By Kathy Otten (Guest Blogger)
My
new novel, A Place In Your Heart, takes place mostly at Armory
Square Hospital in Washington, DC. In doing research for the day to
day organization of a hospital at that time, I relied heavily on the
book, Diary of a Civil War Nurse by Amanda Akin, who had been
a nurse at Armory Square.
Before
the war began, Washington was a relatively rural town with limited
medical accommodations. There were no military hospitals and very few
medical facilities.
By
the end of the war there were over 56 hospitals in and around the
Capitol.
The
military soon realized that the current facilities were inadequate
and public buildings were turned into hospitals. One wing of the
Patent Office became the Patent Office Hospital. Patients were cared
for within the walls of the Capitol. Reynolds Barracks Hospital was
set up on what is now the south lawn of the White House.
Other
buildings used as hospitals included Georgetown College, Water’s
Warehouse, and St. Elizabeth’s Insane Asylum. Hotels and private
schools were taken over for a monthly fee.
Soldiers
were kept in field hospitals and when the regimental tents filled up,
nearby homes were commandeered. Sick and wounded were only sent to
the Washington hospitals after their conditions had worsened to the
point of barely being able to survive the trip.
Because
of the informal set up of these Washington hospitals, security and
privacy for the sick were non-existent. People wandered in and out,
looking for wounded friends and family. Pastors came into pray and
convert the wounded. Patients became the victims of theft.
Mothers,
wives and sisters were allowed to care for their loved ones. But they
tended to ignore soldiers in adjacent beds or would only help those
wounded from a particular state, and would scoff at Confederate
wounded.
These
hospitals averaged about 500 beds. Sanitation and ventilation were
poor. The hospitals were not heated well. There was no sterilization
of instruments and used bandages littered the floors.
As
a result, blood poisoning, tetanus and gangrene were common.
Mosquitoes and flies abounded spreading malaria and other diseases.
Wounded
soldiers were fed the same food as soldiers in the field. Cornmeal
and hard tack, fried in pork grease. Fruits and vegetables were never
fresh and seldom available. Scurvy and malnutrition was rampant.
In
June of 1861 the U.S. Sanitary Commission was organized. Their
purpose was to give advice based on the most current medical
knowledge of the day. Its goal was efficient, decent health care for
the sick and wounded. The Commission directors were men of high
professional standards and had the political means to apply pressure
when needed. The Sanitary Commission became the driving force of
Civil War Hospitals.
Armory
Square Hospital, where most of my story takes place was one of six
model hospitals built in 1862 according to the specifications of the
Sanitary Commission. It was located on 7th St. across from
the grounds of the Smithsonian, just beyond the canal, which itself
was little more than an open sewer at that time, with floating dead
cats and reeking with fetid odors.
Armory Square Hospital
The
hospital consisted of eleven long pavilion style buildings placed
side by side with their gables facing the front and rear of the
grounds.
There
was a main pavilion which functioned as an administration building.
It contained a reception room and offices for the surgeon in charge,
a man named Doctor D. Willard Bliss.
Also
inside was a dispensary, a linen room, post office, and officers
quarters, (where my hero, Dr. Charles Ellard had a room).
A
general kitchen, laundry and mess hall occupied the rear portion of
the building.
The
remaining 10 pavilions were positioned 5 on each side of the
administration building. Each ward was 149x25 ft. with an average
height of about 13ft. and held about 50 beds.
Covered
walkways connected the wards rather than closed corridors designed to
improve ventilation in the sick rooms.
A
side door opened about half way down near a cabinet with a table and
chair in front of it.
Each
ward held about 50 beds. A section at the rear served as a dining
room (grub room) and lodging for female nurses. There was an area
partitioned off (the wall didn’t go all the way the ceiling), and
it closed with a curtain. At the end of the ward were the bathroom,
water-closet, knapsack room and the ward master’s room.
Patients in the ward
In
the summer of 1863 the hospital received a $300.00 donation and new
quarters were built for the lady nurses.
