It's My Country Too

by Jerri Bell, Tracy Crow

  The implementation of military entrance physicals late in the nineteenth century ended women’s ability to disguise themselves as men to fight. However, in the decades immediately following the Civil War, a growing recognition of the value of trained nurses led to the professionalization of nursing in America. In the 1870s large hospitals established nursing schools that attracted ambitious middle-class and working-class women, and nursing was one of the few occupations in which women could earn professional respect and a wage.

  Having forgotten or dismissed the contributions of contract nurses in the Civil War, and discounting the importance of professional certification, Army surgeons were reluctant to hire women nurses when the United States declared war on Spain in February 1898. But Army Surgeon General Sternberg soon realized that the military hospital corps of 520 men, 100 stewards, and 100 acting stewards would be unable to meet the needs of 25,000 soldiers—or to keep up with the epidemics of typhoid and yellow fever that were killing more soldiers than the fighting.

  In April, Congress authorized Sternberg to hire female contract nurses. Dr. Anita Newcomb McGee, a socially prominent anthropologist and physician in Washington DC, offered to screen prospective nurses under the auspices of the DAR. McGee required applicants to be between thirty and fifty years old, graduates of a professional nursing school, with supervisors’ endorsements of their moral character and good health. However, the large demand undermined her standards: she eventually accepted younger nurses and some untrained volunteers.

  Sternberg appointed McGee acting assistant surgeon general of the Army on August 29, 1898. Her office assumed the responsibility of screening applicants. Between May 1898 and July 1899, McGee and DAR volunteers screened nearly six thousand applications and sent 1,563 female nurses to Army hospitals in the United States. In July 1898 the Army began sending nurses to Cuba. A small group served with the Navy on the hospital ship Relief off the Cuban coast. Contract nurses worked to exhaustion in primitive, unsanitary conditions; many contracted dysentery and chronic intestinal conditions that remained with them for life.

  At that time, many doctors believed erroneously that women of color had “natural immunity” to tropical diseases. In July 1898, when Dr. McGee’s staff could not recruit enough nurses with immunity to yellow fever, Sternberg sent Mrs. Namahyoke Curtis, wife of the surgeon in chief of the Freedmen’s Hospital (later the Howard University Medical School), to New Orleans to recruit “immune” women of color. Thirty-two African American women signed contracts; over the course of the war, eighty served. Two African American nurses died of typhoid. Four Lakota Sioux women, nuns of the American Order of the Sisters, joined the First Division hospital of the Seventh Army Corps at Pinar del Río. In addition to Dr. McGee, six women physicians served with the Army during the Spanish-American War—as contract nurses, not physicians or surgeons.

  Hostilities in the Spanish-American War ended August 12, 1898; a formal peace treaty was signed in December. At least fourteen contract nurses had died of tropical diseases during the war.

  Contract nurses continued to serve with the Army after the war in hospitals in new U.S. territories ceded by Spain: Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippine Islands, where they treated casualties of the Philippine Insurrection (1899–1902). One, Clara Maass, volunteered as a subject in the Yellow Fever Commission experiments on transmission of the disease at Las Animas Hospital in Havana, Cuba. Her death on August 24, 1901, led to the end of human experimentation and a change in public health policy from disinfection to mosquito eradication.

  The Dodge Commission, appointed by President William McKinley to investigate the conduct of the Spanish-American War, found significant problems in the Army Medical Department but lauded the effectiveness of contract nurses in saving lives. The Commission recommended replacing contract nurses with a trained reserve nursing force.

  Over the objections of Army physicians opposed to creating a corps of trained Army nurses, Sternberg assigned Dr. McGee to draft the section of the Army Reorganization Act that established the Army Nurse Corps on February 2, 1901. It took another twenty years for the Army to approve pensions for contract nurses who served in the Spanish-American War. Army nurses did not hold military rank at that time, but they had opened the door for women’s military service. It would never be closed again.

