Treating War's Wounds: Innovations in Medicine from the Civil War

Female Caregivers

Nevertheless, many women refused to let the prevailing social attitudes influence their ability and desire to care for the wounded. Various women's aid societies such as the Sisters of the Holy Cross and the Daughters of Charity were organized to provide some relief to the over-burdened Civil War Surgeon. Anne Wittenmeyer, who formed one of the first such aid societies, was formally appointed Relief Director for Iowa. She converted a Mississippi River steamboat into a hospital ship which came under fire at Vicksburg. Still, the all-male Iowa Sanitary Commission introduced a bill to repeal the law which authorized the appointment of women commissioners, on the grounds that Wittenmeyer and other women wasted supplies and were "by the nature endowed on them by the Creator unfitted to the position." The bill was subsequently defeated.

In 1861, the Secretary of War appointed Dorothea Dix as Superintendent of Women Nurses for the Union Army. Before the war's end, an estimated 6,000 women had served as nurses for the Union Army. The substantial contributions of women during the war significantly advanced their subsequent involvement in the work place, especially in the field of health care.

In 1865, the United States Army originated the first ambulance service in the U.S. The mission of the service was to decrease mortality rates on the battle field. By the late 1800s, ambulance services in U.S. cities such as New York, Cincinnati, and Indianapolis began as hospital-based operations.

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