York’s Ministering Angels

By Elizabeth A. Topping 

Tucked beneath this intimate image of nine young ladies holding hands or interlocking arms was a patriotic envelope depicting a mother eagle tending to her young. Written in period ink are the words “Nurses at York Army Hospital,” and beneath that, in modern pencil script, “about 1863. Mother is far left seated.”

At some point, this mother-of-pearl belt buckle, typically worn around the waist of fashionable young ladies, was adhered to a flap of the envelope. It has long since been severed from its original position. The envelope contains additional information in modern pencil script regarding this ordinary object: “Belt buckle Mother used as a tourniquet in Civil War.”

These artifacts bring to mind a quote from a day in the life of another ministering angel, British-born Elizabeth “Eliza” Harris (about 1831–1891), a U.S. Sanitary Commission agent, army nurse, and newspaper correspondent. It appears in the 1867 book Women in the Civil War: A Record of Heroism, Patriotism and Patience by Linus P. Brockett: Her skirts “were saturated with the mingled blood of the Union and Confederate soldiers which covered the hospital floor, as she kneeled between them to wash their faces. She had torn up all of her spare clothing which could be of use to them for bandages and compresses.”

The York U.S. Army Hospital, established in July 1862, grew into one of Pennsylvania’s largest military facilities. It had 1,600 beds and serviced more than 14,000 patients during its three years in operation. Hundreds of injured men were transported to York after the Battle of Antietam in September 1862. In July 1863, trains rolled in from Gettysburg, filling the hospital with wounded again. The hospital closed in July 1865, losing only 193 patients to death.

Perhaps the unknown lady, whose child took the time to document her compassionate service during the war, was one of the nurses from York’s Ladies’ Aid Society, whose members undertook the caretaking and nursing activities in the hospital, as well as the production of bandages, clothing, and supplies for the sick and wounded.

Elizabeth Topping has been a reenactor and living historian for more than 25 years. Her collection and research focuses on the social and material history of the Civil War years. Her initial study centered on the subject of prostitution, which ultimately led to research on abortion, birth control and childbirth, female job opportunities and working conditions, medical treatment for poor and insane women, class and sex restrictions imposed on 19th-century females, the roles actresses played in society, and the parts women played in aiding the war efforts. Elizabeth enjoys sharing her expertise and artifacts for use in television programs, museums, magazines, conferences and roundtables.