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    Civil War Hospital Sketches
    Civil War Hospital Sketches
    Civil War Hospital Sketches
    Ebook111 pages1 hour

    Civil War Hospital Sketches

    By Louisa May Alcott

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    Before her wider fame as the author of Little Women, Louisa May Alcott achieved recognition for her accounts of her work as a volunteer nurse in an army hospital. Written during the winter of 1862–63, her lively dispatches appeared in the newspaper Commonwealth, where they were eagerly read by soldiers' friends and families. Then, as now, these chronicles revealed the desperate realities of battlefield medicine as well as the tentative first steps of women in military service.
    Writing under a pseudonym, Alcott recounted the vicissitudes of her two-day journey from her home in Concord, Massachusetts, to Washington, D.C. A fiery baptism in the practice of nursing awaited her at Washington Hospital, were she arrived immediately after the slaughter of the Army of the Potomac at the battle of Fredericksburg. Alcott's rapidly paced prose graphically depicts the facts of hospital life, deftly balancing pathos with gentle humor. A vivid and truthful portrait of an often overlooked aspect of the Civil War, this book remains among the most illuminating reports of the era's medical practices as well as a moving testimonial to the war's human cost.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherDover Publications
    Release dateMar 8, 2012
    ISBN9780486138176
    Civil War Hospital Sketches
    Author

    Louisa May Alcott

    Louisa May Alcott was a 19th-century American novelist best known for her novel, Little Women, as well as its well-loved sequels, Little Men and Jo's Boys. Little Women is renowned as one of the very first classics of children’s literature, and remains a popular masterpiece today.

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    Reviews for Civil War Hospital Sketches

