Louisa on the Front Lines
Page 21
May, Samuel, 18–19, 20, 22
McClellan, George
Antietam and, 45, 46
Burnside and, 73
calls for return after failure at Fredericksburg, 104, 105
firing of, 72, 73–74
Lincoln and, 47
on Twenty-Fourth Michigan Infantry, 95
medical treatments, 109–110
bleeding, 110
blistering, 110, 138, 148
for respiratory afflictions, 128
“A Modern Cinderella” (Alcott), 24
Moods (Alcott), 9, 25–26, 158, 165
publication of, 173
morphine, medical use of, 107
“My Contraband” (Alcott), 162
Nature (Emerson), 12
New England Woman Suffrage Association, 194
New Year’s, White House reception at, 130–132
New York Times (newspaper), 108
Nice (France), Louisa in, 181–182
Nichols, Abram, 130
Nightingale, Florence, 37, 39, 85
Niles, Thomas
Little Women and, 185–186, 187–188
sequel to Little Women and, 189
Nineteenth Amendment, 196
Notes on Nursing (Nightingale), 37
nurses, Union army, 2
Dix and, 53–55
free black, 135
illness among Union Hotel Hospital, 133, 134
pay for, 40
recruitment of, 39
requirements for, 39–40
role of, 85–86
US Sanitary Commission and, 38–39
See also Alcott, Louisa May “Lu,” as army nurse
nursing profession, beginnings of, 37–38
Old Fashioned Girl (Alcott), 190
133rd Pennsylvania Volunteers Regiment, Company D, 43
opium, medical use of, 110
Orchard House (Concord), 7, 8
Christmas at, 166
redecoration of, 157–158
Paris, Louisa in Paris with “Laddie,” 182–183
“Pauline’s Passion and Punishment” (Alcott), 113, 158
Peabody, Elizabeth, 35
Pension Victoria (Switzerland), Louisa at, 171, 174–181
Perkins, Henry, 86
Philbrick, Edward, 165
The Pickwick Papers (Dickens), 112
Polk, Andrew J., 175–177
Polk, James, 176
Polk, Rebecca, 175–176, 180
Polk family, Louisa and, 174–177, 180
Port Royal Experiment (South Carolina), Louisa’s desire to visit, 164–165
Pratt, John, 50, 62–63
Prescott, George, 31
Prospect Hill (Virginia), 77
quinine, as malaria treatment, 109–110
racial equality, Alcott family’s belief in, 9
racial tension and prejudice at Union Hotel Hospital, 102–103
Rawl’s Mill, 52
Redpath, James, 160–161, 163, 165, 185
Revere, Paul, 61
Richardson, James, 23–24
Richmond (Virginia), Burnside’s campaign to recapture, 74–79
Roberts Brothers (publishers), 160, 185. See also Niles, Thomas
Ropes, Alice, 85
caring for mother in hospital, 135
discouraged from visiting her mother at hospital, 89
letters from mother, 86, 128
mother’s death and, 140–141
Ropes, Hannah, 84–89
abolitionism and, 85
on battle at Fredericksburg, 104
care of Confederate soldier, 96
Christmas at the hospital and, 115–116, 118–120
complaints about treatment of wounded and hospital conditions, 87–89
death and funeral of, 139–131
death of John Suhre and, 123–125
discouraging daughter from visiting at hospital, 89
on diseases at hospital, 91
feeding patients, 100
on healing process, 89–90
ill with pneumonia, 128–129, 133
ill with typhoid fever, 136, 138
John Suhre and, 120–121
literary career, 85
Louisa’s affection for, 102
on Louisa’s first day as nurse, 91
sending Louisa home, 136–137
Thanksgiving at hospital and, 114–115
understanding of nurse’s role, 85–86
Ropes, Ned, 85, 89, 128, 141
Sanborn, Frank, 31, 32, 50, 51, 154
The Scarlett Letter (Hawthorne), 52
School of Philosophy, Bronson’s, 193, 195
Schrock, Amos, 43, 120
Schrock, Edward, 43, 120
Schwalbach (Germany), 172, 174
Second Battle of Bull Run, 44, 89
Second Battle of Fredericksburg, 77–79
blame for, 104–105
wounded arriving at Union Hotel Hospital, 91–98
Seward, William, 46
Shakers, 17–18
Sharpsburg (Maryland), 41, 44–45
Shaw, Robert, 166
Six Months in Kansas (Ropes), 85
Sixth Massachusetts Volunteer Militia, 66
“Slaughter Pen” (Prospect Hill, Virginia), 77
Smith, Elizabeth, 115
Snyder (hospital chaplain), 139
Soldiers’ Aid Societies, 33, 166
South Carolina, secession from Union, 1
spiritualism
Louisa’s recovery and, 152
Mary Todd Lincoln and, 131–132
Stamp Act, 61
Stanton, Edwin, 46, 88
“The Star Spangled Banner” (anthem), 30
State House (Massachusetts), 61–62
Stearns, Frank, 36–37
Stevenson, Hannah
Dix and, 53–55
first army nurse volunteer from Massachusetts, 53
on Hammond, 87
Hannah Ropes and, 84
letter to Alcotts informing them of Louisa’s illness, 143–144
Louisa’s letter to revealing experience of washing men, 94
