Contributed by Maine Historical Society
Description
Rebecca Usher of Hollis, newly arrived as a nurse at the U.S. General Hospital in Chester, Pennsylvania, wrote to her sister Ellen Usher Bacon of Portland about the urgent needs of the hospital and its patients.
She asked for flannel shirts and tobacco, especially. She wrote, "...we do not want to beg on too large a scale, but it is pitiful to see men who left in dependent homes, humiliated to the necessity of begging a pipe full of tobacco."
She noted that many of the soldiers at the hospital had received no pay for 11 months, and nearly all had gone five months without pay.
Usher had written a similar letter the same day to her sister Martha Osgood in Hollis.
Transcription
About This Item
- Title: Rebecca Usher to sister on hospital needs, Pennsylvania, 1862
- Creator: Rebecca Usher
- Creation Date: 1862-12-05
- Subject Date: 1862
-
Locations:
- Chester, PA
- Portland, Cumberland County, ME
- Media: Ink on paper
- Dimensions: 20.2 cm x 12.7 cm
- Local Code: Coll. 9, Box 1/4
- Collection: Rebecca Usher papers
- Object Type: Text
Cross Reference Searches
Standardized Subject Headings
- Nurses--Pennsylvania--Chester
- United States--Civil War, 1861-1865
- War--Relief of sick and wounded
- Relief (Aid)
- United States--History--Civil War, 1861-1865--Medical care
- Hospitals--Pennsylvania
- Military medicine
People
For more information about this item, contact:
Maine Historical Society485 Congress Street, Portland, ME 04101
(207) 774-1822 x230
Website
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