What Did Civil War Nurses Do After the War?

The Civil War was a pivotal experience for many of the women who served as nurses, whether they served for three weeks or three years. For many it was their first time away from family and home, and their first step outside the narrow framework of what society expected from them. They learned not only…

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Cornelia Hancock: Civil War Nurse, Reformer, Muse

As the official superintendent of the Union Army’s newly minted nursing corps, Dorothea Dix had a clear vision of what her nurses should look like. Only women between the ages of thirty or thirty-five and fifty would be accepted. “Neatness, order, sobriety and industry” were required; “matronly persons of experience, good conduct or superior education”…

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Constance Fenimore Woolson: An Interview with Anne Boyd Rioux

Anne Boyd Rioux and I both hang out in a number of places on line where women talk about writing, history, and writing about history.  She is a smart, savvy and generous scholar who writes about forgotten women of the past.  You will not be surprised to hear that when her newest book, Constance Fenimore…

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