil war nurses also had a job to maintain |
| leaders to create an Army medical core for | | | | the health care needs of people in their home |
| nurses. They did not comply immediately but she | | | | towns. Nurses began to work as midwives, |
| rounded up nurses and started training them "the | | | | chronic care providers, prescribers of local herbs |
| army way" - even making uniforms herself. Finally, | | | | and homeopathy as well as Physician's Assistants. |
| the army created the Military Medical Brigade and | | | | Their skills were needed and used in a myriad of |
| allowed Dix to work within the system to provide | | | | ways as they sought to treat the health care |
| health care to soldiers. She eventually won the | | | | needs of the elderly and infirm, the crippled |
| badge of honor. | | | | coming back from the war (many with morphine |
| Clara Barton | | | | addiction), and the grieving who lost someone or |
| Working outside of the military establishment, | | | | everyone in the war between the states. |
| Clara Barton also saw the need for nurses to be | | | | Many of the things today's nurses take for |
| organized and help both sides of the war to get | | | | granted were fought hard for on the battlefields |
| necessary medical care and comfort. She worked | | | | of this nation's bloodiest conflict. It is good to take |
| to create an organization of nurses and health | | | | time and remember the civil war nurses and all |
| care providers who would work without political | | | | they gave then and now. |
| prejudice and serve the needs of those soldiers | | | | |