The United States Navy Nurse Corps was formally established by the Congress in 1908. For nearly 100 years previously, however, women had worked as nurses aboard Navy ships and in Navy hospitals.
A Navy Department circular order established the designation of Nurse (19 Jun 1861), to be filled by junior enlisted men. Fifteen years later, the duties were transferred to the designation Bayman (US Navy Regulations, 1876). Although enlisted personnel w...
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The United States Navy Nurse Corps was formally established by the Congress in 1908. For nearly 100 years previously, however, women had worked as nurses aboard Navy ships and in Navy hospitals.
A Navy Department circular order established the designation of Nurse (19 Jun 1861), to be filled by junior enlisted men. Fifteen years later, the duties were transferred to the designation Bayman (US Navy Regulations, 1876). Although enlisted personnel were referred to as Nurses, their duties and responsibilities were more related to those of a Hospital Corpsman than to a nurse.
During the American Civil War, several African American women are noted to have served as paid crew onboard the hospital ship Red Rover in the Mississippi River area in the position of nurse. The known names of four nurses are: Alice Kennedy, Sarah Kinno, Ellen Campbell and Betsy Young (Fowler). In addition volunteer nuns from the Catholic Sisters of the Holy Cross also served aboard as nurses.
During the 1898 Spanish...
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