    4/5

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    • 5/5
      Loved this book! Absolutely hilarious - so many quotable lines! Funny, heartwarming, and heartbreaking all in one.
    • 5/5
      A memoir of Louisa May Alcott during the Civil War of her time as a hospital aid. She writes in detail of the horrors and of her misery missing her father, then becoming ill herself. Very good to get a taste of the war experience from the viewpoint of those not in the battles.
    • 5/5
      Ignore the execrable Little Women, this is the book Louisa May Alcott should be known for. She beautifully describes her short time spent as a nurse in one of the many hospitals in Washington DC devoted to caring for the Civil War wounded. Calling herself Nurse Periwinkle she describes her duties and the brave wounded and often dying men she cared for. She describes everything from amputations to muddy coffee to the insects inhabiting her small shared room to the brave, beautiful John. The respect given to doctors is contrasted with the rather shabby accommodations given to nurses but she also shows their great camaraderie. I'd recommend this book to anyone interested in history in general or the history of nursing in particular or to anyone just wanting to read about a woman's place in the world.
    • 4/5
      Tribulation Periwinkle (the fictitious Louisa May Alcott) dons her rose-colored glasses and embarks on a mission to aid the injured Civil War soldiers at Hurly-Burly House in Washington. When she wasn't washing men, changing bandages, serving food and drink, or providing comfort and cheer, Nurse Periwinkle rebounded by walking the muddy streets of Washington taking in the sights of this bustling hub of energy in the early days of the war.I learned from the excellent 30-page introduction to this novella that it wasn't uncommon for untrained women to work in the primitive army hospitals that appropriated whatever space that could be spared for disabled soldiers. Although this is a work of fiction, it rings with the truth of one who witnessed the pendulum of fear and courage of the mangled soldiers who were grateful for a woman's compassion. Miss Alcott's real-life service in the Civil War mirrored the care that Nurse Periwinkle administered to those men wounded at Frederickburg, right down to the malady that prematurely ended her nursing service. Highly recommended.
    • 4/5
      A short novel based on Alcott's experiences as a volunteer nurse during the early days of the American Civil War, which described her humorous and moderately hellish journey from Massachusetts to Washington in order to care for Union soldiers seriously wounded in battle. Alcott does a fabulous job in portraying the nobility of these wounded men, and the tireless efforts of the nurses, in the spirit of the old folk saying "to cure sometimes, to relieve often, to comfort always."
    • 4/5
      Fresh and compelling, this short novelette was drawn from Louisa May Alcott's short stint as a hospital nurse during the Civil War. It's delivered with a strong dose of Victorian morality and Victorian prose style, but Alcott's experiences are vividly recorded. So is her sympathy for the wounded and with the African Americans she meets. This is the Civil War as seen through a distinctly New England view, strongly abolitionist and strongly moralistic, but also practical, self-reliant, and positive. I only wish there was more about the hospital. One thing that jumped out at me was the central character's familiarity with death; she is only thirty, but she says she has already been called to several deathbeds. The Victorians may have been repressed, but they knew a lot more about the facts of life than we do.
    • 3/5
      Louisa May Alcott wrote many fictionalized books and stories about her life and family, the most famous of which is [Little Women]. An abolitionist and feminist, the adventurous Alcott eagerly joined other young women in offering to be a nurse for the Union Army during the Civil War. In late 1862, Alcott was sent to the Union Hospital in Georgetown, D.C. for a three month assignment. True to her nature, she wrote long, witty letters home to her family, in which she describes her duties as an untrained nurse, the soldiers she meets, and the nature of the treatment available to the wounded. Unfortunately, Alcott caught typhoid fever and became very ill. Despite her protests, she was taken home after only six weeks of service. Her letters were collected and published later that year, then republished with additions in 1869.Since the letters were written to family and never intended to be published, Alcott received some initial criticism for her sometimes comic tone. She responded beautifully with this remark in 1869:To those who have objected to a "tone of levity" in some portions of the sketches, I desire to say that the wish to make the best of every thing, and send home cheerful reports even from the saddest of scenes, an army hospital, probably produced the impression of levity upon those who have never know the sharp contrasts of the tragic and the comic in such a life.This ability to see these "sharp contrasts of the tragic and the comic" during times of duress elevates the letters from simple documentation to a nuanced view of the precariousness of life and the spirit of defiance required to repeatedly face death. The letters also reflect a caring yet direct young woman, who despite her enlightened education, was a product of her times.
    • 4/5
      Louisa May Alcott writes these stories based on her experiences working as a nurse during the Civil War.
    • 4/5
      This book made me laugh. I know that's not what you're expecting to hear, and it wasn't what I was expecting to do, but nevertheless, even though I felt I was doing something wrong, or reading it the wrong way, I did laugh. Louisa May Alcott is extremely witty in this book, in the way she describes settings, people, and interactions. It had sad parts, but it wasn't the tear jerker I thought it would be. For me this was an easy read, which I wasn't expecting either, but I really liked it. I read it as a follow up to the Glory Cloak, and I woud recommend to anyone who liked that book. I would also recommend it to anyone who thinks Louisa May Alcott is dry and hard to read - this was a kicker.
    • 4/5
      This little book is the result of the month that Louisa May Alcott spent as a volunteer nurse in a Civil War hospital in Washington, D.C. In addition to describing her duties, her patients, and the hospital staff, Alcott also provides an account of her journey to Washington and of the sights she saw during her day off. Alcott was in Washington at the right time to see the Statue of Freedom while it was on display before being placed on the dome of the Capitol. Alcott’s lively writing style may appeal to reluctant teen readers, making it a good choice for supplemental reading for U.S. history units on the Civil War.
    • 4/5
      Alcott’s short book provides a glimpse into the life of a Civil War hospital in Washington, DC from the viewpoint of nurse Periwinkle (Alcott herself) who came from the Boston area. It shows a contrast between the way various hospitals were run. I loved her descriptions of the towns as she was traveling through them in the early chapters of the book. Very descriptive; good writing.
    • 4/5
      Ms. Alcott shares her experiences as a nurse in one of the Washington DC hospitals sprung up to care for the Civil War wounded. Giving her character the name Tribulation Periwinkle, nurse Periwinkle's observations become the Sketches. We see through her eyes the panorama of a young DC, the various temperaments of doctors she works under and of other workers, and especially the personalities of the wounded boys and men who've come under her care....I maintain that the soldier who cries when his mother says “Good bye,” is the boy to fight best, and die bravest, when the time comes, or go back to her better than he went.Short, but excellent.
    • 4/5
      A somewhat fictionalized account of Alcott’s time as a nurse in Washington, DC during the Civil War. At times humorous, eye-opening and very moving, I was much more engaged in this read than I expected to be. It is a short work that stands the test of time.
    • 3/5
      You really get a sense of Alcott’s voice here, and of her time. She’s got a little Florence Nightengale going, and a little of the class clown. She describes Washington DC in the Civil War era, and she’s a compassionate and aware observer.
    • 4/5
      “Hospital Sketches” essentially reads as a tragic comedy. Here we have Louisa May Alcott’s semi-autobiographical account of her times as a nurse and the events leading up to her securing her position at the hospital.I’d been in two minds whether to read this text for some time, thinking it would be too morbid and depressing, but before finishing the first page I knew I’d misjudged the book by its title. Of course there are upsetting scenes where soldiers are so severely wounded that they have a short period of agony before death releases them, yet despite this, the senses of hope and bravery prevent the mood from becoming depressing, while the upbeat narration eliminates any feelings of morbidity. The author – or technically speaking, the “narrator”, who’s really Ms Alcott in disguise – sums up my above feelings in this quote:“Certainly, nothing was set down in malice, and to the serious-minded party who objected to a tone of levity in some portions of the Sketches, I can only say that it is a part of my religion to look well after the cheerfulnesses of life, and let the dismals shift for themselves.”The light tone is most apparent in the scenes before the want-to-be nurse starts work at the hospital. The nonsense she has to endure to get from A to B and back again is a classic case of the left hand not knowing what the right is doing. I don’t know how much of this really happened to Ms Alcott, though I suspect most if not all are true recollections. Either way, the frustration she goes through is retold in a humorous way, causing me to laugh aloud more than once.A particular funny part is when the nurse-to-be is about to sleep whilst sailing and she’s concerned about the vessel going down during the night. What finally alleviates her troubled mind is the sight of an overweight lady, because bearing in mind that “fat girls float best”, she (the future nurse) would make a beeline for the lady and hold onto her if the boat went down.An insightful and amusing read.

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    Civil War Hospital Sketches - Louisa May Alcott

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