"For A Woman" hit over 1000 views over the weekend! Small peanuts, I know, but I still think it's amazing. Keep it up, guys! It's those views that keep me posting.
In other news, I am taking a one week break to focus on my thesis. I am nearly done with Chapter 3--which, after I break out the red pen, will become Chapter 2--and, since I still haven't covered everything I want to cover, there needs to be a Chapter 4. However, this means that I can rebuild my buffer, so when updates start back up next Monday we should be good for another couple of weeks, at least until early April. And, if all goes to plan, Monday will also feature a rundown of some of the exciting things I've been finding recently, putting together all these pensions I've been posting here and drawing some larger conclusions from them. See you then!
Monday, February 18, 2013
Thursday, February 14, 2013
Annie E. Stiles
Pension File: 1138701
P.O.: Washington, D.C.
Service: National Hotel Hospital in Baltimore, May, 1861 to May, 1865
Applied: 1892
Status: Rejected
This file was odd enough that despite the fact it's on the small side I decided it needed to be posted. Stiles' application was very straightforward. She was on record at the National Hotel Hospital from Sept. 11 to Nov. 28, 1861, and from May 29, 1862 to April 17, 1865, so she had no problems proving six months service or competent authority. Stiles was rejected, however, on the grounds that she was already drawing a pension as the widow of an 1812 veteran. The whole thing sounded entirely plausible until I found the marriage record. Annie E. Cooper married William Stiles on November 24, 1870. Even if Mr. Stiles served as a drummer boy during the War of 1812, say age 10 or so, he would have been around seventy years old when he married Annie. Annie herself was born c. 1822, making her 48. So, at the least, there's a twenty year age difference. The only thing I can think of to explain this was that they found love very late in life, or that it was a marriage of convenience--William had someone to look after him in his last years and Annie would be able to draw a pension after his death. If I remember correctly, many Confederate veterans actually did the same thing, marrying young women specifically so these women would have pensions when their husbands died. What do you think the chances are that Annie and William were the same?
P.O.: Washington, D.C.
Service: National Hotel Hospital in Baltimore, May, 1861 to May, 1865
Applied: 1892
Status: Rejected
This file was odd enough that despite the fact it's on the small side I decided it needed to be posted. Stiles' application was very straightforward. She was on record at the National Hotel Hospital from Sept. 11 to Nov. 28, 1861, and from May 29, 1862 to April 17, 1865, so she had no problems proving six months service or competent authority. Stiles was rejected, however, on the grounds that she was already drawing a pension as the widow of an 1812 veteran. The whole thing sounded entirely plausible until I found the marriage record. Annie E. Cooper married William Stiles on November 24, 1870. Even if Mr. Stiles served as a drummer boy during the War of 1812, say age 10 or so, he would have been around seventy years old when he married Annie. Annie herself was born c. 1822, making her 48. So, at the least, there's a twenty year age difference. The only thing I can think of to explain this was that they found love very late in life, or that it was a marriage of convenience--William had someone to look after him in his last years and Annie would be able to draw a pension after his death. If I remember correctly, many Confederate veterans actually did the same thing, marrying young women specifically so these women would have pensions when their husbands died. What do you think the chances are that Annie and William were the same?
Tuesday, February 12, 2013
Amanda B. Smyth
Pension File: 1130631, 899523
P.O.: Harlem Springs, Ohio
Service: volunteer nurse at General Hospital 6, New Albany, Indiana
Applied: 1892
Status: Accepted
I loved reading this file. Lots of little things that made it come alive, and it brought some interesting issues to light. Smyth's application was straight forward enough; she wasn't on any of the hospital rolls, but an affidavit from the hospital steward on duty proved she had served six months (November, 1862 to June, 1863) and had served under competent authority. The interesting information comes from her husband's affidavits and the census record information. To start with, husbands never make affidavits about their wife's cases, but for some reason this one felt compelled to. William Smyth was in the 98th Ohio when he was wounded at Chickamauga and sent to General Hospital 6 in New Albany; according to his affidavit, Amanda came down to tend to him. "Sometime after," her husband wrote, "the doctor spoke to me about enlisting her as a nurse so that she could draw pay; I said that I would rather not have her enlisted for I wanted her to go home as soon as I went to my Regiment." Two things about this. One: William and not Amanda was approached by the surgeon about making sure Amanda was paid. That in itself tells us a great deal about gender dynamics and roles. And two: in another affidavit, William rephrased his statement: "The reason Mrs. Smyth was not enlisted as a nurse was that I was opposed to it. I was opposed to her coming." Why? Why was he opposed? I think (and, mind you, I just think, I can't be sure) that the 1870 census has the answer. In the 1870 census, William and Amanda have a nine year old son. So, if we follow this finding to its logical conclusion, when Amanda went to New Albany to nurse William, she left behind a year-old son.
