Hospital Sketches

In the fall of 1862, President Lincoln signalled his determination to prosecute the Civil War more vigorously by replacing George McClellan with Maj.-Gen. Ambrose E. Burnside. Meanwhile, in Massachusetts, Louisa May Alcott (1832-1888) volunteered as a nurse in the Sanitary Commission charged with caring for the war's wounded. From 13 December 1862 until 21 January 1863, Miss Alcott served at the Union Hotel Hospital in Georgetown in the District of Columbia, where she ultimately contracted typhoid and pneumonia and very nearly died. This book is her account of her journey south from Concord and her six weeks in the nation's wartime capital. Styling herself by the fanciful name "Tribulation Periwinkle," she brought humor as well as pathos to her subject, making this first-hand account of the absolute horrors of a 19th-century war hospital seem less shocking and repugnant and more appreciative of the sacrifices made by the wounded warriors and their families.