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On April 12, 1861 the Civil War began. The US Sanitary Commission knew volunteer nurses would be needed for aiding the Union wounded and dead. 27 year old Georgeanna Woolsey was trained as a nurse and wrote extensively on her experiences caring for soldiers during the bloodiest war in American history.

Come along with us as we use Georgeanna's writing as a lens to explore the Civil War, American memory, and gender roles through history and astrology.

Sources

Books:

• American Military History Volume 1: The United States Army and the Forging of a Nation, 1775-1917 by Army Center of Military History
• Everything You Ever Wanted to Know about the Battle of Gettysburg: American Civil War History by E.D. Garner

Digital Media:

• Blood and Glory: The Civil War in Color (Amazon Prime)
• Death and the Civil War (PBS American Experience)
• Greatest Civil War Battles (DVD Set)

Primary Sources:

• Gettysburg address delivered at Gettysburg Pa. November 19, 1863 (https://www.loc.gov/resource/rbpe.24404500/?st=text)
• Letters of a Family During the War for the Union, 1861-1865 by Georgeanna and Eliza Woolsey, 1899
• Pensive on Her Dead Gazing, I Heard the Mother of All by Walt Whitman, 1867
• Three Weeks in Gettysburg by Georgeanna Woolsey, 1863

Websites:

• Abby Howland and J.S. and Georgeanna Woolsey (https://www.ebsco.com/research-starters/history/abby-howland-and-js-and-georgeanne-woolsey)
• American Nursing: An Introduction to the Past (https://www.nursing.upenn.edu/nhhc/american-nursing-an-introduction-to-the-past/)
• Astro-seek (https://www.astro-seek.com/)
• The Chaplain Kit: The Online Chaplain History Museum (https://thechaplainkit.com/chaplains/non-combat-ministry/hospitals/civil-war-hospitals/)
• Georgeanna Woolsey: A Day in the Life of a Northern Nurse (https://www.battlefields.org/learn/articles/georgeanna-woolsey-day-life-northern-nurse)
• Hourly timeline of Gettysburg (https://civilwartalk.com/threads/hourly-timeline-of-gettysburg.171749/)
• Little-known Civil War era collection: The United States Sanitary Commission (https://www.newyorkfamilyhistory.org/blog/little-known-civil-war-era-collection-united-states-sanitary-commission)
• The Nameless Grave---Identifying Civil War Dead (https://bit.ly/47HZekB)
• United States Sanitary Commission (https://bit.ly/4mymDtE)
• Women in Nursing During the Civil War (https://bit.ly/3HCwuzm)

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