Transcripts For CSPAN3 Civil War-Era Women And Volunteerism 20170902

You all read a primary source document written by a woman who participated in the civil war. Louisa may alcott. Who worked as a nurse. So were going to start off our class today by looking at hospital sketches. Which all of you should have available to you. And out ready to chat. About the source. So the big question that were posing and investigating today is is how did womens volunteerism shape the choices that they made during the civil war. Theres two questions. And then how did that volunteerism influence the out come or affect the out come of the civil war. Those are our over arching questions that were looking at today. We start with Louisa May Alcott. And her hospital sketches. Which was published during the war. It was serialized and published. So americans who read the magazine that it was published in dould read about her experiences in a civil war era hospital. So lets start by id like to hear your thoughts about this account. Of civil war hospitals. What did you think about Louisa May Alcott . Ill scoot this down. So we can be looking at her at the same time were talking about her. There she is. All right. Go ahead, scott . Well one thing that i liked about it was that you dont really see much of her. Like previously we havent had any exposure to inside of the hospital. We know of them from killer angels how theyre like a terrible place. So it was good to see a firsthand experience of like what that was like to not just been in the hospital but to be one of the people that was tasked with handling basically impossible tasks of helping soldiers who were just like all terminally. Nobody made it out of the hospital. So it was like dealing with that. And like what was involved with trying to heal soldiers who the best they could do was just cut off a limb and hope for the best. Okay. All right, good. Our first insiders look from a real witness. What the inside of a civil war hospital looked like. Scott suggested pretty dismal. Pretty sad. All right, good. Anybody else . Tell me about your First Impression of the book. As you read it. It was more of a question. She called herself mrs. Periwinkle. Was she like publicly known as Louisa May Alcott and publishes in her own name. Was there Something Like that women werent so much allowed to publish stories about things . Good question. So why would she use this pseudonym. And you put your finger right on the answer as well. Theres this sort of way in which a woman of her class is supposed to follow the rules of gender at the time. Which are women are supposed to be private. And also its also not an uncontroversial decision for a woman of her elite stature to make a decision to go into a hospital. At the time. Hospitals are dangerous places. Where there are lots of strange men. That you dont know, right . And you have to be around them. So in part that was, that was a strategy that not only alcott but other women use to protect their reputation. But also to sort of as it reminds us that there were rules that women like alcott were breaking. When they went into the hospital. To do that. I think it becomes widely known nonetheless who writes this. So in part its just a game. In some point of time we maintain her anonymity. But thats a good question. There were a few ore hands that were up. First impression i thought it was interesting she was just kind of posing to her family and friends, i need to do something, what should i do . One said you should go be a nurse. And she went right off and really didnt know what she was getting into. But took everything in stride. And even the great difficulty she went through. Right. Okay. Yeah. She portrays this decision rather abrupt. Its not like she went to nurse training school. Lempb learned about how diseases were spread or how to take care of injured people. But she just sort of describes it as something that was instantaneous. Thats surprising. Good. Over here. It was kind of admiral that the first suggestion that was given to her she was like okay im going to do it. She didnt think about it. I want to do something so badly and help out. Whatever is suggested ill do. That was interesting. She didnt even give it a second thought, she wanted to help so badly. She didnt pause. Her lack of preparation didnt make her pause. So you have to give her credit for that. We can imagine that is not unlike the way men made the decision to enlist. They didnt necessarily prepare for that. For that decision. And it likely probably happened pretty quickly as well. So it makes sense she would portray it that way. We dont actually know. How much conversation there was in the alcott household. About their daughter making this rash decision to go off to a dangerous play. We got the sense that there was some apprehension. I would say i felt like there wasnt that much. This could have been dramatized. She wanted to do something so it wasnt like she was holding back. She made the decision that she was going to do it. Thats right. It wasnt like i did it and now im like maybe i shouldnt have said yes. She was committed enough either way. Even if there was app remention. Right. Good. Thats good. What about you . What stuck out to me. This is like an under rated really funny book. You appreciated the humor. Obviously its about civil war hospital and stuff. Im assuming if we were to read other documents it would be dismal and gor ri violence. She puts an interesting humorous twist on it. Which i thought added a lot to it. She had a pretty based on what she was seeing. She was she took it well. She had a fun spin on it. I thought. I enjoyed it. It is interesting. She had a good sense of humor about everything. Which made it more enjoyable to read. So maybe one way to think o of that she had an audience in mind. Sh knew she wasnt writing this for her parents or necessarily for sort of the next generation. But she was writing it for an audience. She clearly wanted people to read it and wanted it to be entertaining. And