On The Field Of Mercy: Women Medical Volunteers from the Civil War to the First World War

This is the first comprehensive overview of the role of women medical volunteers in early American wars. From archival research and excerpts from letters, diaries, and memoirs, Mercedes Graf interweaves richly detailed personal accounts with the backgrounds of these early volunteers in American wars. The first chapter provides an overview of the services of women nurses in the American colonies and the Revolutionary War. Three chapters are devoted to women physicians in the Civil War, the Spanish-American War, and World War I, while two additional chapters detail the work of female nurses and nuns in the Spanish-American War. The author also treats the work of women volunteers who served in two wars and concludes the book with an account of a female sculptor who worked for the American Red Cross in Paris, France, making facial masks for mutilated French soldiers. This thoroughly researched volume makes a significant contribution to women’s volunteer efforts in early wars.