| Whether you call them "angels of the battlefield" or | | | | More than Just Hand Holders |
| "madams of mercy" there is no doubt that nurses | | | | Civil war nurses and volunteers performed a variety |
| from the civil war made a tremendous contribution to | | | | of jobs. From battlefield clean up and surgical |
| the health and well being of this nation as it struggled | | | | technicians to cooks and care providers, unit hospital |
| to remain unified. The American Civil war was a | | | | workers saw it all. Many nurses were empowered to |
| bloody and brutal conflict that tested the resolve of | | | | give medications such as morphine, and others used |
| the union and put individual human beings through | | | | their skill not just in nursing but in reading and writing |
| extraordinary circumstances. Nurses not only endured | | | | to help soldiers send last comments to loved ones. A |
| those circumstances, but created the profession of | | | | civil war nurse followed up with soldier's kin after |
| nursing and organizations such as the Red Cross | | | | their death and returned their goods to their families. |
| through their sacrifice. | | | | They created the holistic approach of total care, as |
| Dorothea Dix | | | | well as the hospice idea of allowing people to die with |
| Dorothea Dix had worked with the infirm and | | | | dignity. |
| mentally challenged for a long time before the civil | | | | Nurses at Home |
| war started. When she recognized the need for | | | | With the men and the doctors off fighting the war, |
| battlefield nurses she challenged the military leaders | | | | civil war nurses also had a job to maintain the health |
| to create an Army medical core for nurses. They did | | | | care needs of people in their home towns. Nurses |
| not comply immediately but she rounded up nurses | | | | began to work as midwives, chronic care providers, |
| and started training them "the army way" - even | | | | prescribers of local herbs and homeopathy as well as |
| making uniforms herself. Finally, the army created the | | | | Physician's Assistants. Their skills were needed and |
| Military Medical Brigade and allowed Dix to work | | | | used in a myriad of ways as they sought to treat |
| within the system to provide health care to soldiers. | | | | the health care needs of the elderly and infirm, the |
| She eventually won the badge of honor. | | | | crippled coming back from the war (many with |
| Clara Barton | | | | morphine addiction), and the grieving who lost |
| Working outside of the military establishment, Clara | | | | someone or everyone in the war between the |
| Barton also saw the need for nurses to be organized | | | | states. |
| and help both sides of the war to get necessary | | | | Many of the things today's nurses take for granted |
| medical care and comfort. She worked to create an | | | | were fought hard for on the battlefields of this |
| organization of nurses and health care providers who | | | | nation's bloodiest conflict. It is good to take time and |
| would work without political prejudice and serve the | | | | remember the civil war nurses and all they gave then |
| needs of those soldiers wounded in battle. Her | | | | and now. |
| efforts eventually became the American Red Cross. | | | | |