she does weave in her own humor sense of humor throughout it. I think the jury still out whether or not everybody laughed at it as much as she intended to. But maybe 19th century people laughed more than we did. Something that stuck out to me was even though she only had a few day of training, the men from Fredericks Burg were coming. So how little formal training most of the nurses had. Probably the only experts in the room for doctors. And there were very few of them. The other part was when the men started coming in there was hesitation you mention td like go take care of the men and undress them, wash them and everyone the doctors would say i dont know if this a right for a woman to see all this violence. And even pausing saying i havent done anything like this. A sense of impropriority. Because it is wartime you push through the boundaries and it doesnt matter as much as in the end. I think they mentioned that women were making strides in this time. And by the time the war was over everything kind of, nothing really stuck. The changes in boundaries kind of went back. Sadly. Right. Good, very good. Lots of stuff going on. Shes keenly aware that shes breaking rules. Thats why she plays these names, these games with the pseudonym. And talk abouts the apprehensions her parents have about sending their daughter off to something they dont know about. She also and she certainly pays deference to the its not just theres going to be strange men there, but shes going to be touching them. Thats totally scandalous for a 19th century person. Whos not everyone supposed to expose an exposed ankle. Of another woman. You dont expose your own sort of body at all. And for you to suddenly be in a pofgs having to be arnds lots of strange people and touching them. She talks about that. That moment when shes like what, woe. Wait a minute. This is not something i anticipated. You can see the boundaries being pushed. And without sort of ruining the out come. We know its not fwoing going so stick. There were some changes that will stick. Good. I got the feeling just that its almost like an overly row ma row mant sized i think like her focus was not to necessarily draw attention to like how gross and disgusting war can be. But rather to show the importance of nurses. And to kind of show that women are capable of more than what theyre traditionally thought of. I think in that sense even though it may not, it doesnt necessarily draw a ton of attention to how grotesque the actual whats actually happening in the hospital. It does prove her point that women have are capable of more than theyre traditionally thought of back in their time. Very good. Shes keenly aware this is being published right at the time. And she has a point to make. And thats the point. That the hospital is a place for women like her. For a middle class woman whose parents might be sort of leaning on them or husband might be leaning on them saying no no this is not the place to go. Thats her point. Yes it is. So it make sense we get sort of a we get the romantic version the humorous version. Shes trying to make it safe to tell people it is safe. At the time tths its not. People who nurse and in hospitals before the civil war are mostly men. Or women from working class. Or not from middle class sort of to elite white families. Like her own family. Thats good. Really good. Yeah, i cant remember who was next. Going to you. Kind of jumping off his point. There was a lot of duty and her kind of pride about doing, on page 60 talking about how shes proud of her what shes done compared to what handsome helen did for her dead husband. Lets find it. Make sure everybody gets there. And we can follow you. This is a good time to see if we have the same page numbers. Page 60. Yeah. The entire paragraph is about how she doesnt regret her experience. Shes proud of the duty that shes done. Can you choose a piece and read it. Best and bravest in the hearts of men and women comes out in scenes like these. A little further down, if for the amount of pleasure and profit i got out of that month compensation for all after pains and sadly womanish feeling. I take satisfaction that thought if i could not lay my head on the country. I have my hair. That is more than handsome helen did for her dead husband when she sacrificed only the end of her ring lets on her urn. Talking up here experience. That goes into the romanticized account of everything. I havent read too many civil war memoirs. This is characteristic of memoirs war memoirs before vietnam war. Its just that people didnt really talk about their real like personal feelings and how they came to grasp with what they were seeing. Another thing on page 21. Its the last paragraph. The sight of several stretchers each with its legless, armless or wounded occupant entering my ward. I was there to work not to weep. I corked up my feelings and returned to the path of duty. Which was a hard road to travel. Maybe i didnt read it close enough. There wasnt too much about like how she came to grasp with what she was seeing. Legless, armless and desperat y wounded occupants. People come back and grasp what that saw. Especially nurses and doctors see the worst of it. In war zones today. But you kind of see that. But back in the day like it was all about duty. It was about the romanticized version of war. That was the most interesting. Shes careful. As are some of the probably some of the memoirs and letters youll read about what kind of news theyre sharing. With home. And what kind of news theyre only sort of keeping to themselves. Or sharing among fellow soldiers or in her case other nurses. Theres a careful, theres a way in which. And her experience shes not there long. We should remember that. Even while shes there, shes keenly aware of like what of what kind of information she wants to share. And what she doesnt. That gets back to also her intention of painting the hospital as a place where women should be. Because she has an ulterior motive. That is to make this point. I think