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.