Mary Bickerdyke,US Medical Heroine
A "Sister of Mercy" who was a Female Pioneer from the US Civil War
Forty five year old Bickerdyke personified Dix's ideal nurse. Before the war, she had received training in botanic and homeopathic medicine and had been engaged in private duty nursing. She was recently bereaved by the untimely death of her husband and young daughter.
On a Sunday in June in 1861, Bickerdyke listened as her pastor Edward Beecher, brother of Henry Ward Beecher and Harriet Beecher Stowe, told of the need for volunteers in the military camps in nearby Cairo, Illinois. When the congregation asked Bickerdyke to accompany a load of food, clothing and medical supplies to Cairo on behalf of the church, she was ready. Except for short visits, that was the last her two young sons saw of her until the end of the war.
Mother Bickerdyke
When she saw the poor condition of the hospital in Cairo, she took a room in town and immediately began a determined cleanup effort that quickly spread to the other five military hospitals in the area. Although he granted her a grudging welcome at first, Dr JJ Woodward, a surgeon with the 22nd Illinois Infantry, later praised Bickerdyke as "strong as a man, muscels of iron, nerves of the finest steel, sensitive but self-reliant, kind and tender seeking all for others, nothing for herself."
Throughout the war, "Mother" Bickerdyke moved from one trouble spot to another, acting on her belief that bodies healed well when they were bathed, placed in clean surroundings and fed well. She held a special concern for enlisted men and stopped at nothing to get supplies that would bring comfort to her "boys". She begged for food from any viable source, raided government supplies-often without permission and commandeered boxes of delicacies sent from home to healthy soldiers. Many times, when government rations were waylaid or had run out, she found a way to feed the troops. Her tireless zeal earned her the nickname: "Cyclone in Calico".
In the early period of her service, Bickerdyke had no authority other than a semi-official status granted occasionally by Union Army Officers. But her manner was so compelling and forthright , she was rarely questioned. When one surgeon dared to ask her where she had received permission for what she was doing, Bickerdyke replied "the Lord God Almighty. Have you anything that outranks that?"
Later she was named a Sanitary Commission Agent.
In spite of her manner, Bickerdyke gained the friendship of a few high- ranking officers, among them, General Ulysses S Grant and William Tecumseh Sherman.
On one occasion, when besieging Sherman at an inopportune moment, the short-tempered general asked her whether she had heard of insubordination. Bickerdyke responded in an equally testy manner: "you bet I've heard of it... it's the only way I get anything done in this army."
Folk-Hero Status
Major General John "Black Jack" Logan also crossed paths with Bickerdyke, meeting her for the first time late one night after battle. While lying in his tent, he observed a lone figure with a lamp crisscrossing the battlefield and sent an orderly to bring the person in for questioning. Bickerdyke explained she could not rest util she was satisfied that no living man remained on the field. The story was picked up by the newspapers and contributed to her folk-hero status.
As matron of many temporary field hospitals, Mother Bickerdyke often crossed swords with surgeons and other staff members. In cases, her complaints to superior officers brought disciplinary action, others she resolved in her own way. She reserved special vengeance for anyone she suspected of stealing supplies or delicacies she had set aside for the sick and wounded. Once after repeated warnings to the kitchen staff, she cooked some peaches and secretly spiked them with a harmless purgative. Soon, agonised cries from the kitchen attested she had made her point.
Bickerdyke drafted anyone within reach of her voice to help with the endless labour. Healthy soldiers and camp visitors were either bribed with hot meals or badgered into service. When gentlemen from the Christian Commission came to restore wounded souls, she suggested they would have greater success if they began with wounded bodies.
When the last Illinois man was discharged, Bickerdyke resigned from the Sanitary Commission to devote the rest of her life to her family and charitable deeds. She died in 1901. A sturdy freighter named for her ,carried on her work in the twentieth century, ferrying Spam and sulphur drugs to American servicemen isolated on the Pacific Islands in World War II.
Mary Ann Bickerdyke devoted her time during the Civil War to the health and welffare of the soldiers. She stopped at nothing to provide for them. Like Dorothea Dix and Clara Barton she believed that bodies healed well when they were bathed, placed in clean surroundings and fed well. To these women these were basic rights, Clara Barton once remarked that she "owed nothing to these men, but my love". This sentiment is echoed in the deeds of Mary Ann Bickerdyke.
Sources:
historynet.com
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