State History

The Civil War Nurses Memorial was dedicated September 28th at Tompkins Cortland Community College, culminating a project initiated by the Tompkins County Civil War Sesquicentennial Commemoration Commission.
This report is authored by Tompkins County Historian Carol Kammen, Co-Chair of the Civil War Commission.
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On September 28, 2016 the Village of Dryden took its place alongside the Arlington National Cemetery and the National Mall as a sacred site.
Dryden is a small village, home to the Tompkins Cortland Community College, and some small businesses and local commercial enterprises. It was once the home of Julia Cook, who in 1864 went off to nurse in the American Civil War, was assigned to an infectious hospital, and promptly became ill herself. She was back in Dryden before the month was out.
But hers was not the only story of women who nursed in the Civil War. There were at least three other women from Tompkins County, including Susan E. Hall of the Town of Ulysses who was the very first woman to volunteer to nurse in those awful days in April 1861. Hall nursed until the end of the fighting. Her companion, Harriet Dada of Syracuse, nursed past the armistice and later became a doctor in Syracuse.
These women have long gone unheralded—surprisingly so especially considering the fact that the women nurses of the Spanish American war were honored with a monument in Arlington National Cemetery in 1905, less than five years after the end of that war. The founder of that monument was “disinclined to honor all nurses,” wanting only to point out the efforts of those during the Spanish American War. In 1914 Massachusetts erected an Army Nurse Memorial sponsored by the Daughters of Veterans of the Civil War, citing a number of 600 possible nurses, none named individually. In 1924 the Ladies Auxiliary of Ancient Order of Hibernians created the “Nuns of the Battlefield” Memorial near Dupont Circle in Washington, D.C. In 1938 in the Nurses section in Arlington National Cemetery there was a memorial to army and navy nurses who had served in World War I; in 1993 on the National Mall there is a representative memorial of three women tending a wounded soldier.
There are also some memorials to individual nurses.
But there has been no memorial to those women who nursed during the American Civil War. This was partially due to the fact that wartime nursing in those days was not considered a proper thing for women to do and because of the modesty expressed by many women who had nursed, refusing to take credit for all they had done.
So it has become time. Time to remember. Inspired by the four women from Tompkins County, the memorial dedicated on September 28th represents the more than 21,000 women who qualified for Civil War pensions for their work as nurses in 1893—thirty years after the war was over; the women who appeared on the battlefields to help and who were never credited for their service.
The memorial also remembers the Southern women for whom no lists were made, but who nursed in homes and courthouses. The monument also represents black women, such as Susie King Taylor and the 420 other African American nurses who worked, mostly on the western battlefields, and the countless other African Americans, many of whom were “contrabands “ (persons who came out of slavery and lived with the Union Troops while the conflict raged). They served primarily as laundresses, seamstresses, cleaners, and cooks. And it represents the 260 Sisters of Charity and the other groups of nuns who went to aid when help was needed.
At the dedication ceremony, College President Dr. Carl Haynes spoke about the monument and its meaning to the college, the Honorable Michael Lane, chair of the Tompkins County Legislature spoke about the origin of the memorial, which began with the Tompkins County Civil War Sesquicentennial Commemoration Commission, and the importance of the monument. Melissa Schmidt, PhD., a member of the nursing faculty at Tompkins Cortland Community College talked about the program at the college and the impact its graduates have had on nursing, especially throughout the region.
Lastly, Carol Kammen, Tompkins County Historian spoke about the fact that the women who went to war in 1861 faced many battles and their sacrifice to the country has never been recognized. “So what we do here, today, and together,” she said, “is important and significant. It is an act of memory as we pay a debt of appreciation” to these 19th century women. These women set an example and deserve our admiration and regard, showing us that, despite barriers, we can all contribute. That consideration must be paid. “That all lives matter.”
Today, in the rain, four large silhouettes of women are striding forward, each in a blue dress, white apron flowing, and each holding a lantern that shines, as the light outside dimes stands on the wet lawn. Created by local artist Rob Licht, the women march from the origins of nursing to its present…and its future.
This monument partially fulfills our debt to these women, for in addition to the monument there is a scholarship fund created in the names of each of the local women to aid nursing students at Tompkins Community College, administered by the TC3 Foundation (170 North Street, Dryden NY, 13053).

For further information and comment, contact:
Tompkins County Historian Carol Kammen, Co-Chair of the Tompkins County Civil War Sesquicentennial Commemoration Commission, ckk6@cornell.edu.
 

Original Article: http://www.tompkinscountyny.gov/news/new-civil-war-nurses-memorial-hono…