In further accordance with the surgeon-general’s permission, the nurses who were on waiting orders at Tampa were sent to the Leiter Hospital near Chattanooga, where ten were immediately placed on duty by the chief surgeon, Major Carter; and as they could not be provided for in the hospital building, Miss Gill went to Chattanooga to arrange for their maintenance in quarters near by. The service at the Leiter Hospital was peculiarly hard, and one of the nurses, Miss Phinney, died there as a result of the great mental and physical strain to which she was subjected.
Ten nurses were sent on July 22 to the General Hospital, Fort Monroe, in charge of Miss Lida G. Starr. As this hospital consisted largely of tents, it was necessary for the nurses to be maintained in hotels, in the neighborhood. Later, other nurses came, and soon the entire force, with two exceptions, had signed contracts with the government, but were maintained at the expense of the auxiliary. The total number of nurses maintained by the auxiliary in service at this place was at times as large as forty-five. Ten other nurses, maintained by the Woman’s War Relief Association, shared in the work there. In all seventeen hundred patients were treated at this hospital, of whom only thirty-four died. To Miss Starr is due much credit for the admirable management of the funds intrusted to her by the auxiliary, and for the sedulous care she bestowed upon the welfare of the nurses. Only this, as they themselves realized, made it possible for them to perform so remarkable a work,—a work of which Major De Witt, the surgeon in charge, said: “I am satisfied that whatever success we may have had in the treatment of our sick and wounded has been in great measure due to the skill and devotion of the female nurses.”
Our labor at Charleston involved somewhat different necessities. The city hospitals were crowded with soldiers who had been taken ill on their way from the camps to the transports. Additional nurses were thus greatly needed, and on July 24 twenty, in charge of Miss Martha L. Draper, were sent to meet the emergency. That their services were valuable and appreciated is shown by the testimonials granted them by the Board of Commissioners of the City Hospital of Charleston.
When, in early August, the steamship “Missouri” was bought by the government for a hospital ship, Mrs. Reid offered women nurses to the officer in charge, Major Arthur. As the construction of the ship did not afford accommodations which permitted the presence of women on board, this offer was changed. The department had allowed Major Arthur ten male nurses, but the government salary did not command the quality of service which the special work of superintendence required. It was therefore proposed to choose, under the advice of Dr. Fisher, of the Presbyterian Hospital, a small supplementary corps of exceptionally able nurses, who could assume the responsibility of the wards. When these men had been chosen, they impressed Major Arthur so favorably that he decided to dispense with the ten nurses allowed him by the government, take these selected men under contract, pay them the regulation salary, and leave upon the auxiliary the expense only of the additional salary necessary to command this superior nursing ability. The men retained the position of Red Cross nurses, and wore the special uniform provided by the auxiliary. Ten men made the trip to Santiago, but for the second and third trips the staff was increased to fourteen. The spirit and capacity of these men were severely tested on the first voyage by the unprepared state in which the emergency required that the “Missouri” be sent South, but they met their labors and hardships in a way which brought forth Major Arthur’s warmest praise.
Forty-two nurses have in the course of the summer been sent to Fort Wadsworth, Staten Island, where, under the able management of Miss Marjorie Henshall, effective service has been rendered, giving absolute satisfaction to the surgeons in charge.
At Governor’s Island Miss Alice Marie Wyckoff and Miss Barker have represented the auxiliary. Early in July they were occupied on Swinburn Island in caring for the many patients who arrived on the “Concho;” and when those patients were transferred to Governor’s Island, Major Kimball, the surgeon in charge, asked that the nurses be sent there to assist his hospital corps. This request was granted, and additional nurses have since been supplied. He speaks in high terms of what these nurses have done to aid him, and of their conspicuous success in rousing apathetic patients to assist in their own recovery.
The situation of these two harbor hospitals, and of the hospital at Fort Hamilton, was especially favorable for the treatment of the very sick patients received from the transports directly from Santiago, or from the general hospital at Camp Wikoff. The remarkably small death-rate is directly attributable to the skill and devotion of the surgeons and nurses, to the carefully prepared food, and to the sea air blowing through the tents. “It has been most wonderful,” remarked Miss Ellen M. Wood, who was in charge of the nurses at Fort Hamilton, “to watch the soldiers grow young again” amid such surroundings. The part which Miss Wood and her assistants played in this beneficial change may be indicated by a quotation from a recent letter to the acting president of the auxiliary from Major and Brigade Surgeon Rafferty, commanding the General Hospital at Fort Hamilton:
Miss E.M. Wood, with five nurses, will report to you on Saturday, October 15, 1898. They have been on duty with me in the camp and wards of the United States General Hospital at this place for the past six or eight weeks, and have rendered me noble, efficient and conscientious work.
I wish you would express to your auxiliary for me my great appreciation of their efforts to ameliorate the suffering and sickness of our soldiers returning from the seat of war. Were I to choose the most worthy and successful body of workers from among all the generous people who have been rendering such beautiful aid to our sick and wounded, I should unhesitatingly point to your Auxiliary for the Maintenance of Trained Nurses.
Much has been accomplished by the mission of the special committee to the surgeon-general in July; but later in the month it became increasingly apparent that some simpler routine of co-operation with the government must be established in order to secure the more rapid placing of the nurses. Under the existing conditions, all nurses ordered to army hospitals were selected by the Daughters of the American Revolution Hospital Corps, consisting of Dr. Anita Newcomb McGee, director; Miss Mary Desha and Mrs. Francis G. Nash, assistant directors; and Mrs. Amos G. Draper, treasurer. This hospital corps did noble work for the cause, and its co-operation was highly appreciated by the auxiliary. Dr. McGee, on whose advice in these matters the surgeon-general greatly relied, was indefatigable in her efforts, working day and night and month after month.