Female Nurses During the Civil War

On May 29, 1861, Dorothea Dix offered her help in setting up hospitals for the Union Army. She was the first woman to serve in such a high ranking position when she was appointed Superintendent of Nurses. From the article:

"Having sick and wounded soldiers caring for others did not work well and as early as June 1861 private aid groups such as Sanitary Commissions and Relief Societies, as well as the military, started to recruit female nurses to work in the hospitals. One of the most famous women who helped recruit nurses over the course of the Civil War was Dorothea Dix, who was appointed as the Superintendent of Nurses for the Union Army in June 1861. Dorothea Dix helped set the standard of qualifications for women in the nursing corps.

In order for a woman to become a nurse, she had to be between the age of 35-50, be in good health, be of decent character or “plain looking”, be able to commit to at least three months of service, and be able to follow regulations and the directions of supervisors. Dix even went so far as to say that women had to wear unhooped black or brown dresses, with no jewelry or cosmetics.

Women were able to join the war effort as nurses in a variety of ways. They could apply to join the nursing corps through the approval of sanitary commissions or superintendents such as Dorothea Dix, or they could be contract nurses hired on location based on need. In addition to white women, African American women worked in hospitals. Freed women were sometimes hired as contract nurses to both Confederate and Union hospitals, while some enslaved women were hired out to Confederate hospitals by their enslavers. If a woman was assigned to work in a hospital, she completed a wide variety of tasks to care for and treat the wounded."