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Fall 2004 Faces from the Past: Charlotte Bradford By Patrick Browne
May 27, 1862 found Charlotte on board the hospital ship Knickerbocker ready for duty. Three days later, 1500 wounded men were loaded on board, a jarring trial-by-fire for the new nurse. In 1863, Charlotte was assigned to the Armory Square Hospital. Her service as an army nurse was brought to a close by a Doctor who, being intimidated by her, began to spread false rumors about her poor performance. Charlotte was discharged. Fortunately, there was an alternative for someone determined to remain involved in Army hospitals. Charlotte befriended Dorothea Dix of the U.S. Sanitary Commission and soon found herself working as a nurse for the Commission. She became matron of the Home for Wives and Mothers, a facility created to care and provide for the multitudes of women flocking to Washington to find their soldier husbands and sons. Her journals contain many heart-breaking stories of women and children made destitute by their spouse’s absence as they served their country. Here she served for the remainder of the war. Upon returning home, Charlotte made a tally in her journal, indicating that, at the Home, she had cared for some 1,595 women and 513 children. Her grave in Mayflower Cemetery is one of a small number of female gravesites across the country decorated by Civil War Veteran medallions. |
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Early
in 1862, Charlotte Bradford (who lived in her father Gershom’s house, now the
Society’s Bradford House Museum) left Duxbury to serve as a nurse on the
battlefronts of Virginia. She was bold, not only because of the danger
involved, but because field hospitals were considered the domain of men. Female
nurses faced great intolerance, and Charlotte would find several army doctors
who attempted to hinder her career.