Rose Russell

Pension File: 1139608, 868306
P.O.: Vicksburg, Mississippi
Service: contract nurse at McPherson Hospital, Vicksburg from 1862 to 1866
Applied: 1892
Status: Accepted

I know, I missed last night. I'm doing penance by posting two nurses tonight.  First, as promised, is Rose Russell, formerly Rose Gibson.  Like I said in my last post, Russell's file threw me for a loop, because there is nothing in the file to suggest that Russell was black until you hit the death certificate. And there it is: "negro."  No where, I repeat, no where in the file is there any hint that this woman was black.  I've across several white nurses who moved south after the war; also a fair number who are not literate and signed using a mark, just like Russell.  Since the War Department couldn't find any records of her service, there was nothing there to indicate her color, and the people who gave affidavits certainly never mentioned the fact--I suppose they never felt the need.  If there's nothing in the application then to suggest Russell was black, did the Bureau know?  And did that have anything to do with her getting her pension?  Another thing: was this something the Bureau was on the look-out for?  I'm keeping in mind the fact that based on the Carded Service Index put together in 1890 of all the recorded nurses the Bureau could find, blacks were mostly listed as laundresses and cooks, not nurses.  Based on this, was the Bureau likely to suspect a woman applying as a nurse was black--and did it matter?  That is the biggest question here, and the one I keep coming back to: did it matter?  I don't have enough black women plugged into my database yet to say one way or the other, but I've seen it go both ways.  Clara Watson's application was denied, if you remember that far back, but Malinda Grimes, who served at Yorktown Hospital, managed to get a Special Act through Congress compensating her for her services (not a pension, I know, but the fact she got the Act through at all is impressive)--and I know there are more in my files.  Better finish this Database quick before this drives me crazy.