Dorothea Dix, a Battlefield Angel
The US Civil War Produced Female Pioneers in Medical Practice
Nov 9, 2008
Of those employed, a relative few- Louisa May Alcott, Jane Stuart Woolsey and Katharine Prescott Wormeley- recorded their experiences. As a result the activities and influence of the female nurse constitute one of the rare aspects of Civil War history that has not been extensively recorded.
Dorothea Dix was one of the leaders of a national effort to organise a nursing corps to care for the war's wounded and sick.
Nursing Profession Before the War
At the outbreak of the war the nursing profession was in its infancy and dominated by men- women were deemed too frail to cope with the rigours of looking after the sick. There were only one hundred and fifty hospitals in the entire country and no formal nursing schools existed.
The huge number of sick during the Civil War exacerbated the lack of medical professionalism and hospital facilities were primitive and disorganised. Military and societal protocol banned women from field hospitals so most nursing duties continued to be assigned to men. But the increasing number of casualties soon broke down gender- related strictures on nursing.
Female Medical Pioneer
In April 1861, Dorothea Dix hastily assembled a group of volunteer female nurses and staged a march in Washington, demanding the government recognise their desire to aid the Union's wounded. Dix had spent the last twenty years working to improve the treatment of mentally ill patients and better prison conditions and was well known for this work.
The Secretay of War, Simon Cameron quickly named her to superintend the female nurses assigned to the U.S. Army. The nominating citation read in part: "She will give...all necessary aid in organising military hospitals...aiding the chief surgeons by supplying nurses..."
Despite such responsibilities, neither she nor her nurses were granted military appointments. Military traditionalists opposed her, but she prevailed, armed with an indomitable will and singlemindedness.
One of the standards Dix imposed was for her nurses to be "plain looking" and over thirty years of age. She steadfastly denied admission to nuns and other representatives of religious sisterhoods and earned the nickname "Dragon" Dix.
As the casualties mounted, she was forced to relax her standards and after the first Battle of Bull Run in July 1861 she accepted anyone who was willing to work. Nurses were paid forty cents a day plus rations, housing and transportation. Male nurses recieved $20-50 a month plus superior benefits.
Angel of the Battlefield
Dix operated from houses she personally rented in Washington and she did not take a single day off during her four years of service. Her hospitality was always available to nurses and discharged servicemen who had no shelter. Louisa May Alcott who became ill with typhoid fever soon after entering her brief service as a nurse, gratefully recalled Dix "stealing a moment from her busy life to watch over the stranger of whom she was as thoughtfully tender as any mother."
In her zeal to reduce suffering and death, Dix constantly prowled the hospitals. Her intolerance of hospital administration and nurses who did not meet her exacting standards caused constant friction.
In October 1863, the Secretary of War Edwin Stanton transferred part of the responsibility for appointing nurses to the surgeon general and gave medical officers at each hospital jurisdiction over their own female nurses.
Dix was heartbroken but responded with a magnanimity that drew admiration from even her most staunchest of opponents.
After she resigned at the end of the war and her post was abolished, she continued to work doggedly for another eighteen months helping individual soldiers and their families deal with the stress of recuperation.
Throughout the rest of her life, Dix begged biographers to play down her Civil War years. But in 1983 long after her death and when she couldn't object to the well-deserved honour, she was featured on a U.S. postage stamp.
She was a female medical pioneer who fought in two wars: the Civil War, and the war against the societal subdugation of women. With an unswavering determination and singledmindedness she emerged victorious from both.
Sources:
civilwarhome.com
historynet.com
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