youre right. You should look for those kinds of look for those kinds of moments in your own primary sources that youre using for your paper. About sort of how are they selecting some news that theyre sharing and other news that theyre not sharing. Whats that kind of very selfconscious kind of editing of thepss that theyre doing here. Another thing and im going to d go to pete here. What about at corked up many i feelings stuff. She says that a couple times. Why say that . Other than to remind us that shes carefully keeping some of the worst scenes from her memoir. Why is a woman would she feel like she should say that in particular. This gets back to the questions about gender expectation. And how shes consciously kind of coming up against them. Why would she say cork up my feelings . Do we think . I guess that time women were perceived as like overly emotional. And ir rational. And she was kind of demonstrating he could deny the emotions in order to do her job effectively. Yeah, good. I know also like sort of the several decades leading up to the civil war, there was the consult of domesticity. Women were supposed to be within the home and be protecters of the like society. And these sort of paragons of v virtue. And needed to be shielded from real life and the public fear. Saying she is capable of corking up her feelings and dealing with the same things men are. Shes breaking down that distinction and the idea there needs to be separate fears. And women can be in the public sphere. We have a role there. And its not just we dont need to be confined to the home. Perfect. Very good. That taps right into that language of domesticity. That that the home is the safe place for you to sort of have your feel your emotions. Express your emotions. And people thought thats where women should be. Because they were incapable of sort of separating those things. So she makes a very conscious decision to say that. Shes not the only nurse who will say that. Other nurses say that. I learned to cork up my feelings. In a public way. On page 39. Lets catch up with you. I could have sat down on the spot and cried hardly. She goes on the army needs men like john. Earnest and brave. E couldnt just give up so soon. And have not do her job correctly and have him been blundered into eternity by the rashness. She thinks of a strong emotional reaction to it be like a blunder. And its not appropriate to have a reaction like that. When someone is dying. Especially after a brave soldier like this guy was. Right. Yeah. The hospital is a workplace. And female nurses are openly clashing with doctors. About the fact that they dont belong there. She even sort of eludes to that a few times. Doctors are not welcoming these women into their workplace. With open arms. So i think thats exactly. Thats the way i interpret the moments too. Shes reflecting that. These can be and these were hostile workplaces for midding class white women for Louisa May Alcott. Working class women. Women of color. They have all to fight their way into this hospital situation. And one of the ways she is doing that, or giving us the hints of that is the way she talk abouts keeping her emotions in check. Being a profession. Even though shes a volunteer. Shes affecting that emotional distance. That the doctors will be demanding of everybody around them. She plays that both ways, though. What happens when ourhandsome rebel is dying . What were you doing to say, ali. Thats not where you were going to go. Where were you going to go . Something i found interesting is that the female nurses are the strong ones and the wounded men are weak ap and the wounded men need the female nurses. That was different than other things than weve read about the civil war. Shes portraying them as helple helpless. She makes them seem very dependent, child like, yeah. Yeah. And in that way kind of also makes it seem like for middle class women who are not trained in anything, right, they feel like they can do that, right, because thats the flip side of domesticity is that women, supposed to be expert just because, right, about taking care of children. Like you were born to know how to do that, right . Born to know how to take care of your house, born to know how to take care of children. If you portray these injured soldiers you know as infant like, then a woman would feel like she is okay. I can do that. Right . Good. Yeah. Jackson . You talk about how the dras clash with the nurse, they dont want them there sometimes and this is a billing step for middle class women to go and be nurses in the field. What started middle class women deciding to go and become nurses . I dont know if i glanced over it. No, she doesnt talk about it. You didnt miss it. What started middle class women we have to note your great question on wednesday in the way that we usually do. Were going to talk about that in just a second. But timing is important and there is a war in europe that precedes the civil want. And theres a woman, named Florence Nighten gail who goes into the field and writes a nurse, writes a popular book. Its so appropriate that were here, right, at the school of nursing here at villanova where i think we probably even have pictures of Florence Nighten gail hanging up somewhere. She writes a book and middle class american women devour it. She writes the book in such a way to say that this is something you can do as a middle class woman. She also believes by the way that you should be trained toe to do it. That you dont run off there. Otherwise you end up like louise may alcott, six weeks later youre out for the count. She writes a compelling account of it that makes it sound like its possible. Right . Yeah. And then we cant discount the sort of you know, the stuff that alcott talks about. She was inspired because she wanted to do something. I think thats how we started this conversation. Like all of the men were rushing off enlisting and she talks about that and they all found a place for themselves in the war and she was looking for hers. So