Women Nurses in the Spanish-American War

Minerva: Quarterly Report on Women and the Military, Spring, 2001 by Mercedes H. Graf

Although the war ended in under four months, there were uncontrollable epidemics of malaria and yellow fever in addition to typhoid outbreaks during the summer months, with amebic dysentery and diarrhea thinning the ranks as well. More nurses were needed immediately to help with these illnesses as well as to assist the physicians in surgery and monitor the health and treatment of soldier-patients. While the government may not have wanted its women nurses overseas, some were sent to serve on the floating hospital ships. On July 2, 1898, for instance, the Relief sailed to Santiago de Cuba with sixteen trained nurses (six female) and a detachment of twenty-nine hospital corpsmen on board.

The First Nurse Corps

As the work of the volunteers expanded during that first year, it became necessary to establish a Nurse Corps Division in the Surgeon General's Office. McGee was appointed Acting Assistant Surgeon of the United States Army on August 29, 1898, and her former headquarters were relocated to this office.(8) Then Sternberg acknowledged the invaluable assistance of the D. A. R., and he gave the "Daughters" an honorable discharge. By the end of September, McGee was prompted to write:

   The first nurses sent were viewed in the light of an experiment, and much
   depended on the record which they should make. To the lasting gratification
   not only of the D.A.R., but of womankind in general, we are proud to record
   that the nurses whom we first selected proved themselves full worthy of the
   trust imposed on them, and fit co-workers with the brave men whose names
   are entered on the roll of honor of the Army. The inevitable result of
   their noble work was the ever-increasing demand from Army hospitals for
   trained women nurses, and the decision, which has now been reached on every
   hand, that satisfactory hospital work, without such nurses, is almost
   impossible.(9)

During her first year, one of McGee's goals was to help organize the Corps. Her efforts were rewarded when on June 29, 1899, the rules governing this matter appeared in the form of a circular issued from the Surgeon General's Office which bore the approval of the Secretary of War. While the criteria that had been established with the D. A. R. still applied, it was stressed that three considerations were paramount: the women had to be qualified physically, mentally, and morally in order to take on the job of Army nursing. Applicants had to sign a one-year contract unless they were discharged sooner.(10) In return, they were paid forty dollars a month for service in the United States, fifty dollars a month if they served abroad. The Chief Nurse was to get an increase of salary unless she worked at a hospital with not over four nurses.(11) Quarters and rations were to be supplied as well as all transportation expenses to and from home and when traveling under orders.

Nurses were also entitled to 30 days' leave with pay for each year of service, and a badge and uniform were authorized. The government, still caught up in its own "red tape," demanded that the badges be tracked upon discharge or resignation. When a nurse left the service, she received a letter from the Surgeon General's Office to this effect: "It is noted that the permit for your badge has never been presented. If the same is in your possession kindly return it. In case it is not, please inform this office where it is."(12)