That certainly left me floored.
It raised a lot of questions though. What happened to the kid? Where did he stay? Was this common practice? I know Mary A. Livermore hired a governess and a cook to look after her children before she left home to spend four years working for the Sanitary Commission, and I vaguely remember reading about a woman who brought her eleven year-old daughter with her to the front lines while she served as a nurse, but I know very little apart from that. What did married nurses do with their children? And what effect did these actions have on those children? What did the children think of the war, period? It's something I've never considered, and something I imagine is rather hard to get at. Still, when I'm done with this thesis, maybe I'll look into it.
P.O.: Harlem Springs, Ohio
Service: volunteer nurse at General Hospital 6, New Albany, Indiana
Applied: 1892
Status: Accepted
I loved reading this file. Lots of little things that made it come alive, and it brought some interesting issues to light. Smyth's application was straight forward enough; she wasn't on any of the hospital rolls, but an affidavit from the hospital steward on duty proved she had served six months (November, 1862 to June, 1863) and had served under competent authority. The interesting information comes from her husband's affidavits and the census record information. To start with, husbands never make affidavits about their wife's cases, but for some reason this one felt compelled to. William Smyth was in the 98th Ohio when he was wounded at Chickamauga and sent to General Hospital 6 in New Albany; according to his affidavit, Amanda came down to tend to him. "Sometime after," her husband wrote, "the doctor spoke to me about enlisting her as a nurse so that she could draw pay; I said that I would rather not have her enlisted for I wanted her to go home as soon as I went to my Regiment." Two things about this. One: William and not Amanda was approached by the surgeon about making sure Amanda was paid. That in itself tells us a great deal about gender dynamics and roles. And two: in another affidavit, William rephrased his statement: "The reason Mrs. Smyth was not enlisted as a nurse was that I was opposed to it. I was opposed to her coming." Why? Why was he opposed? I think (and, mind you, I just think, I can't be sure) that the 1870 census has the answer. In the 1870 census, William and Amanda have a nine year old son. So, if we follow this finding to its logical conclusion, when Amanda went to New Albany to nurse William, she left behind a year-old son.
That certainly left me floored.
It raised a lot of questions though. What happened to the kid? Where did he stay? Was this common practice? I know Mary A. Livermore hired a governess and a cook to look after her children before she left home to spend four years working for the Sanitary Commission, and I vaguely remember reading about a woman who brought her eleven year-old daughter with her to the front lines while she served as a nurse, but I know very little apart from that. What did married nurses do with their children? And what effect did these actions have on those children? What did the children think of the war, period? It's something I've never considered, and something I imagine is rather hard to get at. Still, when I'm done with this thesis, maybe I'll look into it.
Wednesday, February 6, 2013
Phebe Farmer
Pension File: 1138498
P.O.: Cureall, Missouri
Service: volunteer nurse at New Orleans
Applied: 1892
Status: Rejected
Today I started going through the nurses from the US Christian Commission. There aren't many, just 9 out of the 179 files I have from after the ANPA. Turns out there are actually 7--I misidentified two of the women, of which one was Farmer. I was going to post another USSC nurse for you tonight, but I decided I wanted her story to go up instead.
From what I found in the file, Farmer was an intelligent woman who had a rough life. She lived somewhere in the vicinity of New Orleans when the war broke out. Her cousin and several other relatives joined the Confederate army, but she herself was born in Massachusetts and remained loyal to the North, as did her family. Shortly after the war began they fled to New Orleans, where they waited out the war. Apparently, General Banks issued an order preventing women from nursing in New Orleans hospitals (something I haven't corroborated yet), but Farmer still wanted to help, so she used her contacts in several Massachusetts regiments to have men sent from the hospitals to her home where she could tend to them herself. She also arranged for her daughter to take one or two baskets of food a day to St. James Hospital. This, she claimed, did the most good, since the food there killed more men than the bullets. Farmer's husband also helped the Union war effort, though not in a medical capacity. Apparently he knew the bayous and swamps better than most, and volunteered to help guide Bank's men through the area during the Red River campaign. This, of course, made him very unpopular, and he disappeared sometime in 1867.