of this generation of people who wanted to do something in the war, wanted to be part of it, didnt want to be the people left behind, women felt that too. But unfortunately they had this manual, you know, that it just arrived on their parlor tables and they were reading it like, i can do that. Right . I can write letters home and i can hold dying mens hands. I can sprinkle lavender on hank kis. They got inspired to do it. Yeah, scott . I had another good example of how the doctors treated the nurses, as unable to really handle the situation on page 46. Oh good. Page 46. At the top. The like male surgeon goes over to tell her to like take a rest so that she doesnt like get too exhausted or fall ill. So he says kind hearted little gentleman who seemed to consider me a frail young blossom who needed cherishing instead of a tough spinster s. Shes trying to portray herself as a nurse who doesnt need a rest but the frail doctor had to inform her that she needed to or else shes going to perish under her own will. Yeah, thats a good example. Yeah. I want to talk about alcott and a some of the other people she comes in contact with at the hospital. We know theres a tension brewing between her and doctors. What about well, the first question is what kinds of how would you describe her nursing work . What were her major sort of responsibiliti responsibilities . What kinds of things did she do . Katel katelyn . It seemed like she was mostly sitting with the men and talking to them. I know she would wash them, things like that. But didnt seem like she was doing anything overtly medical like we would picture nurses today doing. Shes not putting in an iv, shes not making sure theyre oxygenated, any of that stuff. Okay good. I dont know what happened to the night watchman but she would sometimes take the night watch shift to make sure all of the men were in their beds and she would sleep during the day and switch off with somebody. She was sitting in the ward watching them. Thats good. She would write the letters for them. She did, yes. Something you wouldnt think that nurses would be doing. They would be doing more medical services. But its more of like a comfort to them when shes helping them out with emotional things. Shes there with pen and paper when its time to write mom or your wife or Something Like that. Good. Good. A lot of the things that she does reminds me of what i would imagine a hospice care nurse would be doing, more like just treating helping alleviate pain or dealing with things like that than doing medical work to help them get better and kind of taking care of them while the doctors do whatever medicine that theyre doing at that time. Okay. Yeah. Theres that sort of providing of comfort which seems to be her main goal, right. And theres food, or at least making sure that theyre fed, making sure that theyre clean, making sure that theyre there right shes there when they need to write the letters or reminding them that they should write the letters. Sometimes delivering bad news to them. There was that one episode, that one moment she was supposed to tell this guy, this is not hes not leaving that hospital. All right. Yeah. So who is doing the other work . The doctors, right . We know that. But who is cooking . Whos mopping the floor . Theres got to be a lot of blood and yuck on those floors. We know that. Shes talking about the limbs and all of this nasty stuff. Who is doing that, cooking, whos doing the laundry. Theres got to be a lot of laundry produced. Yes. Dont they have slaves around to do that sort of thing . They do. I know that she good. She has like interaction with the freed black man in charge of the food because shes not coming at the right times and hes like, you need to come at the right time or youre not going to get fed. Shes the cook or somebody in charge or getting the food out to the soldiers. Right . So we know there are free blacks or you know former slaves who are work in this hospital because we see them early in that food preparation. They come in and out of this narrative, too, at other places as well. Scott, what were you going to say . Similar. Same thing . She talked about the woman who works in the kitchen and she has her little boy with her. I dont know if she ever says his name. But then later shes she kind of devotes a few pages to how the other women interact with the colored people that work there. And kind of pror traying herself as i wasnt afraid to touch him. But then the other women like wouldnt go near other people work in the kitchen. And even when shes stuck in bed looking out the window, just the observation that she makes about groups of black people walking down the street. Yes, in washington. Distinguishing them from the gentlemen shes used to seeing. Is she from maine . Shes from massachusetts. It was kind of odd to read. Yeah. So her reflections are interesting, right . Theres the moment that the first one you mentioned, i think its page 49 oh no. I cant remember where the one is, where she talks about herself was a proud ablolitionit and she got mad. Thats where someone was dismissive of the little boy. Wouldnt touch him. So she made sure that she was, you know, immune to racism by touching this young boy. Ill try to find it. Page 58. Is it 58 . Okay. I was on the wrong page. I was on 48. There it is. Do one of you guys want to read that little section there, the nurses were willing to is that it . Is that the place . Yeah. You want to read that in. Sure. Awesome. The nurses were willing to be served by the colored people but seldom thanked them. Seldom recognized them in the street. Whereas the blood of two abolitionists waxed hard in my veins and at the first opportunity declared itself and free speech doggedly. Yeah. Good. And that next one she catches, you know, she talks about touching that young boy just to show that shes sort of immune to racism. But then there are other moments where you mention where shes kind of awkward and in fact, you know, not just awkward, right, she smacks of what we would just consider period garden variety racism. Right . Katelyn what were you thinking of . There were definitely times where she would i dont remember exactly but she would be out Walking Around and definitely sound superior to them. Oh yeah. She mentioned a few times during the book how she was a pure abolitionist or whatever she calls it. But just like above that part that we were reading, i just shut the page, but she said that she expected she was going to have to defend herself from being prejudice. So i think thats kind of ironic as well. Like how can you be prejudice and be like this holier than thou abolitionist. And dismiss everybody who is prejudice. Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah, good. Ril riley . On page 57 before that she says like the freed slaves that she sees are totally different from the respectable members of, like the black members of society in boston. She describes them as trickish and lazy and ignorant. If youre an abolitionist and youre describing black people in that way, it seems that theres a lot of prejudice deep seeded in her. Yes, absolutely. Thats a really great example. Thats a really great one. Theres a later one too when she thinks that theyre stealing. Stuff is disappearing and she just assumes that. I had a question about that. At the time would it be considered inappropriate that she was working alongside the slaves for a woman of her class or was the north kind of like of it but then. I think thats a really good question. It underscores the point that we were making a little while ago about the premise promiscuous setting. So the fact that shes working with these people of color, you know, reminds you of that. On the other hand, right, we know by this time, by the time the war begins, theres several decades in which white and black abolitionists have been working together. And we know that highway ner philadelphia, patricia month mott and the other quakers would flaunt, they would walk down the street arm in arm with people of color. They would get roughed up and beaten up and yelled at. Theres a way in which theres a tradition of interracialism amongst abolitionists. She seems to have very little contact. Evidences very little experience working with, right, with people of color. So you think thats another reason she used like the synonym of ms. Periwinkle were like for that reason or like the entire setting . I think thats part of it, yeah. I think youre right. Thats certainly part of it, the way she plays with that pseudonym. And it might be that shes even more sort of you know, maybe the bostonian, the sort of the group of abolitionists with whom she rubs elbows. Maybe theyre just a different class of these quakers. These radical quakers in philadelphia like the flaunt that stuff. Anytime i get a chance to take a pop shot at boston in favor of philadelphia im willing to do it. Im going to stick with that even though i dont have any evidence of that. But yeah. And also its also just we have to make sure that were not looking we have to be careful its a common thing for abolitionists to remark on their own racism, right, and their own limits of their racial thinking. They know that theyre racists. Right . But the way that she dismisses others can be a little off putting for a 21st century reader to have her say other people are racist and then in the very next sentence she says something and youre like what . Come on. Come on, lou. Very good. All right. So i think were going to hold on to some of what we talked about here as we look through some of these other examples of people going out into the war to find their own places in this war. The thing to keep in mind is our opening question is that women who will go into these positions, even our friend Harriet Tubman with whom we started, start the war off as volunteers. They have to fight to be professionally recognized. And by the end of the war theyve put in place a situation where others can follow them into the profession. There is no professional nursing before the civil war. There are no Nursing Schools after the civ before the civil war. After the civil war the veterans go on to open some of the other professional Nursing Schools. And veterans will go on to seek professional entree for women in other jobs as well. Theyll push against the medical establishment to allow women to be practicing doctors. Theyll push against sort of local rules that prohibit women from voting. The rule sort of does begin, restart suffrage and the restart for professional credibility for women. And not just because of what she does but because of what some of the other people well look at do as well. Well go quickly through some of these because you all as usual were way far ahead of me in making this point here. We started off actually jubilee reminded us that all of this is happening within the context of this notion of domesticity. This idea that women, right, were made for the private sphere and were supposed to be sort of safe there. That was their place. The world outside was supposed to be sort of reserved for and not safe for these middle class women. This was their domain. And we can see alcott rubbing up against that and pushing up against that. We also know that women had even before the war, had began to push the parameters of that by getting involved in all sort of different reform activities. This image here is sort of, you know, highlights that separate spheres or domesticity. You have this sort of lefthand side and the righthand side of this domestic scene highlights the way that men and women were to live these separate existences. And that sort of portrays that domestic expectation. Yet despite this expectation, women had gotten involved with things like temperance work, antiprostitution, they had been abolitionists and all of those things were about taking them owl of the domestic sphere. We know thats there. Its not nothing that alcott or anyone in her generation originates. There is that sort of established tradition