  Dr. Anita Newcom McGee

  (1864–1940)

  U.S. Army

  Dr. Anita Newcomb McGee of Washington DC studied in private schools and trained in anthropology at Cambridge University and the University of Geneva (Switzerland). In 1892 she received her medical degree from Columbian University (now George Washington University). She served with the Red Cross Society of Japan during the Russo-Japanese War in 1904; as an attaché to the American Legation in Tokyo in 1905, she visited battlefields in northeastern China. After her death in 1940, she was buried with full military honors in Arlington National Cemetery. McGee drafted the legislation establishing the Army Nurse Corps and published articles in DAR and nursing periodicals. The excerpts below come from two of McGee’s reports to the DAR.

  Report to the Daughters of the American Revolution

  June 28, 1898

  At the April meeting of the National Board of the Daughters the question of what the Daughters should do in the war was naturally prominent. I had the honor at that time of presenting the plan for a hospital corps, which as originally conceived was in the form of a body of trained nurses who should be ready to answer a call from The Surgeon General for service in the army or navy and which should be thoroughly endorsed by the DAR. That plan was, on consultation with the officials, afterward enlarged by the proposal that we should undertake the examination of all applications which were received from women for hospital positions. At that time the Surgeon General had been overwhelmed with applications, which had been responded to in a formal way and placed on file, without any means of examining into the qualifications of the applicants or making use of their offers of service. They therefore welcomed heartily the extended proposal made by the Daughters, and turned over to our society every application, no matter to whom originally addressed.

  At the outbreak of the war The Surgeon General of the Army had at his command a corps of hospital stewards numbering nearly 800 men and assistants; the Surgeon General of the Navy had no such corps. It will be seen that the need of assistants in the field seems to be met by the army corps of men now enlarged to a war basis. In hospitals, however, the skilled assistance of trained women nurses is needed.

  This responsibility in the hands of the Daughters is, I think, quite a unique matter. This recognition by the Government is something of which we had every reason to be very proud indeed. I have received up to the present time (June 28) applications to the number of 2,500. The majority are from untrained women who offer from patriotic motives. They have been sent to the President of the United States, Secretaries of War and Navy, Surgeons General, Senators, members of Congress, officials of the Treasury, all reaching ultimately the office of the Daughters. The work of examining these, as you can imagine, has been no easy one, especially as we began when there were 1,100 received, which we had to take in bulk. I am happy to say the work for the last two or three weeks has been quite up to date. I counted my mail the other day, and one envelope contained thirty applications from the War Department—in addition to that there were forty-six letters, either with applications or returned blanks or indorsements. This was simply one mail.

  When an application is received which gives some promise of being from a person who knows something about nursing we send her a small blank [a questionnaire to help the DAR with screening candidates]. The requirements printed at the head of some of our letters are those suggested by The Surgeon General of the Army. He specified in a general way what he wanted. The age requirement he does not insist upon absolutely. The matter of keeping up the standard depends entirely upon the number of applicants and the number appointed. As long as applicants who are suitable number by the hundreds
and the appointments number by the ones, of course I feel obliged to keep rather closely to the highest requirements. The Surgeon General has given me strict injunctions that all parts of the country are to be represented, and naturally those who have had yellow fever are preferred for Southern hospitals. In selecting applicants my rule has been to take those who have in the first place come well indorsed, and whose hospital records are good. Then I prefer those who have the indorsement from Daughters who know them. Then those recommended by the schools from which they graduated, and I have established a regular method of writing to the superintendents of every school to get all possible information.

  Of course it is impossible at the present time to make any statement as to how many will be called or where they will go, and I am therefore unable to state whether any particular applicant is accepted or not. I cannot decide until the call comes; then I look over all and select according to the fullest knowledge I have at the time.

