Role of Matrons in regiments

[10nycav]

I just found out yesterday that a lady was listed in our original regimental rolls as "Matron." Found her on the NPS Soldiers and Sailors database. Does anyone know what kind of role the matron had in regiments? (We are a cavalry regiment if that makes any difference.) Did she draw pay since she was listed in the muster rolls? We have a lady member who is already more or less in that role but would be nice to be able to give her some more specific information.

Thanking you in advance,
Ken Morris
10th Regt of Cavalry NYSV.

[K Bartsch]

Re: Role of Matrons in regiments

I just found out yesterday that a lady was listed in our original regimental rolls as "Matron." Found her on the NPS Soldiers and Sailors database. Does anyone know what kind of role the matron had in regiments? (We are a cavalry regiment if that makes any difference.) Did she draw pay since she was listed in the muster rolls? We have a lady member who is already more or less in that role but would be nice to be able to give her some more specific information.

Thanking you in advance,
Ken Morris
10th Regt of Cavalry NYSV.

In British practice, nurses are often called "sisters" as a throwback to very early days when hospitals were staffed and nursing functions perfomed by female members of religious orders (aka "nuns." ) It is understandable then that the women who serve in positions of responsiblity on the wards are still called "matrons." Therefore, just a guess, but I suggest, that perhaps this "matron" was a women who bore some responsibility for the care of sick and injured soldiers and had subordinate nurses under her charge.

Cordially,

[10nycav]

Re: Role of Matrons in regiments

Thanks! That makes sense to me. Other women are listed in the NPS Soldiers and Sailors system as "hospital matrons" so perhaps the word "hospital" was just dropped from her listing. As for pay, I did some digging around and found that hospital matrons were entitled to pay but many refused it. Does anyone know what the standard pay for a hospital matron would be?

Ken Morris
10th Regt of Cavalry NYSV.

In British practice, nurses are often called "sisters" as a throwback to very early days when hospitals were staffed and nursing functions perfomed by female members of religious orders (aka "nuns." ) It is understandable then that the women who serve in positions of responsiblity on the wards are still called "matrons." Therefore, just a guess, but I suggest, that perhaps this "matron" was a women who bore some responsibility for the care of sick and injured soldiers and had subordinate nurses under her charge.

Cordially,

[ElizabethClark]

Re: Role of Matrons in regiments

One source to check would be Mary Livermore's "My Story of the Civil War." I don't recall a specific page, but she does discuss hospitals, and the matrons themselves, quite extensively.

Also, the army official records should have pay rate information, as well...

[Miss L]

Re: Role of Matrons in regiments

Harriet Patience Dame was the Matron for the 2nd New Hampshire Infantry. She "enlisted" with the unit, and was to be paid $6 per month. (As an aside, in August of 1861, Congress authorized the Surgeon General to employ women as nurses at Army hospitals at a salary of $12 per month, plus one daily ration.)

Reverend Adams, a chaplain of the 2nd, wrote of her, "I have heard them all tell how she toiled day after day on the bloody field of Gettysburg, sometimes during the battle, between the lines...absorbed and self-forgetful, devoting herself to the relief of our wounded men. And when the darkness of night, and the exhaustion of her energies made rest imperative, she would pillow her head on the gory field, and sleep amid the dead and wounded scattered around her." (The 2nd went into that battle with 380 men, it suffered 193 casualties.)

Miss Dame served for four years, eight months and some odd days without ever having taken a furlough or sick leave.

She was the second president of the Army Nurses Association. (In 2002 she was inducted into the American Nurses Association Hall of Fame.) A special act of Congress (initiated by a petition signed by over 600 veterans) granted her a $25 per month pension, and a Senate bill was introduced in the 48th Congress to provide pensions to nurses who worked on the battlefield or in hospitals during the Civil War.

Miss Dame passed away in 1900 at the age of 85 and was accorded a full military funeral. A portrait of her hangs in the New Hampshire State House.

I hope this has been of some interest, and assistance.

(Information from the Army's Nursing Corps, the New Hampshire Nurses' Association, the National Park Service, and "Women at Gettysburg" by E.F. Conklin)

[celtfiddler]

Re: Role of Matrons in regiments

Linda--

Thanks for the mention of your sources. I've been trying to locate more information on Harriet Dame. I didn't know about the New Hampshire Nurses Association