She was appointed Superintendent of Female Nurses of the Federal Army in 1861. A rigid administrator, she was constantly at odds with doctors as well as her subordinates. She rejected thousands of nursing applicants for being too attractive, too young or "over-anxious".
"The Civil War, Tenting Tonight", Time - Life books, page 95
...but this was just one of a long series of tasks undertaken by one of America's most notable social reformers. Working as a teacher in Boston 1841, she had occassion to visit a jail and was shocked to see the crude conditions. In particular, she was dismayed at the practice of that day of putting insane people alongside the prisoners, for both populations suffered from this. She set about inspecting other such institutions in Massachusetts, and in 1843 she submitted an impassioned plea to the state legislature to reform the hospitals for the insane.
She then began to travel in various states, (she had inherited money!) and persuaded them to provide proper facilities for the insane. By drawing on her personal investigations, then appealing to the public through the press, and petitioning Congress, she became recognized throughout the US and even in Europe.
Within hours of the firing upon Fort Sumter, she volunteered her services to the Surgeon General and in June 1861 the Secretery of War appointed her Superintendent. As the war proceeded, along with getting the work of nursing accomplished under the most difficult conditions, she also had to fight to retain her independent control over the women nurses.
After the war, she took up her crusade to provide more humane treatment for institutionalized people and extended her efforts to Europe. An independent, reserved, often sick person, she worked unceasingly in an area where few of either sex ventured.
"The Civil War Almanac", World Almanac Publications, page 327-8
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