  Report to the DAR

  September 1898

  The DAR hospital corps has the honor to report that its work has grown and multiplied to an extent far beyond what was considered probable. The first nurses sent were viewed in the light of an experiment, and much depended on the record which they should make. To the lasting gratification, not only to the DAR, but of womenkind in general, we are proud to record that the nurses whom we first selected proved themselves fully worthy of the trust imposed on them, and fit co-workers with the brave men whose names are entered on the roll of honor of the army. The inevitable results of their noble work was the ever increasing demand from army hospitals for trained women nurses, and the decision which has now been reached on every hand, that satisfactory hospital work, without such nurses, is almost impossible. Some fifty times has The Surgeon General of the Army called on the DAR hospital corps to designate suitable nurses for some specified duty, and these calls, originally for about half a dozen persons each time, increased to as many as 150 nurses in a single order. The total number thus appointed is in the neighborhood of 1,000 nurses—a regiment of women. As is already known to you, all applications from women addressed to the War Department were forwarded to us for examination, and all but the earliest received at the Navy Department were also forwarded. In addition to these, hosts of applicants wrote or applied in person to us until the total number we examined rose to about 4,600. Realizing, as we fully did, that there was a great principle at stake, we exercised the greatest care in the preparation of our list of eligible women. First of all, the candidate must be of irreproachable character and suitable age. Second, she must possess good health. Third, she must have the training which is all essential to the successful prosecution of her work. This last requisite is one that recent progress has made not only possible, but an absolute necessity, to secure the best results, and we feel that the one safe policy—safe above all to the sick soldiers—was to demand actual graduation from training school.

  Kittie (Whiting) Eastman Doxsee

  (1899–1943)

  U.S. Army

  Kittie Whiting of Cicero, New York, served as an Army contract nurse from August 1898 to July 1899. The following is excerpted from her “Memoirs of a Spanish-American War Nurse,” a lecture that she read at the annual meeting of nurses in Ogdensburg, New York, July 1899.

  Received order to report for duty as a nurse in Spanish American War on August 21, 1898. . . . I arrived in New York City August 22, was entertained with other nurses at Steward House, Lexington Avenue, a home for nurses. Orders to leave for Montauk, Long Island, Camp Wickoff, August 23 at seven a.m. Reached Montauk about noon. There were many soldiers waiting for the hospital train to convey them to their homes and friends. Some who were not strong enough to sit up but were lying on rough benches as the station was temporary and made of rough lumber. Here is where our first work began in trying to make them more comfortable by using our wraps for pillows and carrying milk and water from a nearby canteen. These soldier boys (as all the soldiers were called boys, regardless of age) were direct from [the] battlefield and were suffering from exposure and malaria fever. They were very grateful for any little kindness shown them and most of the nurses were given souvenirs such as shells, Mauser bullets, cross guns and buttons which had been in the fight at San Juan Hill. We were conveyed to camp in Army ambulances drawn by four good mules. The camp was one and a half miles from station and it was a continuous string of Army wagon ambulances. Troops of cavalry and regiments marching to and from. Camp had been staked about eight days when we arrived on the scene. There were twenty nurses in our party from New York which had centered through from different parts of the USA. I was assigned night duty on Ward F where there were sixty patients with malaria, some pneumonia, and typhoid, but more cases of dysentery.

  The hospital was on [an] extreme point of Montauk and not a tree to be seen, just sand dunes. We were all quartered in tents, no buildings had been erected. It was my great pleasure to shake hands with President McKinley, Secretary Alger and some of the cabinet officers as they passed through the hospital. There were about fifteen nurses in this camp and many sisters [Catholic Sisters of Charity] in this camp hospital. I remained here about four weeks when the call came for more nurses for duty in Lexington, Kentucky. This being an inland town very few nurses cared to go as many were anxious to see foreign service—go to Cuba, Puerto Rico or Philippines. . . . I had no desire to go to Cuba or any place away from USA. So I offered to go.

