Abby F. Harris

Pension: 1138529, 854430
P.O.: Scituate, Rhode Island
Service: Howan Hospital, Nashville (also known as No.1 and No. 4)
Applied: 1892
Status: Accepted

Let me just state up front that I went "down the rabbit hole" on this one, and checked out Ancestry. A lot.
Abby F. Harris was born Abby Francis Allen on June 15, 1828, the oldest of five children born to Reuben and Phebe Allen. She first appears in the records in the 1850 census, at age 21, living with her parents in Scituate, Rhode Island, where her father was a Baptist minister.  I haven't found an 1860 census record yet, but the pension file fills in some of the gaps.  In May, 1862, Harris began working as a contract nurse at Howan Hospital in Nashville under Dr. James F. Weeds (I'd love to know how in the world a contract nurse managed to wrangle a position in Tennessee!).  She continued to work there until she was discharged in June, 1865.
By 1870, Harris was living in Scituate with her father and her sister Mary.  She was still single, and teaching school--yet somehow her sister, who was "keeping house" was the one with $300 in personal property.  Go figure.  By 1880, she'd stopped teaching, and both sisters were living together.
Then, in 1883, she married James A. Harris.  The marriage didn't last long.  James died in 1891 after an illness of several years (Harris mentions this in her pension file), and Harris was left alone.  She applied for her pension in October, 1892, on the grounds of old age, nervous prostration and general debility due to her service in the war.  And the Bureau (ye old speed demon) actually managed to process it and accept it by March, 1893.  The records were all there, Harris didn't have to jump through any hoops, so the pension file is pretty empty.  The only papers left were the ones cancelling the pension after her death in 1914.
It is, in all honesty, a rather nondescript file, and the census records don't add a great deal more depth, but there are some intriguing little bits that I hope I can track down...especially that bit about Tennessee...I love a good challenge.