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"Mother" Bickerdyke began working in Union hospitals. June 9 1861


Valin

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Grants Chief of Nursing or Mother Bickerdyke Union Hero

 

Grants Chief of Nursing, Mary Ann Bickerdyke, was affectionately known as Mother Bickerdyke to thousands of wounded and was definitely an unsung Union hero of the Civil War. Both Generals Ulysses S. Grant and William T. Sherman admired Bickerdyke for her bravery and for her deep concern for the soldiers. She also earned a reputation for chastising officers who failed to provide for their men. During the war, she became chief of nursing under the command of General Ulysses S. Grant.When his staff complained about the outspoken, insubordinate female nurse who consistently disregarded the armys red tape and military procedures, Union General William T. Sherman threw up his hands and exclaimed, She ranks me. I cant do a thing in the world. Bickerdyke was a nurse who ran roughshod over anyone who stood in the way of her self-appointed duties. She was known affectionately to her boys, the grateful enlisted men, as Mother Bickerdyke. When a surgeon questioned her authority to take some action, she replied, On the authority of Lord God Almighty, have you anything that outranks that?

 

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At the outbreak of the Civil War, residents of Galesburg purchased medical supplies worth five hundred dollars for soldiers serving at Cairo, Illinois. The townspeople trusted Bickerdyke to deliver these supplies. Upon arriving in Cairo, Bickerdyke used the supplies to establish a hospital for the Northern soldiers.

 

Seeing the horrific conditions, Bickerdyke stormed through camp, cleaning and sanitizing tents, setting up field kitchens and introducing army laundries. Where she found sick and wounded soldiers bedded on filthy straw in fetid tents, she had fresh straw spread and provided clean water and air. She had barrels cut in half so the men could bathe and dress in the clean clothes sent by the congregation.

 

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Bickerdyke stayed in Cairo as an unofficial nurse, and through her unbridled energy she organized the hospitals and gained Grants appreciation. Grant sanctioned her efforts, and when his army moved down the Mississippi, Bickerdyke went too, setting up hospitals where they were needed. Sherman was especially fond of this volunteer nurse who followed the armies and she was the only woman he would allow in his camp. While traveling with the troops Bickerdyke suffered the same hardships and struggles as the soldiers did. The extreme cold weather, poor conditions and lack of good food and supplies was hard on everyone. When Atlanta was taken by the Union on September 2nd, Bickerdyke helped evacuate the wounded from the hospitals. By the end of the war, with the help of the U.S. Sanitary Commission, Mother Bickerdyke had built 300 hospitals and aided the wounded on 19 battlefields.

 

After the war ended, Generals Grant and Sherman asked Bickerdyke to participate in the Grand Review in the nations capital, and she led an entire corps down Pennsylvania Avenue. Sherman offered her a seat on the reviewing stand as the parade passed by, but she refused. She preferred to pass out water to the soldiers after the parade.

 

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bickmon.jpg

The Mother Bickerdyke Monument at Galesburg, Illinois

I have a commission from the Lord God Almighty to do all I can for every miserable creature who comes in my way; he is always sure of two friends, God and me.

---Mother Bickerdyke.

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