The Civil War Homefront: Nursing

National History Standards

Materials compiled in this document can be used by educators to fulfill the following National History Standards for Grades 5-12:

Era 5: Civil War and Reconstruction (1850-1877)

STANDARD 2: The course and character of the Civil War and its effects on the American people.

Standard 2B: The student understands the social experience of the war on the battlefield and homefront.

5-12: Compare women's homefront and battlefront roles in the Union and the Confederacy. [Compare and contrast differing sets of ideas]

Primary Resources

TITLE: Letter, Clara Barton to the Adjutant General of Maryland. Includes Adjutant General's notations on the back of letter and envelope with notations
DATE CREATED/PUBLISHED: June 6, 1865
SOURCE: ADJUTANT GENERAL (Civil War Papers) 1864-1865, MSA S935-6, 2/5/2/93
RESPOSITORY: Maryland State Archives
TITLE: Letter to the Masonic Fraternity in the United States in support of Clara Barton's work to locate missing men, May 15, 1865.
DATE CREATED/PUBLISHED: May 15, 1865
SOURCE: ADJUTANT GENERAL (Civil War Papers) 1864-1865, MSA S935-6, 2/5/2/93
RESPOSITORY: Maryland State Archives
TITLE: Clara Barton's list of missing Civil War soldiers
DATE CREATED/PUBLISHED: 1865
SOURCE: ADJUTANT GENERAL (Civil War Papers) 1864-1865, MSA S935-6, 2/5/2/93
REPOSITORY: Maryland State Archives
TITLE: Clara Barton House, 5801 Oxford Rd., Glen Echo, Montgomery County, MD.
DATE CREATED/PUBLISHED: Documentation compiled after 1933.
MEDIUM: Includes 9 drawings, 11 black and white photos, and 1 data page.
SOURCE: Historic American Buildings Survey/Historic American Engineering Record
REPOSITORY: Library of Congress
TITLE:  [Clara Barton, head-and-shoulders portrait, facing right]
CREATED/PUBLISHED:  ca. 1865.
MEDIUM:  1 photographic print on carte de visite mount.
NOTES: How To Order Copies of This Item
SOURCE: Clara Barton Collection.
REPOSITORY: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.
DESCRIPTION: Diary of Clara Barton
DATE CREATED/PUBLISHED: 1903-1910
MEDIUM: 1 microfilm reel. Microfilm 10,990-1P.
REPOSITORY: Library of Congress, Manuscript Reading Room (Madison, LM101).
DESCRIPTION:  Through the weary years of the war Clara Barton stayed at her post
CREATED/PUBLISHED:  [between 1900 and 1959]
MEDIUM:  1 photoprint.
NOTES: How To Order Copies of This Item
SOURCE: Hermann P. Riccius Collection
REPOSITORY: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.
DESCRIPTION:  Grounds at Andersonville, Georgia, where are buried fourteen thousand Union soldiers, who died in Andersonville Prison / sketched by I.C. Schotel. Includes Clara Barton raising the national flag, August 17, 1865, in far background.
CREATED/PUBLISHED:  [published 1865]
MEDIUM:  1 print : wood engraving.
NOTES: Illus. in: Harper's Weekly, 1865 Oct., p. 633. How To Order Copies of This Item.
REPOSITORY: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.
DESCRIPTION: [Fredericksburg, Va. Nurses and officers of the U.S. Sanitary Commission].
PHOTOGRAPHER: Gardner, James, b. 1832, photographer.
CREATED/PUBLISHED: 1864 May.
NOTES: Photograph from the main eastern theater of war, Grant's Wilderness Campaign, May-June 1864. Photograph includes women
SOURCE: Selected Civil War Photographs, 1861-1865
REPOSITORY: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division
TITLE: Mrs. Charles K. Clairborne. Account of experiences while bringing her wounded brother home.
DATE CREATED/PUBLISHED: n. d.
SOURCE: United Daughters of the Confederacy Collection, MSA SC 213-1-7 00/10/02/24
REPOSITORY: Maryland State Archives
DESCRIPTION: [Letter home from a Union nurse concerning a contraband slave.]
AUTHOR: Sarah R. Blunt
DATE CREATED/PUBLISHED: March 4,1862.
NOTES: Describes a Confederate soldier trying to take possession of contraband slave working in Union hospital. Written from: Point Lookout, Maryland.
SOURCE: Civil War Treasures from the New-York Historical Society
REPOSITORY: New York Historical Society
DESCRIPTION: Letter home from a Union nurse after a trip to Baltimore.]
AUTHOR: Sarah R. Blunt
DATE CREATED/PUBLISHED: n.d.
SOURCE: Civil War Treasures from the New-York Historical Society
REPOSITORY: New York Historical Society
DESCRIPTION: [Letter home from a Union nurse describing duties and daily life.]
AUTHOR: Sarah R. Blunt
DATE CREATED/PUBLISHED: April 18, 1863
SOURCE: Civil War Treasures from the New-York Historical Society
REPOSITORY: New York Historical Society
DESCRIPTION: [Letter home from a Union nurse describing hospital wards and procedures.]
AUTHOR: Sarah R. Blunt
DATE CREATED/PUBLISHED: April 7, 1863
SOURCE: Civil War Treasures from the New-York Historical Society
REPOSITORY: New York Historical Society
DESCRIPTION: [Letter home from a Union nurse concerning attitudes toward African-Americans]
AUTHOR: Sarah R. Blunt
DATE CREATED/PUBLISHED: May 21, 1863
SOURCE: Civil War Treasures from the New-York Historical Society
REPOSITORY: New York Historical Society
DESCRIPTION: [Letter home from a Union nurse concerning attitudes toward African-Americans.]
AUTHOR: Sarah R. Blunt
DATE CREATED/PUBLISHED: May 11, 1863
SOURCE: Civil War Treasures from the New-York Historical Society
REPOSITORY: New York Historical Society
DESCRIPTION: [Letter home from a Union nurse concerning her duties and social life.]
AUTHOR: Sarah R. Blunt
DATE CREATED/PUBLISHED: April 15, 1863
SOURCE: Civil War Treasures from the New-York Historical Society
REPOSITORY: New York Historical Society
DESCRIPTION: [Letter home from a Union nurse concerning hospital staff and politics.]
AUTHOR: Sarah R. Blunt
DATE CREATED/PUBLISHED: April 2, 1863
SOURCE: Civil War Treasures from the New-York Historical Society
REPOSITORY: New York Historical Society
DESCRIPTION: [Letter home from a Union nurse concerning hospital conditions and other nurses.]
AUTHOR: Sarah R. Blunt
DATE CREATED/PUBLISHED: April 10, 1863
SOURCE: Civil War Treasures from the New-York Historical Society
REPOSITORY: New York Historical Society
DESCRIPTION: [Letter home from a Union nurse describing her care of hospitalized soldiers.]
AUTHOR: Sarah R. Blunt
DATE CREATED/PUBLISHED: March 17, 1863
SOURCE: Civil War Treasures from the New-York Historical Society
REPOSITORY: New York Historical Society
DESCRIPTION: [Letter home from a Union nurse requesting items be sent to her.]
AUTHOR: Sarah R. Blunt
DATE CREATED/PUBLISHED: February 25, 1863
SOURCE: Civil War Treasures from the New-York Historical Society
REPOSITORY: New York Historical Society
DESCRIPTION: [Letter home from a Union nurse concerning daily life in a military hospital.]
AUTHOR: Sarah R. Blunt
DATE CREATED/PUBLISHED: March 26, 1863
SOURCE: Civil War Treasures from the New-York Historical Society
REPOSITORY: New York Historical Society
DESCRIPTION: [Letter home from a Union nurse describing her duties and hospital conditions.]
AUTHOR: Sarah R. Blunt
DATE CREATED/PUBLISHED: April 6, 1863
SOURCE: Civil War Treasures from the New-York Historical Society
REPOSITORY: New York Historical Society