Ward
E is the ward where Amanda Akin worked as well as my heroine Gracie
McBride.
At
Armory Square Doctor D. Bliss was the surgeon in charge of all the
wards. Each ward had a surgeon, who had an orderly. At times a
surgeon and his orderly might handle two wards. Each ward had a nurse
who also had an orderly. There was a ward master and a cadet surgeon
to dress wounds. Three attendants to each ward and 2 night watchers.
Nurses were generally men, soldiers assigned the duty, who at the
time of my story, were being sent back to the regimental field
hospitals as more and more women volunteered.
During
the summer months when the casualties were highest, tents were set up
on the hospital grounds to handle the over flow of wounded.
Armory
Square was known for receiving the worst cases from the battlefields
of VA. It was situated nearest the steamboat landing at the foot of
Seventh St. and was nearest the line of the Washington and Alexandria
railroad. They were the first stop for wounded who wouldn’t survive
the trip to any other hospital and they also received the soldiers
who died enroute. As a result Armory Square had the highest number of
deaths of any Washington military hospital.
Between
August 1861 and January 1865 there were 1,339 deaths recorded out of
18,291 admitted patients.
Blurb
Gracie
McBride isn’t looking for love; she’s looking for respect. But in
this man’s world of Civil War medicine, Gracie is expected to
maintain her place changing beds and writing letters. Her biggest
nemesis is the ward surgeon, Doctor Charles Ellard, who seems
determined to woo her with arrogant kisses and terrible jokes.
Charles
is an excellent surgeon. He assumed he would be well received by an
army at war. He was not. Friendless and alone, he struggles to hide
the panic attacks that plague him while the only person who
understands him is a feisty Irish nurse clearly resolved to keep him
at a distance.
But,
Charles is sent to the battlefield, and Gracie is left with a wounded
soldier, a box of toys, and a mystery which can only be solved by the
one man she wishes could love her, both as a woman and a nurse.
Excerpt
“No.
I want you to go home before the death of that ten-year-old
boy becomes so ordinary
that one day you wake up and realize you no longer have the ability
to feel.”
She
squared her shoulders and stepped toward him. “Me own husband was a
doctor, sir. I’ve birthed babies and stitched wounds. I stood by
William’s side during surgeries and passed him instruments. I
helped him clean the intestines of a man gored by a bull, before
putting it all back inside that man’s belly. Me delicate
sensibilities did not send me into a swoon then nor will they here. I
thank ye for yer concern, Doctor Ellard, but ’tis who I am. And by
the saints, as long as I have breath in me body, I will feel, and I
will care.”
Their
gazes locked in that moment and something flickered in his icy
depths, overshadowing his usual cynicism with what she suspected
might be admiration. The harsh lines of his face softened.
“Saint
Jude must indeed be watching over you, Mrs. McBride.”
“That
he is, Doctor Ellard, that he is.”
He
gave her a brisk nod and opened the door. “You’re not going home
then, are you?”
She
turned. “Ye know us Irish, Doctor Ellard. We don’t know what we
want, but we’ll fight to the death to get it.”
A
Place In Your Heart is available at Amazon
About the Author
Kathy
Otten is the published author of multiple historical romance novels,
novellas, and short stories. She is also published in contemporary
romance and historical fiction. She is a Northwest Houston RWA Lone
Star winner and Utah/Salt Lake RWA Hearts of the West finalist. A
Place In Your Heart is her fourth full-length novel. Currently,
she is putting the finishing touches on a contemporary young adult
novel.
She
teaches fiction writing online and at a local adult education center,
and is a regular presenter at area events. Kathy also does manuscript
assessments and editing. She lives in the rolling farmland of western
New York where she can often be found walking her dog through the
woods and fields. She has been married for thirty-four years and is
the mother of three grown children and one grandson.
Kathy
can be contacted at kathy@kathyotten.com
Web
site https://www.kathyottenauthor.com
Face
Book www.facebook.com/kathyottenauthor.com
