Sarah C. Taylor

Pension File: App. 676286, Cert. 418232
P.O.: 33 Bull St, Newport, RI
Service: Contract nurse at Lovell GH in Portsmouth, RI, from October 15, 1862 to at least August, 1865
Applied: 1888
Status: Accepted (Special Act)

Sarah C. Taylor, Courtesy of MOLLUS

Here's another Lovell nurse for you!  Taylor's file is, like most special acts, on the thin side, but whatever it may lack in quantity, it more than makes up for with quality.
Sarah Taylor was born Sarah Catherine Dennis on January 30, 1828, the daughter of Captain Thomas and Margaret Dennis.  I believe I have her in the 1860 census living in Newport with an elder brother, his wife, and mother-in-law.  Ultimately, however, Sarah--or Kitty, as she was called--ended up in Portsmouth, where she began work at Lovell as an assistant nurse, and, over the course of the next three years, gradually took charge of 14 of the hospital's 28 wards.
Taylor quickly learned the love and respect of the men she tended.  She was a "guardian angel," and was "everywhere and at all times, to help the sick and wounded," an anonymous private wrote the Newport Mercury on July 8th, 1865, "not like the many who consider the private so far beneath their notice...No far from that,-she is everywhere among us, and if there is any extra seat in Heaven, I shall cast my vote that she has it.  You may think that I am getting enthusiastic over our 'Kitty,' but you know, Mr. Editor, that a soldier must get enthusiastic over something; and as she is the only one we see worthy of getting enthusiastic over, you must excuse me if a few drops of it fall from my pen, and I for one say 'give honor to whom it is due.'"
And give honor the men did, because Taylor's pension file includes not only the anonymous letter to the editor, but also transcripts of several testimonials signed by the men in the wards.  Several of them are the standard testimonials from her commanding officers--Katherine Wormley, who was matron in charge of the hospital for a number of years, and William Taney Thurston, the surgeon in command of several of Taylor's wards.  Like our anonymous soldier, Thurston had nothing but glowing praise for Taylor: "I am very confident, that to her good nursing, may be under Providence, attributed the restoration to health of a large number of patients, who under ordinary care must have died...the kindness and mildness of her deportment, towards the suffering soldiers, gained the love and gratitude to all to whom she was a ministering spirit."
The remaining testimonials build on what Thurston and the anonymous soldier wrote.  Rather than falling back on eloquent testimonials from individual patients though (that would be fantastic if it were though!), the remaining testimonials emphasize quantity over quality.  And deservedly so. Got up in May and August, 1865, the testimonials list a total of 77 men, all of whom had apparently agreed to not only testify to Taylor's work, but also to donate money to purchase a "suitable testimonial"--what exactly the testimonial was they don't say, or just how much was donated (so frustrating!), but it appears that her patients gave Taylor several gifts of some sort before the hospital was closed in late 1865.  Her file also includes a letter of thanks from the ladies of Fairhaven, MA, "for your very efficient and kind ministrations to our sick and wounded soldiers" (not entirely sure what the connection between Taylor and Fairhaven is, but it's likely either a family connection or that a number of Fairhaven boys ended up in her wards).
It's rare enough to find wartime documents in a pension file, but it's even rarer to find ones of this scope and depth (i.e. I now have 77 individual men to track down, and the archives at Fairhaven to contact to try and dig up more information!).  The language of the testimonials, however, is also fascinating.  Our anonymous private, for instance, is clearly frustrated with people who dote on officers and overlook the lowly privates--a bit of a class dimension to this, then.  And, of course, how Taylor herself is described is revealing: her "sisterly ministrations," a "ministering spirit," and, of course, "guardian angel"--all standard descriptions for a Civil War nurse (at least if you like her), but coached in such a way that the presence of this young, single woman in the masculine world of a military hospital is not deemed a threat to gender norms (is an angel or a sister likely to fraternize with one of her patients?).
Funny that.
On the list of men signing Sarah's testimonial is a Thomas H.B. Taylor, formerly of the 48th Illinois, but, after what was likely an illness, now a private in the 2nd Battalion, Veterans Reserve Corps, and under Sarah's charge.  The pair married after the war and had two children, Frank (b. 1866, who probably did not live past his 13th year) and William (b. 1868).  The marriage didn't last long--the Newport Daily News reported in October, 1875, that Sarah's petition for divorce had been granted--and Sarah and her son William settled down in Newport, where Sarah worked as matron of Newport Hospital.  She was also apparently in touch with MOLLUS (Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the US), because her file also includes a letter from Arnold A. Rand, the commander of MOLLUS, asking for photographs of the hospitals, fellow nurses, or patients, along with signatures and dates, to include in the growing MOLLUS collection (this, by the way, forms the core of the collection at Carlisle Barracks, and is where Taylor's picture up top comes from!).
Taylor applied for and received her $12 pension in 1888.  She died on April 22, 1901, and was buried in the Common Burying Ground in Newport.