Thirty years later, Farmer was barely scrapping by, earning $1 a week at the local post office, so she put in a claim for a pension. By her own admission she had more faith in a special act from Congress than in the ANPA due to the nature of her service, but her daughter as well as Annie Wittenmyer (apparently Farmer was a member of the WRC) and George B. Lowd (a former patient and now editor of the Home and Country magazine) urged her to apply under the ANPA. Honestly, she'd have been better off not listening to Wittenmyer (I can't believe I'm saying it either), because as a volunteer nurse who had done the majority of her work at her home, not only did Farmer not appear on the rolls, she didn't even fall under the ANPA. So the Bureau rejected her. Even her connection to President Harrison was no help--the Harrison's were apparently old family friends. But somehow I don't think it phased her.
Best news yet today: a quick google search turned up her daughter's papers at Louisiana State University. I am putting in a request for those. Right now.
P.O.: Cureall, Missouri
Service: volunteer nurse at New Orleans
Applied: 1892
Status: Rejected
Today I started going through the nurses from the US Christian Commission. There aren't many, just 9 out of the 179 files I have from after the ANPA. Turns out there are actually 7--I misidentified two of the women, of which one was Farmer. I was going to post another USSC nurse for you tonight, but I decided I wanted her story to go up instead.
From what I found in the file, Farmer was an intelligent woman who had a rough life. She lived somewhere in the vicinity of New Orleans when the war broke out. Her cousin and several other relatives joined the Confederate army, but she herself was born in Massachusetts and remained loyal to the North, as did her family. Shortly after the war began they fled to New Orleans, where they waited out the war. Apparently, General Banks issued an order preventing women from nursing in New Orleans hospitals (something I haven't corroborated yet), but Farmer still wanted to help, so she used her contacts in several Massachusetts regiments to have men sent from the hospitals to her home where she could tend to them herself. She also arranged for her daughter to take one or two baskets of food a day to St. James Hospital. This, she claimed, did the most good, since the food there killed more men than the bullets. Farmer's husband also helped the Union war effort, though not in a medical capacity. Apparently he knew the bayous and swamps better than most, and volunteered to help guide Bank's men through the area during the Red River campaign. This, of course, made him very unpopular, and he disappeared sometime in 1867.
Thirty years later, Farmer was barely scrapping by, earning $1 a week at the local post office, so she put in a claim for a pension. By her own admission she had more faith in a special act from Congress than in the ANPA due to the nature of her service, but her daughter as well as Annie Wittenmyer (apparently Farmer was a member of the WRC) and George B. Lowd (a former patient and now editor of the Home and Country magazine) urged her to apply under the ANPA. Honestly, she'd have been better off not listening to Wittenmyer (I can't believe I'm saying it either), because as a volunteer nurse who had done the majority of her work at her home, not only did Farmer not appear on the rolls, she didn't even fall under the ANPA. So the Bureau rejected her. Even her connection to President Harrison was no help--the Harrison's were apparently old family friends. But somehow I don't think it phased her.
Best news yet today: a quick google search turned up her daughter's papers at Louisiana State University. I am putting in a request for those. Right now.
Tuesday, February 5, 2013
Sarah A. Barton
Pension File: 1123054, 875442
P.O.: Santa Rosa, California
Service: Jefferson Barracks, and hospital transports 'Imperior,' 'War Eagle,' and 'Red Rover'
Applied: 1892
Status: Accepted
Here's another short and sweet one for you. I'm almost through with the USSC nurses, and frankly these women had a very easy time of it. Almost all of them appear in the War Department records, so needless to say getting a pension was fairly straight forward. Out of ten cases, only one woman abandoned her claim before completion, and another, Caroline Boston, had to apply a second time to get her pension. Every other claim went forward without a problem. After all the madness of the other files, I'm not sure if I'm disappointed at the lack of fireworks or relieved.
Anyway, Sarah A. Barton, nee White. Served at Jefferson Barracks, probably from November, 1861 to February, 1863, as well as several months on the 'Imperior,' 'War Eagle,' and 'Red Rover.' Her husband, Charles H. Barton, was a 1st Lieut. in the 56th IL, which mustered in early in 1862. The fact that she enlisted before her husband is very unusual. At first I thought it was a clerical error, or I was misreading the documents, but both Barton and the War Department put her at Benton Barracks in November, 1861. In fact, Barton says she began her service even earlier, in October. And my famous outside sources tell me that they were married in late September that same year. Oh, I dearly hope they left some letters behind.
Barton and her husband both survived the war, though Barton says her work negatively impacted her health, especially as she got older. Charles died in 1883, but Sarah didn't applied for a widow's pension until 1890, which she dropped in 1893 when she received her nurse's pension. The woman even sent in original documents to prove her service, even though the Bureau never requested them. And true to form, the Bureau never sent them back, so I have some fabulous war-time documents to go through when I get a chance. Nothing too spectacular: several commissions, a certificate of service, and letters from James Yeatman. His writing isn't quite as bad as Dorothea Dix's, but it's a close second. I'll flag the letters and go back to them once the thesis is done.
