SHAKO: Two Stories for Women's History Month

John M. Doyle

March 31

WOMEN IN MILITARY HISTORY.

4GWAR is squeaking in under the wire with this post for Women's History Month, just before March ends. In the past, we have run a series of photos in March showing women in the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force and Coast Guard in jobs that men have been doing for decades, even centuries like -- pilots, chefs, doctors, drill sergeants, musicians, mechanics, navigators, engineers, commanders and more.

But this year we waited -- some would say too long -- to find unusual bits of military history where women took over jobs (non-combat, they were barred by law until recently) that were traditionally handled by men -- and excelling at them. We're also adding a few photos of women in the military who became the first of their gender to serve in certain assignments. We hope we're coming to the end of the era when a female reaching a high rank or performing a dangerous or complicated job is no longer front page news.

CIVIL WAR NURSES.

Among the white headstones of Arlington National Cemetery, across the Potomac from Washington, D.C., you'll find the graves of 23 pioneering female Civil War nurses.

When the Civil War began, nursing was still a male profession. However, after seeing what Florence Nightingale and other women were doing for British soldiers in the Crimean War, Congress authorized the hiring of female nurses to assist the Army. Other non-official nurses volunteered with local units, too, having been recruited by state or local officials. Many more followed their husbands to war to help soldiers in their units.

The Influence of Women Harper's Weekly, September 6, 1862 (Photo via American Battlefield Trust)

Very few of these nurses had professional medical training because it simply wasn't available to women back then. Instead, they had on-the-job training on how to care for injured and ill patients.

"They would feed, clothe and wash soldiers, do their best to make them physically comfortable, and they would tend to their mental and spiritual needs," Army historian Kathy Fargey told a recent public tour of the Civil War nurses' area of Arlington's Section 1 to commemorate Women's History Month. "They helped [soldiers] write letters, and they would read to them, talk with them and pray with them."

Here are the stories of three of them. For more information, click here.

Anna Platt was born in 1820 in New York. She made her way south in February 1863 to help at Armory Square Hospital, a 1,000-bed facility in Washington, D.C., where she stayed through the end of the war.

The nurses started their days at 6 a.m., feeding and giving patients medicine, as well as changing their bandages and offering them comfort. They also arranged evening entertainment.

Anna played accordion music for the soldiers in the evening," Fargey said. "They all had singing and music and public readings. Then the night watchers would finally arrive at 8:45 p.m. to take over from the nurses."

Like many Army nurses, Platt caught some of the diseases the soldiers had, suffering "a severe attack of typhoid and brain fever" while working at Armory Square. She never fully recovered. Platt is one of 21 of the nurses buried in Arlington's Section 1 to receive what was called an invalid's pension — an antiquated term for a disabled veteran's pension.

Platt died in November 1898. She was the first Civil War nurse to be buried in Arlington specifically because of her wartime service.

Adelaide Spurgeon was born in England in 1829 and immigrated to the U.S. around 1860. She lived in New York City and was recruited in the early days of the war to go to D.C. to help as an Army nurse. When she arrived in Washington, she discovered there was only one hospital in which to work, and it was for smallpox patients.

"The other nurses said, 'No thanks,' and Adele was the only one to say, 'I'll take the risk'," Fargey said.

Civil War Army nurse Adelaide Spurgeon. Right: Spurgeon's gravesite in Arlington National Cemetery. (Left: Courtesy Photo; Right: Defense Department photo by Katie Lange)

Spurgeon became well-known for her skills. According to Fargey's research, the nurse complained of the lack of medical supplies and the quality of food at the hospital, so she went back to New York and enlisted her friends to help her collect better supplies, which she brought back for the patients. Spurgeon eventually became sick herself, being diagnosed with blood poisoning at some point during the war. Spurgeon also received an invalid's pension for her sacrifices. She died on March 4, 1907.

Emma Southwick Brinton was born in 1834 in Massachusetts. During the Civil War, she first worked as an Army nurse in the Mansion House Hospital in Alexandria, Virginia, before working at Armory Square Hospital in D.C. Records show she was one of three nurses who were sent to Fredericksburg, Virginia, to care for 10 buildings filled with wounded men.

Due to the unsanitary conditions in which she often worked, Brinton contracted typhoid fever. She was sent back to Massachusetts to recover. Afterward, she returned to D.C. and various battlefields to continue nursing. She also received an invalid's pension. Brinton died on February 25, 1922, at age 88. She was the last of the 23 female nurses to be buried in Arlington's Section 1.

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THE EFFICIENCY OF THE SIX TRIPLE EIGHT.

With the onset of World War II, the United States rapidly expanded its military forces. Formed in early 1942, the Women's Auxiliary Army Corps marked the beginning of a separate department which allowed women to serve in the Army. Later changed to Women's Army Corps (WAC), the Army recruited talented women capable of performing non-combat roles. One of them was Charity Adams, young African American woman raised in South Carolina. Adams was a high school math teacher pursuing a master's degree in psychology at Ohio State University when she applied to join the new unit in 1942. Soon after joining, Adams was selected to attend Officer Candidate School.

She graduated in August 1942, becoming the first Black officer of the WAC. Stationed in Fort Des Moines until 1944, she worked as a station control and staff training officer. The Army promoted her to major in 1943, making her the highest-ranking female officer at Fort Des Moines in Iowa and one of the highest-ranking WAC officers in the nation, according to the National Museum of the Army.

In 1944, at just 25, Adams was placed in command of the 6888th Central Postal Battalion, the first Black WAC unit to serve overseas. In February 1945, these 800 women were stationed in Birmingham, England, for three months, moved to Rouen, France, and finally settled in Paris.

The battalion was responsible for the redirection of mail to all U.S. personnel in the European Theater of Operations (including Army, Navy, Marine Corps, civilians, and Red Cross workers), a total of over seven million people.

The Six Triple Eight, as the unit was known was an experiment to determine the value Black women brought to the military, according to a 2020 New York Times article for the 75th anniversary of the end of World War II. The 6888 faced a a tremendous challenge, sorting and distributing a backlog of 17 milionletters and packages piled haphazardly in huge airplane hangars.

When mail could not be delivered to the address on the face of the envelope, it was sent to the Postal Directory to be redirected. The 6888th kept an updated information card on each person in the theater. Some personnel at the front moved frequently, often requiring several information updates per month. The WACs worked three eight-hour shifts seven days a week to clear out the tremendous backlog of Christmas mail.

Each shift averaged 65,000 pieces of mail. Although the women's workload was heavy, their spirits were high because they realized how important their work was in keeping up morale at the front. Adams was allotted six month to complete her mission. The Six Triple Eight would do it in three. In 2019, the Army awarded the battalion the Meritorious Unit Commendation.