Debating a male nurse impression for first big event

[malcolmyoung]

Hi everyone,

I posted before regarding a hospital steward's impression. I'm now unsure whether I want to show up to my first event with rank. However I'm having trouble finding anything at all about male nurses, which I don't really understand as most nurses were male soldiers. Is showing up to my first event as an 18 year old with rank as a hospital steward a bad idea? Does anyone have any ideas where to find even a picture of a male nurse? The internet isn't proving fruitful.

Any and all help is appreciated. I'm not looking for research to be done for me, just any helpful suggestions that can be offered.

[Frederick14Va]

In brief... The Military nurse like most orderlies and attendants were folks detailed or assigned from the ranks. So most wouldnt have any special uniform or insignia for the most part. (less you were detailed to the Ambulance Corp etc) Many of these "nurses" didnt have any real acedemic medical training so for the most part were extra hands around to assist the medical staff. Unlike the modern image of a nurse as mostly being female and the Florence Nightingale aura, Majority of Military nurses were male, especially in the early parts of the war. The female nurses were reluctantly accepted into the established status-quo of the medical field out of necessity more than intended desire. As the social mindset of the era as it was thought to be somewhat reserved to allow proper ladies to be in such a location whereas men in various stages of undress, pain and torment would be improper thing to do and allow. Of course that changed over time. But in the field most orderlies and "nurse" roles predominately remained a male role task.

All you would really need for it is your normal uniform attire, then up to you if you wish to make use of an apron or other misc related items. It would be a good role to learn from since you can sit back and listen and learn from others if you have a knowledgeable medical staff to work along with. Good luck...

[hanktrent]

If it's a battle event, try looking for information on the position of knapsack carrier. Here's a quick cut-and-paste of an email I had to send to an event organizer one time, who apparently thought I and the assistant surgeon were just making up the fact that he should have a private assigned to him.

> 2. What's the historical precident of assigning a private to carry an
> officer's gear? I've never heard of such a thing before.

Oh, that's the easy part! I had no idea it seemed odd. Again, I guess I just assumed that my role would be the typical private assigned to carry the surgeon's knapsack on the march, pervasive on both sides in all theatres, as far as I've run across in quick-and-dirty research.

For example:

Revised United States Army regulations of 1861, p. 318: "Upon the march or in battle, medical officers will habitually be attended by an orderly, carrying a hospital knapsack. This knapsack to be made of light wood and of the ordinary size; to be divided into four compartments or drawers, and to be covered with canvas or other suitable material: the object being to carry in an accessible shape such instruments, dressings, and medicines as may be needed in an emergency on the march or in the field."

Medical Director Jonathan Letterman's order to the Army of the Potomac, Oct. 4, 1862: "When the ambulance cannot accompany the regiment, one knapsack will be carried by an orderly with the command, and the medicine chest and remaining knapsacks will be placed with the hospital tent and other hospital furniture in the wagon allowed to each regiment for that purpose."

A Confederate doctor's memoir: "Each regiment was allowed a hospital cook and a medical knapsack bearer. ... Morton was my knapsack bearer. He was a young man from Onslow Co. He was a short stout boy, about 23 and carried the hospital knapsack and his own with perfect ease, and was always ready to do extra duty when called upon. He was a picture of smiling good-nature, under the most trying circumstances. Food might be scarce but Morton always had something for the Surgeon's Mess. Between Bishop and Morton we could always count on having all that was going - a good camp, food for ourselves and horses, a good camp fire and all the new[s] of the day."

A Union post-war doctor's memoir: "There was an emergency case, about the size of a soldier's knapsack, and, indeed, intended to be carried on an attendant's back like a knapsack. In this emergency case were bandages, adhesive plaster, needles, artery forceps, scalpels, spirits of ammonia, brandy, chloroform, ether, etc. This emergency case, or hospital knapsack, was always taken with the regiment when the firing-line was about to be approached, and where the First Assistant Surgeon was in charge and was ready to render first aid to any who might be wounded."

A commendation in the ORs, Pennsylvania surgeon at Lookout Mountain: "Asst. Surg. J. S. Bender and Private William D. Cassidy, who followed closely with the hospital knapsack, prepared to attend to such cases as required immediate aid, deserve the thanks of the whole command."

From "Memoir of Archibald Atkinson, Jr., a doctor who served in the Confederate Army" : "There was a man always detailed to accompany me to carry the knapsack containing bandages, pocket case of instruments, and a small amputating case."

On the Federal side, from a post-war history: "The medical and surgical material available on the firing line was practically that carried by the surgeon in his case, known as the 'surgeon's field companion,' and by his orderly in the 'hospital knapsack,' a bulky, cumbersome affair weighing, when filled, about twenty pounds."

From a Union war correspondant: "A regiment marched in the following manner: first the adjutant; then the pioneers; then the band and drum-corps; then the colonel and lieutenant-colonel; then the regiment, each man with his knapsack, haversack, canteen, and arms; and, bringing up the rear, the major, chaplain, and two surgeons, and, on foot, the hospital-knapsack-carrier."

A Confederate memoir again: "Our regiment had two medical men, a surgeon and an assistant surgeon. There was also a hospital steward - a kind of apothecary, whose duty it was to take charge of the case of medical and surgical supplies, and to prepare, or dole out, what was prescribed, and to act as general assistant to the surgeons. In addition, there was a man, familiarly styled the knapsack-toter, who carried a knapsack containing small quantities of the most generally useful medicines, bandages, isinglass plaster, etc., and whose special duty it was to be with the assistant surgeon on the battlefield."

Hank Trent
hanktrent@gmail.com

[malcolmyoung]

Thanks for all the suggestions and ideas. I think I'll just wear my fatigues and bring the bandages and whatnot I've assembled and see who needs help at the field hospital. I'm guessing they'll probably be glad to have a private forgo shooting a gun in order to carry a knapsack or do a nurses impression.

It's almost upsetting how much of the nursing information online is pertaining to females however, considering they were mostly male soldiers.