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Honoring Civil War Nurses
Our Army Nurses: Stories from Women in the Civil War
Want a sampling of the diverse experiences of Civil War nurses? Our Army Nurses: Stories from Women in the Civil War contains the stories of over 60 female nurses, from well-known nurses such as Dorothea Dix and Clara Barton, to bet-you-never-heard-of-them nurses like Hannah Palmer. Most of the text comes from stories gathered by Mary Holland, herself a Civil War nurse, approximately thirty years after the war. At that time, the women were particularly interested in sharing their stories because the United States Congress had passed the Army Nurse Pension Act in 1892. But few nurses were able to prove their service in the Civil War. By sharing their stories, they hoped to increase the viability of their pension claims.