Mover & Shaker!

In my previous post of Pioneering Women of Civil War America (Ninth Installment) about Clara Barton, I promised I would feature another woman of Civil War times who was a “Mover & Shaker!” Let me now present to you:

Katharine Prescott Wormeley (1830-1908)

At the outset of the American Civil War (1861), Katharine supervised the Ladies’ Union Aid Society, an offshoot of the Women’s Central Association of Relief (New York) established by Doctors Elizabeth and Emily Blackwell of one of my previous posts, Pioneering Women of Civil War America (Seventh Installment). Katharine organized smaller branches of the main society from her mother’s home in Newport, Rhode Island. Through them, she contracted with the Union Army for materials to make clothing and bed sacks for soldiers and for the pay to give the poor wives and families of soldiers whom she oversaw to make them.

Depicted below is an inventory of the United States Sanitary Commission (USSC). Again, see my post Pioneering Women of Civil War America (Seventh Installment) about Doctors Elizabeth and Emily Blackwell and Lydia Folger Fowler for a quick lesson about this incredulous organization. It includes pictures of the USSC’s widespread reach across the North and operations at home, on the battlefields, and in winter encampments. Very briefly for this post, the United States Sanitary Commission was a civilian branch of the Union Army created in 1861 by federal legislation to support sick and wounded soldiers.In the table above, I direct you to the first line of the middle column. Compare the USSC’s 87,994 shirts sewed in 2 months to the unprecedented 70,000 flannel shirts Katharine’s much-smaller and far-less prolific society sewed in 3-4 months during the winter of 1861-1862! And, one time, Katharine’s society made and shipped approximately 150 bed sacks within 48 hours of Washington’s request. Her operation earned $6,000.00 to support one hundred families in need of jobs.

After Katharine’s government contract expired, she hopped aboard the first ship of the United States Sanitary Commission Hospital Transport Services functioning throughout the Peninsular Campaign, in southeastern Virginia, from March-July 1862. Katharine faced many challenges cruising on the Daniel Webster, including an overcrowding of wounded, whom she and other nurses tended without adequate staff and medical supplies. In her own words, she wrote:

“You can’t conceive what it is to stem the torrent of this disorder and utter want of organization.”

Still. . .Katharine forged on for three months with the USSC’s hospital transport until a much-needed respite brought her home. It was brief! Within a month, she accepted a position once reserved for military men—impressively, by request of U.S. Surgeon General William A. Hammond —as Superintendent of Nurses at the 1700-bed Lovell General Hospital (pictured below), in Portsmouth Grove, near her home in Rhode Island. She brought along her own troop of female nurses and got the hospital in tip-top shape, especially concerning care for the wounded around the clock by nurses, doctors, and other staff.

A year later, when Katharine left the hospital, she continued her service to the Union Army through the war’s end in 1865. She donated her own money and resources and collected approximately $17,000.00 for food and supplies, which she forwarded to the United States Sanitary Commission. And, post-war, she spread her wealth even more through the establishment and supervision of charitable organizations for war  veterans and lower-class women and in starting an industrial school, solely for the education of working-class girls.

For the times, late 1800s, Katharine was considered one of the best translators—male or female—of French literature by Alexandre Dumas (novelist of The Three Muskateers and The Count of Monte Cristo), Honoré de Balzac (novelist and playwright), Molière (playwright, actor, and poet), and more. Start scrolling Amazon Books by Katharine Prescott Wormeley, and you will be enthralled by her literary translations of over 40 works. Also, included amongst these seven pages on Amazon are three books, authored by Katharine herself; one a memoir of de Balzac, the other two about the Civil War and her service with the United States Sanitary Commission as named below:

The Other Side of War with the Army of the Potomac: Letters from the Headquarters of the United States Sanitary Commission during the Peninsular Campaign in Virginia in 1862.

The Cruel Side of War with the Army of the Potomac: Letters from the Headquarters of the United States Sanitary Commission during the Peninsular Campaign in Virginia in 1862.

Post-publication of the above two books, what do you think Katharine did? You got it! She donated the proceeds from her book sales to the United States Sanitary Commission. Quite the charitably conscious woman–wouldn’t you agree?

What in Katharine’s background influenced her to be a “Mover & Shaker?”

Katharine was born unto a British-American family with wealth and social standing. Her father, Ralph Randolph Wormeley, was an Admiral in the British navy and a sixth-generation Virginian. He was related to John Randolph (Attorney General for Colonial Virginia) and an uncle of his same name who served with distinction under British forces. Her mother, Caroline Preble, was born into a wealthy American family from Boston, and she was also related to military men who served with distinction, including General Jedidiah Preble of British forces and Commodore Edward Preble of the United States Navy. Thus, her civic-minded ancestors and parents, the latter whom instilled in her a spirit of patriotism and charity toward those less fortunate, gave her the tools and tenacity to roll up her sleeves and dirty her hands in public service. . .

…all of which she performed valiantly and, most significantly, voluntarily!

I’ll end here on this note with the hopes that you’ve enjoyed this post and that I’ve whet your appetite to learn more about Katharine Prescott Wormeley at the following places:

Video:

On my complimentary “Civil War Women” website: https://www.civilwarwomen.co/articles. NOTE: Actually, I must confess to my utter failure in locating a video dedicated to Katharine Prescott Wormeley; so, this week’s brief installment will feature an organization near and dear to Katharine’s heart: The Ladies’ Union Aid Society.

Online:

https://guides.loc.gov/civil-war-soldiers/katharine-wormeley.

Books/Ebooks:

Links Above Under Katharine’s Writing Accomplishments!

Stay Tuned for the Next Installment of Pioneering Women of Civil War America, Which Promises to Feature a Woman Who Was. . .

. . .Insanely Sane & Steeped in Subterfuge!”