In 1861, 27-year-old Georgy Woolsey was among the first women to be accepted for nurse’s training and assigned to duty by Dorothea Dix.
As soon as J. H. was mustered in, G. began to urge that she and E. should go as army nurses. Mother writes: “Georgy is more earnest than ever about being a nurse for the soldiers. I shall never consent to this arrangement unless some of her own family go with her.”
Georgeanna herself writes to Eliza.May 15, 1861.
I supposed you would go to Albany; I am sure I should, and I hope you will take into serious consideration the small plan I suggested to you about being a nurse – at any rate about fitting yourself as far as you can for looking after the sick, if you go, as I suppose you will want to, to Washington in the fall with Joe. I invite you to join me. Mrs. Trotter and I were yesterday examined by the Medical Committee, Drs. Delafield, Wood and Harris, and with ten other women admitted to the course of instruction at the New York Hospital. We are to learn how to make beds for the wounded, cook food properly for the sick, wash and dress wounds, and other things as they come along in the proper care of the wards – fresh air, etc. Not that we have any idea of really going south now, no one will till the fall, and two or three companies of ten each who are fitting themselves at Bellevue Hospital will at any rate go first. Then if there is really a necessity for more nurses we shall send substitutes agreeing to pay their expenses,–unless the opposition in the family has come to an end, in which case, having tested our strength and endurance a little in this training, we shall be very glad to carry out our plan and go. We three might very usefully employ ourselves in Washington if we went no further south, and I shall not be satisfied at all to stay at home while Joe is down there. So, my dear, be keeping the little plan in view in making your arrangements, and don’t say a word to anybody about our being at the Hospital; I don’t want to have to fight my way all through the course, and be badgered by the connection generally, besides giving a strict account of myself at home. We all mean to be very brave about Joe, and I am sure you will be;–it’s a way you have; especially as you and I, and perhaps Mrs. Trotter, will be near him in Washington at one of the hotels or hospitals.