as matron of Union Hotel Hospital, 54
on nurses’ aching feet, 101
Stipp, George
calomel and, 90–91, 110, 136, 150, 189
checking on Hannah Ropes, 128
Success (Work) (Alcott), 165, 174, 185
Suhre, Anna, 42
Suhre, Emanuel, 42
Suhre, George, 41, 121, 122
Suhre, John, 41–47
Battle of Marye’s Heights and, 77–79
Burnside’s plan to recapture Richmond and, 74
death of, 123–125
early army experience, 43–44
enlistment in Union army, 43, 121–122
family life, 42–43
injury of, 78–79
letters home, 41–42, 47, 121, 122
Little Women and, 187
Louisa and, 112–113, 116–118, 120–122, 179
Louisa’s writing about, 159–160
in Sharpsburg (Maryland), 44–45, 46, 47
visit from Edward Schrock, 120
waiting for battle, 71, 77
Suhre, Joseph, 42–43
Suhre, Mike, 43, 76–77
Suhre, Sarah, 42–43
suicide, Louisa’s thoughts of, 34–35, 151
Sumner, Charles, 139, 141
Tablets (Bronson Alcott), 186, 189
Taylor, J. H., 76
Thanksgiving at Union Hotel Hospital, 114–115
Thirty-Ninth Regiment of the Tenth Pennsylvania Reserves, Company A, 43
Thoreau, Henry David, 11, 25, 30, 31, 114
“Thoreau’s Flute” (Alcott), 114, 153
publication of, 161–162
Total Abstinence Society, 51
La Tour de Peilz (Switzerland), Louisa in, 171, 174–181
transcendentalism, 11–12
travel etiquette for women, 64
Treatise on the Practice of Medi
cine (Wood), 109
tuberculosis, Weisneiwsky and, 178
Tubman, Harriet, 10
Twenty-Fourth Michigan Infantry (Iron Brigade), 95
Twichell, Ginery, 60
typhoid fever
delirium and, 145, 147
fever fits and, 147–148
Hannah Ropes and, 136, 138
Louisa and, 136–137, 141–153
typhoid state, Louisa in, 141–142
Underground Railroad, Alcott family and, 9–10
Union Hotel Hospital (Georgetown), 67
abuse of wounded soldiers, 86
Alcott and, 55
arrival of wounded from Fredericksburg, 91–98
Christmastime at, 113, 114, 115–116, 118–120
disrepair of, 82–83
dissections of dead at, 108–109
food offered at, 83–84, 86, 96, 100, 101–102
Hannah Ropes and, 84–89
Hannah Ropes’s funeral at, 139–141
illness among nurses, 133, 134
illnesses among nurses, 127–129
Louisa’s arrival at, 69
Louisa’s first day as nurse, 81–84
overcrowding at, 105
racial tension and prejudice at, 102–103
Stevenson, 54
Thanksgiving at, 114–115
trying to keep wards clean at, 106
use of ballroom at, 89
US Sanitary Commission, 38–39, 99
utopian society, Fruitlands, 16–18
Walden Pond, 50–51
Walden (Thoreau), 30
Washington, George, 89
Wasson, David Atwood, 158
water cures, 21, 172
Weisneiwsky, Ladislas “Laddie”
as inspiration for “Laurie” in Little Women, 187
Louisa’s thirty-third birthday and, 181
Louisa’s visit with in Paris, 182–183
meeting Louisa at Pension Victoria, 177–179
nature of Louisa’s relationship with, 181, 183
Weld, Anna, 171–175, 180–182
Weld, William, 171
White House, 67–68
Blue Room, 131, 132
East Room, 68
New Year’s reception at, 130–132
Whitman, Alf, 36
Willis, Louisa, 27
Winslow, John, 109–111, 127, 135, 136, 149
women, travel etiquette for, 64
Women’s Central Association for Relief, 38
women’s rights, water cure and, 172
women’s suffrage
Alcotts and, 22
Louisa’s support for, 193–197
Wood, George, 109
Wood, Robert, 54
Work (Alcott), 165, 174, 185
wounded soldiers
abuse of, 86
Confederate, 96
from Fredericksburg, 91–98
washing, 93–95
wounds
categorization of, 107
dressing, 98, 99
maggots in, 98–99
writing career, Louisa’s
during and after Civil War, 158, 159–164
Atlantic Monthly and, 24, 34, 161–162
beginning to write again after illness, 154
choice of Redpath as publisher for Hospital Sketches, 160–161
“Debby’s Debut,” 24
early writings, 24
Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper and, 35–36, 113, 158
Hospital Sketches, 163–164, 166, 167
“Hospital Sketches,” 158, 159–160, 161, 162
“How I Went Out to Service,” 34
The Inheritance, 25
Little Women, 3, 185, 186–188
“Love and Self-Love,” 24
“A Modern Cinderella,” 24
Moods, 9, 25–26, 158, 165, 173
“My Contraband,” 162
Old Fashioned Girl, 190
“Pauline’s Passion and Punishment,” 113, 158
publishing letters written home while army nurse, 154
sequel to Little Women, 188–189, 190
success of, 158–164, 165–166, 167, 188, 189, 190–191
Success (Work), 165, 174, 185
Thomas Niles and, 185–186, 187–188, 189
“Thoreau’s Flute,” 114, 153, 161–162