Lucy Bissell

It’s April, it is finally Opening Day, and there’s snow on the ground…what in the world?

Pension File: 785618, 196657

P.O.: Kirkwood, Ohio

Service: nurse with the 22^nd Illinois from July 13, 1861

Applied: 1890 (SA)

Status: Accepted

Not too much in this file, unfortunately—as usual, special acts have next to no paperwork, so less for me to work with.  The upside should have been that Bissell was a regimental nurse, and sometimes examining letters and diaries from the regiment turns something up, but I haven’t found anything so far.  So far, we know that Lucy Bissell was a nurse attached to the 22^nd Illinois in July 13, 1861.  Since there aren’t any Bissells on the roster though, I don’t know what her connection to the regiment was.  She appears to have stayed with the regiment for at least the first year—the colonel of the regiment, Henry Dougherty, gave her a recommendation in 1862.  In 1863, the assistant surgeon at General Hospital No. 3 in Paducah also wrote her a recommendation, so by now she may have left the regiment.  She’d certainly left it in February, 1864, when she returned to Missouri (I say that because the 22nd Illinois was raised in Belleville, just the other side of St. Louis from her later address) and was given a position at Benton Barracks by James Yeatman (USSC), then transferred to Jefferson Barracks in July (her original commissions are included in the file).  She never received pay.  The next we hear of her, Bissell was living in Kirkwood, Missouri, just outside St. Louis.  She applied for her pension in February, 1890, via special act of Congress, which was approved that July.  The pension was dropped in August, 1896, after “failure to claim for three years.”  At best guess, Bissell never married—the special acts refer to her as “Miss Bissell,” but they have been known to be wrong before.  I'll update if I find anything, but if anyone knows something about the 22nd IL, please let me know!

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...