  [Whiting is then transferred to the John Blair Gibbs Hospital in Lexington, which she notes has a very good record for typhoid fever recovery. She describes patients’ baths and meals, and a dance suggested by one of the nuns. The hospital is then moved to Camp Conrad, near Columbus, Georgia. Whiting is there six weeks, then is ordered to Cuba after the Spanish surrender. Eleven nurses and ten nursing Sisters are sent to Matanzas; fifteen nurses, including Whiting, are sent to Cienfuegos.]

  We steamed out of Charleston December 30 at 7:30 a.m., past Old Fort Sumter and were at sea and out of sight of land in about two hours. The sea was fairly calm and we enjoyed the voyage. We went around the eastern end of Cuba to Cienfuegos which is on the southern coast. . . . We passed by Moro Castle at entrance to Santiago Harbor. American troops were there and Old Glory waved from the highest point on the Castle and Uncle Sam’s boys waved their hats as we passed by. The scenery was very picturesque. We sat on deck of the largest transport and watched the flying fish and porpoise. Every now and then a sail in sight when every neck was craned to catch a glimpse of the tiny speck in the distance. As we entered the harbor at Cienfuegos thousands of Spanish soldiers and natives swarmed on the docks and shore while the Sixth Ohio Band played the National Air [anthem], “Star Spangled Banner,” and immediately afterwards, “A Hot Time in the Old Town” which later on the people always connected with the National Air. We dropped anchor in harbor about two miles from shore as the harbor was not dredged and large vessels could not go nearer with safety. We had on board General Bates and Headquarters Staff Colonel McMaken and Sixth Ohio Regiment, fifteen nurses, Hospital Corps, officers, horses, Army mules, wagons, tentage, lumber for flooring and supplies for thirty days. It took some time to unload as all was done by lighters and the natives are very slow workers. There were thirty-five thousand Spanish soldiers centered at Cienfuegos when we landed and all were armed. But our boys were such large muscular men and handled guns so rapid and accurately that when giving a drill at the Plaza the natives looked amazed. They marched to camp which was about four miles and in the center of a royal palm grove. The nurses were to remain on board ship until accommodations could be made in camp.

  Captain Gibbons, the ship’s captain, invited all the nurses to visit the Mayflower gunboat which was lying in the harbor. We were taken in steam yacht and met by the captain of the Mayflower, who showed us all around, then we went ashore. We were as much of a curiosity to the people as they were to us, as we rode by. There were five Cuban carriages of volantes [two-wheeled pleasure carriages in which th
e body is in front of the axle and the driver rides on the horse], each drawn by one little Cuban pony. . . . We drove about town and the curtains were thrown back from nearly every Cuban house and many faces peeking out at us, as we passed by. The houses were built mostly of concrete and tile roofs. Nearly all are one-story houses, no windows, but iron bars about an inch through, running length[wise] about six inches apart up and down the windows with shutters or blinds inside like doors. [In] most of the villages the huts are made of the palm tree and look very much like old straw stacks.

  There was a family near our camp that I took quite an interest in. There were five children, two boys, three girls. One of the children was playing with a bundle of rags and a newspaper, which some called a doll. I had a little time to myself one day and I found one of my old uniform aprons and a few ribbons in my trunk so made each little girl a doll. I am no artist in making rag dolls as I never made one before but the three little girls were delighted and would run and get dolls as soon as I was near their home. The one about four years old was sick one day and the mother wanted me to go and see her. She was lying on what was intended for a bed but was not fit for a good American dog to sleep on. The room had no windows and was dark. The child had quite a temperature. I could speak enough Spanish to make the mother understand I wanted water to bathe the child. She brought some water in an old tomato can. I found it was the best the shanty afforded so the mother held the can and I gave the child a bath as best I could under circumstances. I went back to the hospital and brought some medicine and next day the little one ran out to meet me and kissed my hand. The woman spit on the wall and I observed that she was chewing tobacco. Many of the women of the poorer class chew and smoke. . . .