of at least questions domesticity that alcott inherits and her generation inherits, right . So when the war begins, some women will choose to stretch the parameters of domesticity and one might say that nursing does that, right . In some ways people who defend themselves because they became nurses say theyre really not doing anything different than they would do at home, except theyre doing it in the field. Theyre going to the hospital to be mothers and sisters and wives, right . Alcott refer to the hospital as being a marriage, right, a couple of times. Shes like whats the difference between this and sort of marriage. You know, that she marries the war. And she talks about how she steps in place of peoples mothers and wives when shes there, holding somebodys hand or writing a letter. That was one thing that people would explain the unusual thing that women did, extending the domestic sphere to where men were ill or men needed them. Not all women did that. Some women decided to go up against the limitations of domesticity and push those envelopes. And i want to give you some of those examples. Heres one of my favorite 19th century iconic class. American medical schools didnt allow women to enroll as students. So if you wanted to become a doctor in the mid 19th century america, you had to go hay abroad to get training or go to irregular colleges to get your medical degree. And then when you wanted to come back to do your residency, you couldnt get into a hospital to do your residency. There will be a smattering of women who will serve as doctors did you recollect the civil war, all of them had to go the extra mile to get their degree, includinglouise. Shes interesting. Shes going to be at some of the most significant battles in the eastern theater. All as a nurse, right . In the meantime she has her medical degree and shes pushing the Army Medical Department to give her an appointment as a surgeon, which is what she would have been calling as a doctor. And shes lobbying them even though shes there taking care of men, probably not just running around with lavender in a handkerchief, shes like i doing a lot more than louise may alcott is doing in her little hospital situation. Finally in 1864, toward the second half of the war, getting closer to the end. She finally gets appointed as a surgeon in recognition of all of the work that shes been doing for the last three years, really as a doctor. Right . What about this picture of her strikes you . Whats unusual about just the way she looks . Yeah. [ inaudible ] shes wearing pants. That in and of itself is a shocking revelation. Heres a woman wearing pants. Can you even believe it . The whole time she was in the hospitals talked about how unsanitary it was for these women to be Walking Around with the hoop skirts that in the process of swooshing them around collected the yuck and spread it around. Just thought it was a surgeons nightmare to think that women went into a hospital with those 19th century getups. So for her it made sense, right . Plus it was dangerous to be wearing get ups like that. You could trip or get yourself sick. Louise may alcott got sick. Walker insisted on wearing pants. And as incredible of a surgeon that she was she probably didnt wash her hands. The thing that struck her more is not how good of a surgeon she was, people always talked about her pants. It was an obsession. The absurddy of the u. S. Army appointing this medical monstrosi monstrosity. And theyre not talking about anything else thats wrong with her. A surgeons contract, one dressed in that hybrid costume, clearly pants were way too much for people to handle. She also becomes prisoner of the war. At the end of the war she gets taken captive and serves as a prisoner of war. The other thing about her getup, what about right there . Somewhats she got on her jacke jacket . Medal of honor. I kind of messed it up. As of the beginning of this year, someone will tell me if im wrong, she is the only woman to be granted the medal of honor, i believe. Does that sound right, alfred . Is that possible . Could be possibly be in 2017 and that be the case . [ inaudible ] i did try lots of things because i thought that cant be right. But after the war she was given the medal of honor because of her service many the hospitals and ultimately serving as a prisoner of war. So theres mary edwards walker. Some women went in and answered the call by becoming by becoming doctors. There were probably 200 to 300, 300 to 400, we dont know. But there were a number of women who took that whole going in disguise thing a little further and actually dressed up as men and enlisted as men in the army. We know most of these people most of the people that historians have identified are people who enlisted in the union army. Thats likely because of sources. Theres surely a comparable number of people who served in the confederacy as well. Some of you are doing your parns papers on these women who describe themselves as men. After the war was over, her come raids defended her service, a even after they found sout out was in disguise. They didnt know. But maybe they did and they pretended they werent. But they claimed to not know after the wash and defended her yards. Heres sash ra ad sara edmonds. This was her way of proving herself to be a citizen. It was patriotic fb her to do it. Jenny hodgers, aka albert besheer. Do we want to take a guess at which one she is in the picture . What do you think . What do you think mike . Im going with the person on the migright. Thats a good guess and you would be right. Served in the 95th illinois infranty. Like some of these other women, jen jenny hod gers was not discovered until well after the war. Here is a 20th century newspaper article that ly reveal. So she described herself as a man during the war. It worked so well for her that she continued to do it for years after the war until finally she was discovered. I believe this is the story. She went in to get a physical to goat her pension and thats when somebody