During the U.S. Civil War, despite being excluded from traditional military service, women were able to serve by working in hospitals as nurses and administrators.
This excerpt from a memoir draft written by Mary Ann Ball Bickerdyke, a Civil War nurse with the Union armies of generals Grant and Sherman, suggests that working in hospital was a battle in and of itself for women:
Dr. Stearns came in with the a regular Army officer ^from Washington^ to inspect the hospital…He says “Madam what are you doing here we don’t allow women in military hospitals you can be imployed (sic) as a laundress but you can’t be in the wards, I strictly forbid it” Major I said replied “that’s my rank sir” and passed him leaving the and left the room”
Bickerdyke’s response to the officer demonstrates strength and a strong sense of purpose. Yet her work also required a gentler side. According to Michelle Krowl, a historian in the Library’s Manuscrip