Speaking of the thesis, the paperwork's been submitted for my thesis committee, so now "all" I have to do is set the date of my oral examination. I can't believe my thesis is due two months from now...
P.O.: Santa Rosa, California
Service: Jefferson Barracks, and hospital transports 'Imperior,' 'War Eagle,' and 'Red Rover'
Applied: 1892
Status: Accepted
Here's another short and sweet one for you. I'm almost through with the USSC nurses, and frankly these women had a very easy time of it. Almost all of them appear in the War Department records, so needless to say getting a pension was fairly straight forward. Out of ten cases, only one woman abandoned her claim before completion, and another, Caroline Boston, had to apply a second time to get her pension. Every other claim went forward without a problem. After all the madness of the other files, I'm not sure if I'm disappointed at the lack of fireworks or relieved.
Anyway, Sarah A. Barton, nee White. Served at Jefferson Barracks, probably from November, 1861 to February, 1863, as well as several months on the 'Imperior,' 'War Eagle,' and 'Red Rover.' Her husband, Charles H. Barton, was a 1st Lieut. in the 56th IL, which mustered in early in 1862. The fact that she enlisted before her husband is very unusual. At first I thought it was a clerical error, or I was misreading the documents, but both Barton and the War Department put her at Benton Barracks in November, 1861. In fact, Barton says she began her service even earlier, in October. And my famous outside sources tell me that they were married in late September that same year. Oh, I dearly hope they left some letters behind.
Barton and her husband both survived the war, though Barton says her work negatively impacted her health, especially as she got older. Charles died in 1883, but Sarah didn't applied for a widow's pension until 1890, which she dropped in 1893 when she received her nurse's pension. The woman even sent in original documents to prove her service, even though the Bureau never requested them. And true to form, the Bureau never sent them back, so I have some fabulous war-time documents to go through when I get a chance. Nothing too spectacular: several commissions, a certificate of service, and letters from James Yeatman. His writing isn't quite as bad as Dorothea Dix's, but it's a close second. I'll flag the letters and go back to them once the thesis is done.
Speaking of the thesis, the paperwork's been submitted for my thesis committee, so now "all" I have to do is set the date of my oral examination. I can't believe my thesis is due two months from now...
Monday, February 4, 2013
Caroline Boston
Pension File: 1130247, 980312
P.O.: Smith Center, Kansas
Service: member of USSC serving at Benton Barracks, July, 1863-April, 1864
Applied: 1892
Status: Accepted
As promised, we are on to a new group of nurses: Sanitary Commission nurses. Here, for your consideration, is Caroline Boston. This file baffles me. Boston's service is very well documented. She's on the books at Benton Barracks for a full ten months, and she had testimony from the ward master in Ward E where she worked, proving competent authority. So her application should have been approved, no questions asked.
It wasn't. And I have no explanation for this. The Bureau rejected her on the grounds that she couldn't prove six months service. But the file has the Bureau's request forms asking the War Department and the Auditor's Office for Boston's records, and the information they sent back, which clearly documents her ten months of service. Short of outright incompetence and stupidity, I have no explanation for this lapse whatsoever. Luckily, when Boston reapplied in 1898 the application was almost immediately accepted, so in the end she got what was due her.
If I told you this is just one more instance of negligence on the part of the Bureau, would you be surprised?
P.O.: Smith Center, Kansas
Service: member of USSC serving at Benton Barracks, July, 1863-April, 1864
Applied: 1892
Status: Accepted
As promised, we are on to a new group of nurses: Sanitary Commission nurses. Here, for your consideration, is Caroline Boston. This file baffles me. Boston's service is very well documented. She's on the books at Benton Barracks for a full ten months, and she had testimony from the ward master in Ward E where she worked, proving competent authority. So her application should have been approved, no questions asked.
It wasn't. And I have no explanation for this. The Bureau rejected her on the grounds that she couldn't prove six months service. But the file has the Bureau's request forms asking the War Department and the Auditor's Office for Boston's records, and the information they sent back, which clearly documents her ten months of service. Short of outright incompetence and stupidity, I have no explanation for this lapse whatsoever. Luckily, when Boston reapplied in 1898 the application was almost immediately accepted, so in the end she got what was due her.
If I told you this is just one more instance of negligence on the part of the Bureau, would you be surprised?
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