Dorthea Dix
Prior to the Civil War most women stayed at home tending to their families and homes because they thought that they were fragile delicate little creatures. They were not considered strong enough to fight in the Civil War. Two ways for women to participate were through aide and relief societies and nursing. In America, a strive for the development of modern nursing began with the Civil War. Then, trained nurses were almost nonexistent and during the war a crucial need for skilled nurses arose. To meet this need, members of religious orders and other women gained basic nursing skills through short training courses. In this paper, I will discuss two very important women, Dorthea Dix and Clara Barton, in the Civil War. Dorthea Dix was born on April 4, 1802, the oldest daughter of Joseph and Mary Dix. She was also a granddaughter to the wealthy Elijah and Dorthy Lynde Dix, who lived in Boston, Massachusetts. Dix's father, Joseph Dix, was a minister and he drank heavily. With her father being an alcoholic, her childhood was very unhappy. She left her unhappy home at the age of twelve to be educated in Boston. While in Boston, her grandmother brought her up. Being a grandmother, Dorthy wanted what she thought was the
Although Dix remained controversial throughout the war, coupled with the activity of groups such as the USSC, and state relief associations, provided a time for the explosion of strength and enthusiasm of women during the Civil War. Dix served for the duration of the war. In the four years that she served, she comforted numberless people who were dying. Dix worked hard, but she was hard to get along with. She also helped set up hospitals all marked with a yellow flag, in churches, hotels schools, and everywhere she could find help. Dorothea was mostly hated by male doctors and officers, because they didn't like it when she made jokes about how they ran their hospital and when she would stand up for her nurses and patients whenever there was a problem. The field of nursing continued to grow after the war, inspired by many other women who would follow in Dorthea’s footsteps. Barton's health continued to trouble her; in 1869 she went to Geneva, Switzerland, for rest and a change. There, officials of the International Red Cross, organized in 1864, urged her to seek United States agreement to the Geneva Convention recognizing the work of the Red Cross; the powerful U.S. Sanitary Commission had been unable to obtain it. But before Barton could turn to the task, the Franco-Prussian War began. She offered her services to the Grand Duchess of Baden in administering military hospitals. Her most original idea was to put needy Strasbourg women to work sewing garments for pay. Later, with the French defeated and Paris held by the Commune, she entered the starving city to distribute food and clothing. She served elsewhere in France, in Lyons, again instituting her work system. She was awarded the Iron Cross of Merit by the German emperor, William I, in 1873. best for Dorthea. She wanted her to be a socialite. Dorothea instead began to teach and wrote many books. By the age of fourteen she was teaching in a school for young women in Worchester, Massachusetts. Dix had a curriculum of her own which stressed the natural sciences and the responsibilities of living. In 1821, she opened her own school in Boston. By the time she was thirty-one, Dorothea became very sick, with tuberculosis. Her grandmother sent her to England to get well. In England she met Samuel Tuke, the man who changed her life. He was the person who showed her what an institution for the mentally ill should be like. In 1865, she conceived the project of locating missing soldiers and obtained a note of endorsement from President Lincoln. She later visited the notorious prison camp at Andersonville, Georgia, to identify and mark Union graves. She set up the Bureau of Records in Washington and traced perhaps 20,000 names. She also lectured on her experiences until her voice failed in 1868 In 1861, they then appointed Dix commissioned Superintendent of the Female Nurses of the Army, the first one in American history. Battlin
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Approximate Word count = 1973
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page double spaced)
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