discovered that albert was a little different from some of the other men come in to get their pension. One of the come raids who defended her referred in language that was obvious to us at the time, in the 20th century, but referred to her as old half and half, which suggests what to us. We cant think like 21st century people. Weve got to think like 19th century people. Does it sound like they maybe knew something was up . Probably. But you know what . Albert would carry a rifle and could fight so they just played along, as they did with several other examples that ill show you. Heres fran says clayland. I like cher because she looks mean as h erell. Here she is in her calvary uniform and here she is obviously not in her call ravi uniform. He looks like a formidable soldier, i think. And then of course you know that Harriet Tubman, theres be layers to this woman. She was not only a conduct are on the underground railroad, but she led a regiment of u. S. Color troops on this raid, this river ra raid. And in the aftermath of the war she has to quit a pension as a soldier. Even though she did lead a regiment of men. She fought for years to get that pension and in the end she never gets it. She gets a pension from the United States army but not because she served in the army but because she married a man after the war who had been in the army. So she gets a pension as a widow of an army man. Even though she had served in the army. All right. So thats sort of those are sort of the unusual ways in which women go into war. The more the sort of more beaten down path or the palth that we have records of many women attempting were the more traditional routes. Prewar groups working on solving problems in their communities easily became local soldiers relief organizations when the war began. They collected supplies and send them to the front in pretty much every down and village throughout in particular in both the north and the south. In the south it becomes increasingly difficult for the aids societies to survive. Theyve got to collect food and supplies at home. They cant send them off. And then right from those soldier aide society is born the precursor, the 19th century precursor to the american red cross. That organization was called the United States sanitary commission. It really began as an attempt to organize relief. Now when theres a disaster, people dont try to rush supplies directly to the disaster, right . You give money to an Umbrella Organization like red cross who does that work for you. During the civil war, this is the years before the red close. But an Organization Called the ed states sanary commission was born based on the same idea. And it originated from soldiers ai aides societies. And it involved the work of a couple of em who had been established at the time. Dorothy elizabeth blackwell. Elizabeth blackwell was the First American woman to everybody her medical degree. Today they got together and created this red cross like thing. The u. S. San toir commission. Thats their seal. Through the san toir commission come people got their feet wet or tried nursing. The Sanitary Mission didnt just send tlois but nursupplies but. Some went into nursing after that. Some went on their own, like alcott. She had friends who got an appointment, she got a pass and everything laid out to her. In the time we have remaining i want to go beyond that middle class experience and talk a little more about the experience who sort of figure in as bit players in alcotts drama. As i suggested to you, this is the first generation of middle class women who talk about themselves as nurses. Before that the hospital was a place of working class women, people of color, people well beneath that class of people. I want to go beyond here. Theres Florence Nighten gail when i mentioned to you earlier on who maid it safe or inspired the middle class women to go into the army. So a lot of these middle class women are reading it. Right . All right. This is where i want to be. So beyond that middle class people whose you know, nursing experiences have been wellexplored. There are many other people who wind up in the hospital doing the really hard work. The work that alcott and others are not doing. And their Hospital Experiences have very different from alcotts. The hospital can be a dangerous place. It was a place where you had to sort of fight for your credibility as a middle class nurse. As a working class woman or as a woman of color, you had to sometimes fight for you own l e life. It was a place where you could be attacked by a soldier. There were women who white men and women of color reported that africanamerican women who served in these hospitals bade the subjects of abuse, were often raped by soldiers or by surgeons. This is a very dangerous place for an africanamerican woman to be, to work in these hospitals. Heres a reflection by a woman, a white woman talking about sort of, you know, what would happen to a woman of color who served in these hospitals. You know, so these women went into this work sometimes because they wanted to do the right thing. Sometimes because they needed to earn a living. But they also took their lives into their own hands and it became a very dangerous experience. And some of these pictures here you can see, these marginal figures in these pictures are really people doing the most hard hospital work. Theyre taking care of, you know, the physical labor of cleaning and laundry, all of that stuff. You can see them on the sides here. Right . And here, this woman didnt stop washes long enough for the picture to be taken. Shes moving at her wash tub. And working in those environments converted some of these white middle class women to abolitionism who werent there before. So heres an example of Abby Hopper Gibbons who talks about her nursing experience and show she really learned about what slavery was and became aware of what she had seen in the hospitals. Here is her talking about the outrage of the slavery. Im going quickly to our southern