Thomas F. (hardtack) -
Helpful Score: 1
Interesting book of letters from a Civil War nurse for the Union whose husband had deserted her. She had four children, two of whom died young. A third ended up as a soldier in a Massachusetts Infantry regiment. Another was a daughter.
She left her home for Washington and was matron of the Union Hotel Hospital in Georgetown, D.C. from July 1862 until January 1863. One of the nurses who served under her for a while was Louisa May Alcott, whose book "Hospital Sketches" I've also read.
Mrs. Ropes' letters were discovered in California and mostly went unnoticed by historians until 1975.
She was quite a feisty lady, in that when a surgeon and a steward in charge of her hospital for a period of time were uncaring about the wounded, and were in fact stealing from them, she went directly to Secretary of War Stanton to report it. Both were eventually relieved and court-martialed.
It's a quick read of 129 pages, of which 46 were the editor's Introduction.
One comment from her letters I enjoyed was "Washington is decidedly the ugliest and dirtiest city I ever saw." She may have been right, as during the Civil War period it had that reputation.
She left her home for Washington and was matron of the Union Hotel Hospital in Georgetown, D.C. from July 1862 until January 1863. One of the nurses who served under her for a while was Louisa May Alcott, whose book "Hospital Sketches" I've also read.
Mrs. Ropes' letters were discovered in California and mostly went unnoticed by historians until 1975.
She was quite a feisty lady, in that when a surgeon and a steward in charge of her hospital for a period of time were uncaring about the wounded, and were in fact stealing from them, she went directly to Secretary of War Stanton to report it. Both were eventually relieved and court-martialed.
It's a quick read of 129 pages, of which 46 were the editor's Introduction.
One comment from her letters I enjoyed was "Washington is decidedly the ugliest and dirtiest city I ever saw." She may have been right, as during the Civil War period it had that reputation.
