Amanda-Lifford-Nurses

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= = =Duties = toc Nurses played a huge role in the civil war. It is estimated that there were b etween 2000 and 7000 volunteering their services during the civil war period. Many people believe that a n urse's only job was a healer, when in realit y, they did so much more. A nurse, in addition to bandaging wounds, would look for wounded soldiers on the battle field. Many nurses were just nearly missed by gunshot or even received a bullet through the sleeve of their dress. They also made sure all the wounded soldiers were well fed. The nurses also played a more physiological role, talking to soldier and building moral.

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=Materials and Medicine =

A nurses primary role was to cure the soldiers of any illness they might have, which was often accomplished or made significantly easier with medicine. Chloroform and Ether were two of the primary anesthetics, although both had been in use long before The Civil War. Chloroform soon became the preferred anesthetic due to its faster action and non flammability. However, if allowed an over does, Chloroform could be fatal to the patient. A nurse gave a patient chloroform by dipping in a cotton cloth and then holding it in such a way that the patient was able to inhale the vapors. Once inhaled they would take away the cotton cloth so the patient could have a mixture of air, which is speculated to significantly decrease the fatality rate of this anesthetic. Chloroform made it significantly easier to preform the surgery because there was not a yelling, wide eyed patient on the table. However Chloroform soon became scarce in the south and at tube with cotton lining on the inside was invented to conserve the vapors so less was needed per patient.



=** Clothing ** =

Dorothea Dix placed restrictions on the type of clothing Northern female nurses could wear saying "_All nurses are required to be plain looking women. She also said, "Their dresses must be brown or black, with no bows, no curls, no jewelry, and no hoop-skirts." However, such regulations did not have a huge impact for most of the northern and southern nurses. the dresses they generally wore were made of cotton, which could easily be washed after it was stained. The dresses were normally dark in color, solid or patterned, so stains wouldn't show up as much on the fabric. The isles were extremely narrow in a hospital so [|Cage crinolines], large rigid skirt shape made of steal, where never worn However many women wore petticoats as an alternative method of getting a full looking skirt.

=** Susie King Taylor **=

Susie Baker was born in 1948 in Liberty County, Goergia. Her mother was a domestic servant for the Guest family, and she was raised as an enslaved person. When she was seven, she and her brother went to live with their grandmother. There they attended secret schools taught by black women where they soon became literate. She is among thousands of African American women to serve the "colored regiments". However she is one of the only ones to publish a memoir on the experience of it. When Susie was seven she was sent to live with her grandmother. Her grandmother was illiterate, and did not want Susie to grow up with the same restrictions in her life. At the age of 14, Susie, who had already been freed from slavery, spent her days caring for others, comforting the ill, and teaching people young and old how to read. She was a selfless person who did all of this work for no money. Her unse lfish ways carried her through life and pushed her into joining the first black regiment in the Civil War. In the regiment she served as a nurse and used all of her prior knowledge to help heal the wounded. Throughout her life she kept a well documented journal which later became a book. toc

= = =Louisa May Alcott = Louisa May Alcott is best known for her book //__Little Women__// which was published in the late 1800's. However, fewer people know that she struggled as a writer and her first well known publications were her letters home about being a nurse at the civil war. Louisa May Alcott was 30 when she entered a union hospital in george town. She was educated by her father at an early age. Alcott at first had trouble finding work, trying everything from sewing to teaching to domestic service. She became a civil war nurse because she "became an Abolitionist at and early age" (a quote from one of her books). She believed that one reason she was so against slavery was because of an experience she had as a child, in which a black boy saved her from drowning. She liked being a civil war nurse for theunion because she felt as though she needed to do her part to help the union.

=** Clara Barton **=

Clara Barton was born in Massachusetts on December 21, 1821. She was educated at home and started teaching at age 15years old. In 1861 when the 6th Massachusetts regiment came into Baltimore, she lived in Washington D.C., and was working. She managed to organize a relief program there but that was only the beginning. Barton learned that many soldiers at the Battle of Bull Run had died due to lack of medical supplies. Thereafter, she began to get some people in Massachusetts to donate money and started her own organization to distribute supplies to help prevent casualties because of too little medicine. Barton went on through the war with the ambulances she had been given and helped heal soldiers and search for them on the battle field. She founded what is now known as the Red Cross in1881. She died at age 91 in 1912. One of her more famous quotes was: "An institution or reform movement that is not selfish, must originate in the recognition of some evil that is adding to the sum of human suffering, or diminishing the sum of happiness. I suppose it is a philanthropic movement to try to reverse the process." > =** Bibliography **=

Information

"ANESTHETICS OF THE CIVIL WAR." //Welcome To The 24th Virginia Field Hospital//. Website-Hit-Counters.com, 4 Apr. 2011. Web. 20 May 2011. . Arendt, Britta. "Female Nurses of the Civil War." //Female Nurses of the Civil War//. Web Counter, 2002. Web. 15 May 2011. . "Civil War Medicine, Civil War Doctors, Civil War Nurses." //Civil War, American Civil War, Reconstruction//. 2007. Web. 17 May 2011. <[]>. Malone, Margaret G., ed. //The Diary of Susie King Taylor Civil War Nurse//. Tarrytown: Benchmark, 2004. Print. "Susie King Taylor Biography Page." //The American Civil War Home Page//. Shotgun's Home, 28 Apr. 2005. Web. 17 May 2011. . "Taylor, Susan (Susie) Baker King (1848-1912) | The Black Past: Remembered and Reclaimed." //| The Black Past: Remembered and Reclaimed//. Lilly, 2007. Web. 20 May 2011. . Women in History. Clara Barton biography. Lakewood Public Library, 1 July 2010. Web. 15 2011. .

Photographs  // Louisa May Alcott //. Photograph. Http://www.directoryofpasadena.com/blog/events-entertainment/a-tea-with-louisa-may-alcott. Lweis, Vikie. //Susie King Taylor//. 1999. Photograph. Http://www.nps.gov/anti/historyculture/clrabarton.htm. toc