examples. In the south, even more so than in the experiencing that weve been seeing among people like alcott, the hardest work done in the hospitals was done by enslaved people. Men and women did the hardest work nursing in these hospitals. Heres a mick chur picture of a hospital outside of richmond, virginia. It was run by africanamericans. And these people, they were drafted into this work. They didnt value tear to do it. And once they got there, you know, they had to negotiate well they did negotiate. Swem complained about them all of the time. Even more than Louisa May Alcott. Here at the hospital in richmond, the white hospital matrons complained that the moment lees men started to evacuate richmond, all of the enslaved hospital workers took off, they left. They were negotiating the terms under which they worked in the hospitals. They were there sometimes motivated by, you know, the desire to do something good often because they were coerced to do so. But the moment they had a chance for freedom, they did that. You can imagine what that did to a hospital. Somebody who is doing all of the hard work disappeared. Just a couple of the pictures of some f the women who worked in the hospitals. Kate cumming worked in mississippi and tennessee. Always complained about the hospital workers who worked with her. Phoebe pemer. They were leaving her to do the hard work of cooking. Hospital nursing was on both sides. And some of the women who run away from slavery will wind up showing up in Union Hospitals as well. And im going to leave wu with this picture of suzy king taylor, a fugitive slave who ran away with her family. And when she comes to the north, she then volunteers to become a nurse for the niets color troops and serves is anybody doing suzy king taylor . No . She writes a him roir of her experience, working for the 33rd color troops. First as a nurse but also becomes a teacher. The people she works with are eager to learn how to read and she knows how to read and is lit rate. So she talks about her memories and talks about why shes there, to work as their teacher. We know less about these women and and these experiences because the southern white women who survived the war, right, will write their memoirs thick and fast and the memoirs will tell a narrative that covers over the work of slavery and the work that those women did in confederate hospitals. And men of color in confederate hospitals. What becomes of this sort of nugget of nursing history that weve seen planted, or this seed of nursing history that weve seen planted in the civil war. A couple of examples. Louisa skyler is a woman who worked for the sanitation commission. She works in new york city to open up the first school of nursing that trains women to be professional nurses. Skylar does. And theres a cluster of these other schools that will open up in the after math of school as well. Taking nursing from being a voluntary thing, this thing that middle class women did and defused to get a salary for. Turning it into a profession. Cla ra bar don, of course, becomes, as you know, the first president of the american red cross, turning her nurses career into a profession. And lets leave it at Louisa May Alcott. What does she go on to do. She writes some books. What does she write . Among other things, little women. How many of you read little women . Would you reck that more readily than you would sketches . Well end with alcott to being a special visitor, not a nurse. Take care. See you wednesday. Labor day weekend on American History pf on cspan3. At 8 00 p. M. Eastern, saturday on lectures in history, fears about overpopulation. Om of the issues talk about on earth day, pesticides was a big one, pollution was a big one, nonrenewable resources, things like oil and gasoline. But the super big one, the thing that overshadowed the first earth day was the prospect of global familine. It easy to overlook the fact that they both have routes in farming community, they were transformed by the configuration of world war i and they lived in the shadow of frink lynn d. Roosevelt. Monday, the 1967 detroit riots. All of the energy and anger and activism that went into that moment had long been predicted. People had been begging for some remedy were the housing discrimination. And so that frustration cannot be understood as just chaotic and incoherent. It was a rebellion. Threeday Labor Day Weekend on American History tv on cspa cspan3. When you think about a oneday festival, the National Book festival and you have over 100 authors from childrens authors, illustratorillustrator arti artist. Over 100,000 people come in and celebrate books and reading. You cant have a better time, i think. And im a little prejudice because im a library. But i have to tell you any raider or anybody that wants to get inside were the book festival is where you need to be. Former secretary of state Condoleezza Rice and Michael Lewis and j. D. Vans. Live saturday p. M. Eastern on cspan 2s book tv. Sunday night on q a we take a look at anthony clarks book the last campaign, how president s rewrite history, run for pos parity and enshrine their slegacies. Its not i havent soefd a mild, i read it and it was okay. Why are they angry . We have president ial library is created to house records and the one wont be over for 100 years. Sunday night at 8 00 eastern and cspans q a. Next, Christopher Hamner teaches a class on the factors that motivated the soldiers during the war. He explains how the promise of an immediate furlough served an an incentive for servicemen to reenlist at the end of the war. Well, good morning. Thanks for joining us. Weve spent the last few discussions talking about the campaigns of 1863 from the perspective of the generals. We talked a little bit about wartime leadership from richmond and washington, d. C. Weve taken a top down look at the middle part of the war. Today i want to take our focus and move it back to the individual soldier. Lets start with the image that weve seen a couple of times. This