Right after the Civil War, there was a huge parade in Washington, DC.

Leading the Soldiers

On May 23, 1865, as the intense mourning over the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln began to slowly ebb, the newly discharged Army of the Potomac, some 100,000 spit-and-polished strong, marched 12 abreast down Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington in grand review. Leading the parade was General Ulysses S. Grant, who peeled off to join new-President Andrew Johnson and his guest dignitaries on the reviewing platform. 

With military bands playing the songs that had become standard in every household, thousands of spectators from miles around lined the streets to witness the singular event. It lasted for hours. 

The following day, some 80,000 soldiers of the Army of Tennessee/Georgia had their turn in the spotlight. Not quite as spit-and-polished as the Potomac fellows, this was Sherman’s Army – the ones who had slogged up from Atlanta and iced the cake on the victory. They marched corps by corps, division by division and brigade by brigade.

Leading the 15th Brigade was a rare sight. At the specific order of General Sherman himself, a woman was at its head: Mrs. Mary Bickerdyke, a widow.

Mary Bickerdyke

Mary Ann Ball (1817-1901) was a very rare example of Civil War-era womanhood. Born to a prosperous Quaker family in Ohio, she had the unusual distinction of studying herbal medicine at Oberlin College. At twenty, she was assisting doctors in Cincinnati by voluntarily nursing patients through a cholera epidemic. 

At thirty, she married Robert Bickerdyke, relocated to Illinois, had children, and was widowed a dozen years later. Between financial need and perhaps a desire to be useful, or perhaps due to her take-charge nature, she became a full time nurse-of-sorts. Nursing, as a structured discipline of its own, did not take place until after the Crimean War, and that was in 1850s England. It would take another two or three decades to hop the pond.

The Sanitary Commission

Wars produce casualties. Casualties require treatment. And care. And supplies. And attention. During the American Civil War, hospitals were still in a fairly primitive state, doing the best they could, vis-a-vis care and treatment. Trained professional medical corps were haphazard. A functioning nursing corps was just beginning. The Red Cross (and similar entities) did not exist.

But shortly after the Battle of Bull Run, when the unexpectedly high number of casualties stunned the citizenry (and it would rise exponentially), The Sanitary Commission was born. It was a voluntary organization of concerned civilians to help provide goods and services to the soldiers, mainly the sick and wounded. In very short order, the organization had chapters throughout the Northern states, with smaller chapters in practically every city, town and village. Everyone wanted to participate.

Whether the members raised funds to provide ambulance wagons or medicines and supplies, or physically went to inspect field facilities, lobbied Congress for better conditions, or knitted, sewed or rolled bandages in their own homes, the Sanitary Commission provided an outlet for everyone who wanted to be part of the war effort. 

“Mother” Bickerdyke

At the outset, Mary Bickerdyke had made a name for herself as an extremely competent nurse, and was entrusted by her fellow townsmen to take $500 worth of medical supplies to Cairo, IL. She not only delivered the supplies, but remained to establish a field hospital. She remained with the Army for the full duration of the war, traveling from battlefield to battlefield, and by the end of the war, had established more than 300 field hospitals for the sick and wounded.

Her energy was matched by her superb managerial skills, and her absolute refusal to take “no” for an answer. She begged, borrowed, “appropriated” and vigorously faced-down commanding officers in order to get proper supplies for her “patients.” She established regular laundry service to wash soiled linens and bedding for the hospital. She scoured the battlefields at night with a lantern, in order to find wounded soldiers who hadn’t been brought to treatment areas. She had the audacity to ”discharge” one inebriated commanding officer. When he appealed to General Sherman, Bickerdyke’s discharge was upheld.

One story told about the lack of fresh milk and eggs in Memphis, where there was a large military hospital. Available ”secesh” sources were expensive and of poor quality. Bickerdyke wangled a 30-day furlough to go north and purchase what she needed. Dismissing her request as fruitless, since both the eggs and milk would spoil en route back to Memphis, she said it was nonsense. She would return with the suppliers themselves. In her home state of Illinois, she received a hundred cows – gratis – to be shipped in small herds. Ditto more than a thousand hens – also in small flocks. Before her thirty day leave had ended, she returned with her bizarre procession, mooing and cackling along the way.

An eloquent and articulate speaker, she appeared at numerous Sanitary Commission events to raise needed funds. 

Her continuous devotion to the soldiers earned her the nickname “Mother” Bickerdyke. It also earned her supreme regard and respect of both General Ulysses Grant and General William T. Sherman.

Both Generals were of the opinion that “Mother” Bickerdyke outranked them both, and were happy to say so.

Epilogue to Mother Bickerdyke

Mary Bickerdyke remained in the Union Army throughout the war, and assisted veterans for the remainder of her long life. She helped Union veterans obtain pensions – and that included pensions for more than 300 female nurses. She was awarded a $25/month pension herself in 1886.

She moved to Kansas after the War, studied law, and continued to help veterans with legal problems, and to settle and begin new lives. It is said that General Sherman authorized government wagons and teams to transport their belongings.

Her later years were spent in California, mostly for health reasons, but she eventually returned to Kansas and died at nearly eighty. She was buried in Galesburg, IL.

 Sources:

Boykin, B.A. (editor) – A Civil War Treasury of Tales, Legends and Folklore – The Blue and Gray Press, 1985

Flagel, Thomas R. – The History Buff’s Guide to the Civil War – Sourcebooks, 2010

https://ohiohistorycentral.org/w/Mary_Ann_Bickerdyke

https://www.kshs.org/kansapedia/mary-a-mother-bickerdyke/15633