Reminiscences of an army nurse during the Civil War

by Adelaide W. Smith

Oh, the fight will be close and the carnage be dread!

To the ranks let us hie:

We have buried our dead.

I found plenty of work to do, and attached myself to the Ninth Corps especially, though visiting all the wards and corps. I was invited by Mrs. Mayhew to work with her for some weeks in the Maine State Agency. While there I was asked later, in the absence of Miss Gilson, of Lynn, Massachusetts, to take charge of the Corps d’Afric, but I soon found that the work was chiefly to look after refugee negroes, and to give them employment in laundry work, etc. Doctor Thomas Pooley was then in charge of that corps, and is now a distinguished oculist of Manhattan. I still see him, a very young man, resplendent in a new uniform with bright buttons, red sash, etc., as officer of the day.

HELEN LOUISE GILSON

Miss Gilson had come with Mr. Fay, General Superintendent of the Sanitary Commission, in the field, and formerly Mayor of Chelsea, Massachusetts, and she chose to work for the Corps d’Afric. That was quite as well conducted as any other corps. Miss Gilson was a dainty young woman, and, while in camp, wore a short pretty dress of grey cloth and a white kerchief tastily arranged over her dark hair and one about her neck. She had a pure soprano voice, and frequently sang army songs and hymns to the men, making them quite happy, and with a sort of reverence, they seemed to find her an angel of peace. In her earnest devotion, Miss Gilson remained too long ministering to typhoid patients from whom she contracted the fever, and at last was compelled to leave her chosen work and go to her home, still hoping to recover and to return to the patients of her corps. Her strength was not equal to the waste of that burning fever, however, and she died in her early womanhood, a sacrifice to her benevolence and patriotism as truly and honorably as the men who died on the field of battle.

I returned to the Maine State Agency, and found more special cases in the hospital than could be cared for by all the ladies. The United States Sanitary Commission was under the direction of the late J. Yates Peek, of Brooklyn, New York. The absence of sectarianism in their work gave them greater freedom than was found in the work of the “Christian Commission,” which was conducted on “religious” principles. The latter, however, did a very large work under the direction of the late Mr. Henry Houghton, a distinguished oculist of Manhattan.

The large wooden chapel accommodated many hundreds, and here came preachers from all over the country, whose churches had contributed supplies and were anxious to know how their contributions were applied. Some ministers, from remote localities, were a great annoyance, having to be entertained by the Christian Commission, and wanting to regulate their donations according to the ideas of their own little parishes.

In the Maine State Agency the “mess” was at that time composed of Mrs. Mayhew and her lady assistants, with two or three convalescent officers. This pleasant party I was invited to join.