Sally Louisa Tompkins was a Confederate nurse and the first woman to have been formally inducted into an army in American history. She may have been the only woman officially commissioned in the Confederate Army. She is best remembered for privately sponsoring a hospital in Richmond, Virginia to treat soldiers wounded in the American Civil War. Under her supervision, she had the lowest death rate of any hospital Union or Confederate, during the Civil War. She has been remembered as the "Angel of the Confederacy".
The United States Sanitary Commission (USSC) was a private relief agency created by federal legislation on June 18, 1861, to support sick and wounded soldiers of the United States Army during the American Civil War. It operated across the North, raised an estimated $25 million in Civil War era revenue and in-kind contributions to support the cause, and enlisted thousands of volunteers. The president was Henry Whitney Bellows, and Frederick Law Olmsted acted as executive secretary. It was modeled on the British Sanitary Commission, set up during the Crimean War (1853–1856), and from the British parliamentary report published after the Indian Rebellion of 1857.
Old Town Alexandria is one of the original settlements of the city of Alexandria, Virginia, and is located about a half hour by car from Washington, D.C., of which it used to make up the southern part. It was the oldest district of D.C. until it was ceded back to Virginia in 1846. Old Town is situated in the eastern and southeastern area of Alexandria along the Potomac River and is laid out on a grid plan of substantially square blocks.
Chimborazo Hospital was a Civil War-era facility built in Richmond, Virginia to service the medical needs of the Confederate Army. It functioned between 1862 and 1865 in what is now Chimborazo Park, treating over 76,000 injured Confederate soldiers. During its existence, the hospital admitted nearly 78,000 patients and between 6,500 and 8,000 of these patients died. This mortality rate of between 8.3 and 10.3 percent is among the lowest such rates of period military hospitals.
Carlyle House is a historic mansion in Alexandria, Virginia, United States, built by Scottish merchant John Carlyle from 1751 to 1752 in the Georgian style.
Ohlhausen is a German surname. The name has several variations but the origins are one of the oldest in Europe and can be traced to 186CE to its first mention in the Franco-Roman Census found near Jagsthausen. The ancient hamlet of Olnhausen, Germany near Heilbronn is still in existence.
The Bank of Alexandria is a historic bank building located at Alexandria, Virginia, United States. It was built in 1807, and consists of a three-story main block, with a two-story east wing. The main block is five bays wide and 7 bays deep. In 1848, James Green purchased the building and turned it into a hotel, then in 1855, he expanded it across the lawn of the Carlyle House next door, tripling the size of the Mansion House Hotel. The hotel was used as a hospital during the Civil War. In the late 1960's, the expansion, by then an aging apartment building, was torn down by the Northern Virginia Regional Park Authority to reveal Carlyle House, which was restored in 1976.
Colross is a Georgian style mansion built around 1800 as the center of a large plantation in what is now the Old Town neighborhood of Alexandria, Virginia, and moved circa 1930 to Princeton, New Jersey, where it is currently the administration building of Princeton Day School.
The state of medical knowledge at the time of the Civil War was quite limited by 21st century standards. Doctors did not understand germs, and did little to prevent infection. It was a time before antiseptics, and a time when there was no attempt to maintain sterility during surgery. No antibiotics were available, and minor wounds could easily become infected, and hence fatal. While the typical soldier was at risk of being hit by rifle or artillery fire, he faced an even greater risk of dying from disease.
Jarvis U.S. General Hospital was a military hospital founded in Baltimore, Maryland, in 1861, at the beginning of the American Civil War, for the care of wounded Federal soldiers. The hospital was built on the grounds of Maryland Square, the former residence of the Steuart family, which had been confiscated by the Federal government at the outbreak of war. The hospital closed at the end of the war.
Hope Park was an 18th and 19th-century plantation in Fairfax County, Virginia, where Dr. David Stuart (1753–1814), an old friend of and correspondent with George Washington lived with his wife, Eleanor Calvert Custis (1758–1811), and family. It was approximately 5 miles (8.0 km) southwest of Fairfax Court House.
Centre Hill Museum or Centre Hill Mansion as its proper name, completed initial construction in 1823 and was built by Revolutionary War veteran Robert Bolling IV. The Bollings were a very prominent family for many generations, being granted a plot of land in present-day Petersburg by the then King of England. Centre Hill served as Union headquarters during the reconstruction period; therefore, a meeting between a Union general and President Lincoln took place inside the home in 1865. President Taft also spent time on the property. Its doors were opened as a museum in the 1950s.
The history of Alexandria, Virginia, begins with the first European settlement in 1695. Over the next century, the town became a significant port. In 1801, much of Alexandria was swept into the new District of Columbia; it was damaged along with much of the rest of the capital during the War of 1812. In 1846, Alexandria was returned to Virginia, along with the rest of the District's territory on the western side of the Potomac River. After Virginia seceded in 1861, Alexandria was swiftly captured by Union forces and held for the remainder of the American Civil War. In the late 20th century, Alexandria became a key part of the rapidly growing Northern Virginia region.
Mercy Street is an American period medical drama television series created by Lisa Wolfinger and David Zabel. The series is based on the memoir, Adventures of an Army Nurse in Two Wars, by Mary Phinney von Olnhausen. It is set during the Civil War and follows two volunteer nurses from opposing sides who work at the Mansion House Hospital in Alexandria, Virginia. The first season of six episodes premiered on-demand on January 14, 2016 and made its broadcast debut on January 17, 2016 on PBS with 3.3 million viewers.
Hannah James is a British–American actress. James grew up on a rural farm in Madison County, Virginia, which the Culpeper Star Exponent called an "1830 homestead".
Emma Green (1843–1929) was an American involved in Civil War intrigue in Alexandria, Virginia. Described as a Southern belle, her politics shifted from pro-Union or neutral during the Civil War, after the Union seized her family's hotel to serve as the Mansion House Hospital.
Frank Stringfellow was a Confederate officer and spy who survived the American Civil War, and married the sweetheart for whom he repeatedly risked his life to court – Emma Green. After the war Stringfellow married Green, and became an Episcopal minister.
Baroness Mary Phinney von Olnhausen (1818–1902) was an American nurse, abolitionist, and diarist. Historians look to the book extracted from her diaries -- "Adventures of an Army Nurse in Two Wars" to understand the medical techniques of the Civil War.
Adventures of an Army Nurse in Two Wars is a book edited by James Phinney Munroe and published in 1904 by Little, Brown and Company. It is in part an epistolary book in which the narrative is based on the letters and diary entries of Mary Phinney von Olnhausen, who is the protagonist of the book.
