Heroines of Mercy Street : the real nurses of the Civil War

Tells the true stories of the nurses at Mansion House, the Alexandria, Virginia hotel turned wartime hospital, and the setting for the PBS show Mercy Street -- Publisher's description.;Foreword -- Introduction -- Dorothea Dix goes to war -- The army is unprepared -- Volunteers -- Nurses on the hospital transport ships -- Arriving at Mansion House Hospital == Learning by experience -- Becoming indispensible -- Leaving Mansion house Hospital -- Reporting back to duty -- After the war -- Afterword: a different viewpoint -- Acknowledgements -- Appendix A -- Appendix B -- Notes -- Suggestions for furtherr reading -- Index. The true stories of the real nurses on the PBS show Mercy Street The nurses of the Civil War ushered in a new era for medicine in the midst of tremendous hardship. While the country was at war, these women not only learned to advocate and care for patients in hostile settings, saved countless lives, and changed the profession forever, they regularly fell ill with no one to nurse them in return, seethed in anger at the indifference and inefficiency that left wounded men on the battlefield without care, and all too often mourned for those they could not rescue. Heroines of Mercy Street tells the true stories of the nurses at Mansion House, the Alexandria, Virginia, hotel turned wartime hospital and setting for the PBS show Mercy Street . Women like Dorothea Dix, Mary Phinney, Anne Reading, and more rushed to be of service to their country during the war, meeting challenges that would discourage less determined souls every step of... History / United States / Civil War Period (1850-1877), History / Women, Biography & Autobiography / Medical, Biography & Autobiography / Women A look at the lives of the real nurses depicted in the PBS show Mercy Street . Heroines of Mercy Street tells the true stories of the nurses at Mansion House, the Alexandria, Virginia, mansion turned war-time hospital and setting for the PBS drama Mercy Street . Among the Union soldiers, doctors, wounded men from both sides, freed slaves, politicians, speculators, and spies who passed through the hospital in the crossroads of the Civil War, were nurses who gave their time freely and willingly to save lives and aid the wounded. These women saw casualties on a scale Americans had never seen before, and medicine was at a turning point. Heroines of Mercy Street follows the lives of women like Dorothea Dix, Mary Phinney, Anne Reading, and more before, during, and after their epic struggle in Alexandria and reveals their personal contributions to this astounding period in the advancement of medicine.