Isabella Fogg Cared for Civil War Soldiers
Thousands Left Behind at Gettysburg and Other Battlefields
May 5, 2009
In 1861 Isabella Fogg of Calais, Maine, asked herself what to do. The answer? Follow son Hugh and his regiment to Washington.
There, she visited hospitals as a volunteer for the Maine Camp and Hospital Association. Soon, she and others realized the greatest need for help was in the field. Once there, they were horrified to find sick and wounded soldiers languishing in barns, sheds and tents. They offered what help they could with limited supplies.
Worked Primarily on Virginia Civil War Battlefields
Protecting herself from sunstroke by wrapping a wet towel around her head, Isabella usually worked on Civil War battlefields in Virginia. Men in her son’s regiment suffered from typhoid fever and chronic diarrhea. Their bed was the earth and their fare was salt pork and hard tack. The roar of artillery grew louder and closer. Trains of wounded soldiers were turned back. Communications were cut. Savage Station, with thousands of helpless soldiers, was abandoned. All that could headed for the James River, including Isabella, who tried to feed as many as possible, bandage wounds and soothe feverish lips with water.
At Harrison's Landing, she prepared food for amputation cases. Often, she headed for the trenches to distribute what she had. Her diary entries show a woman enduring personal privation day after day to bring basic food, clothing and shelter to needy soldiers.
Civil War Casualties
Recovering from pneumonia, Isabella resumed her labors. About daylight one morning she and a companion, both exhausted, crept to the corner of an attic for an hour of sleep. Soon shells penetrated the roof. The enemy had reached their crowded little hospital. All who could walk or crawl headed for the rear; there were many fatalities.
Two weeks later, General Lee offered protection so the wounded behind southern lines could be removed. Isabella took her supplies and established a temporary hospital so the wounded could be fed in the middle of an agonizing journey to Union hospitals. For five days horse drawn ambulances passed by her feeding station.
22,000 Left on Gettysburg Battlefield
Mrs. Fogg went from the Chancellorsville battlefield to Gettysburg. There she took a team and collected from farmers things needed for the soldiers. General Meade estimated that nearly 22,000 men from both sides were left on the Gettysburg battlefield. Within two weeks, volunteers from nearby cities arrived and Isabella left Gettysburg for other care for soldiers at battlefield after battlefield.
The American Civil War Devastates Fredericksburg
Leaving her son sick at Alexandria, Isabella drove to Fredericksburg, taking Dorothea Dix in her ambulance. She found the war-blasted city one great hospital. "It was indescribable," she wrote, "in its enormous woes a sight demanding the tears and prayers of the universe."
Receiving news that her son was mortally wounded at Cedar Run, she headed for Martinsville, missed him there, but found him in a Baltimore hospital minus one leg. She tended him until she became sick. A month later she was sent to Louisville, Kentucky, where, working on a hospital boat, she accidentally fell through an open hatchway, permanently injuring her spine.
Unable to return to Maine, Isabella lived as a permanent invalid among strangers with her crippled son. She was awarded a federal pension for her services, thanks to efforts made by grateful officers and surgeons of the Army of the Potomac, including Gen. Joshua Chamberlain (later governor of Maine) and Gen. George Meade. Isabella was one of the most dedicated women of the Civil War.
Sources;
Copies of documents in the Maine State Archives
Moore, Frank, Women of the War: Their Heroism and Self-Sacrifice (1867: Hartford)
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