See also:

Alcott, Louisa May. Hospital Sketches: An Army Nurse's True Account of her Experience During the Civil War Boston: James Redpath, 1863.
Brockett, L. P. Brockett and Mrs. Mary C. Vaughan. Woman's work in the civil war: a record of heroism, patriotism and patience. Philadelphia, Zeigler, McCurdy & co.; Boston [etc.] R. H. Curran, 1867. From: The Nineteenth Century in Print: Books
Edmonds, Sarah. Emma Evelyn. Nurse and spy in the Union army : comprising the adventures and experiences of a woman in hospitals, camps and battle-fields / by S. Emma E. Edmonds. Hartford : W. S. Williams & co.: Philadephia, Jones bros. & co. 1865. From: The Nineteenth Century in Print: Books

Additional Media Resources

American Women in the Civil War, 1861-1865

Remember the Ladies

Resources on Women in the Civil War

The Valley of the Shadow

National Museum of Civil War Medicine

Medical Care in the City of Baltimore 1752-1919

American Red Cross

Additional Instructional Resources

Clara Barton's House: Home of the American Red Cross
Follow Barton's remarkable career as a leader of charitable causes, from caring for the wounded on Civil War battlefields to founding the American Red Cross. (National Park/National Historic Landmark)

Clara Barton: Angel of the Battlefield. From the National Park Service

Ladies, Contraband, and Spies: Women in the Civil War, Gr.10-11. From the Library of Congress.

Secondary Resources

Blanton, DeAnne. "Confederate Medical Personnel" Prologue: Quarterly of the National Archives and Records Administration (Spring 1994) vol. 26, no. 1.

Brugger, Robert. "Suspended between Memory and Hope (1816-1865)." In Maryland: A Middle Temperament. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press in association with the Maryland Historical Society, 1988.

Brugger, Robert. "A House Divided (1850-1865)." In Maryland: A Middle Temperament. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press in association with the Maryland Historical Society, 1988.

Chambers, Lisa. "Fearless under Fire." Biography (April 2002): 64-67.

Kramer, Howard D. "Effect of the Civil War on the Public Health Movement." The Mississippi Valley Historical Review, Vol. 35, No. 3. (Dec., 1948), pp. 449-462.

Updike, William A. "Angel of the Battlefield." National Parks (July/August 2000): 40.

Associated Heritage and Preservation Organizations

National Museum of Civil War Medicine 48 East Patrick Street Frederick, MD 21705-0470	Antietam National Battlefield Sharpsburg, MD 21782-0158	Clara Barton National Historic Site 5801 Oxford Road Glen Echo, Maryland 20812
Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park 120 Chatham Lane Fredericksburg, VA 22405

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Credits

Teaching American History in Maryland is a collaborative partnership of the Maryland State Archives and the Center for History Education (CHE), University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC), and the following sponsoring school systems: Anne Arundel County Public Schools, Baltimore City Public School System, Baltimore County Public Schools, and Howard County Public Schools.

Other program partners include the Martha Ross Center for Oral History, Maryland Historical Society, State Library Resource Center/Enoch Pratt Free Library, with assistance from the National Archives and Records Administration and the Library of Congress. The program is funded through grants from the U.S. Department of Education.

This document packet was researched and developed by Nancy Bramucci.

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