Mary Ann Ball Bickerdyke was an American nurse who ministered to the sick and wounded during the Civil War. She also was a lifelong advocate for veterans.
Background
Mary Ann Ball Bickerdyke was born in Knox County, Ohio, United States, near what is now Mount Vernon. She was the daughter of Hiram and Anna (Rodgers) Ball, and came of rugged, fighting stock. David Ball, her first American ancestor on the paternal side, emigrated to this country from England sometime before 1700 and settled at Newark, New Jersey. Three of his sons were in the War of the Revolution. Mary's grandfather, David, had gone to Ohio the year it was admitted as a state, and become a well-to-do citizen. On her mother's side she was descended from Thomas Rodgers who came over in the Mayflower. John Rodgers, her grandfather, as a lad of sixteen had gone into the battle of Bunker Hill and fought through the seven years of the war. In his household her early years were spent, for her mother died when she was seventeen months old. Later she lived with her uncle, Henry Rodgers. Brought up on a farm and fond of outdoor life, she developed physical hardiness, and became a frugal, competent housekeeper.
Education
At the age of sixteen Mary entered Oberlin College and spent four years there. An epidemic caused her to leave before graduating, and the removal of her uncle's family to Cincinnati prevented her return. Here she took a course of training for nurses under Dr. Reuben D. Mussey and became familiar with hospital work.
Career
In 1861 Mary was listed in the Galesburg directory as a "botanic physician. " When the war broke out, the patriotic women of her town, recognizing her peculiar fitness, urged her to attach herself to the army. With $500 worth of supplies which were put at her disposal she began work in the regimental hospitals at Cairo, Illinois, and continued her service until March 20, 1865. She was in nineteen hard-fought battles in the departments of the Ohio, Tennessee, and Cumberland armies. Whether ministering to men on the field, assisting at the operating table, running diet kitchens where she generally did the cooking herself, superintending hospitals, or foraging for supplies, she was equally efficient. She made the enlisted men her special care, and fought for their rights like a tigress, and they loved her as a mother. She was a terror to incompetent and dissipated officers, and invariably effected their discharge. She cut through red tape ruthlessly and sometimes violated army procedure, but though called to account by subordinate officials she was always sustained by their superiors.
Bickerdyke was an especial favorite of Gen. Grant and Gen. Sherman; the former gave her a pass to and from any point in his military division with free transportation at all times, and after the battle of Vicksburg she became a special attaché of Sherman's corps. The Sanitary Commission made her its agent and had implicit confidence in her management. Her executive ability was of a high order, and her native economy saved the Commission and the Government an incalculable amount. Previously the clothing and bedding of wounded soldiers had been destroyed. She procured washing machines, portable kitchens, and mangles, and with the aid of contrabands, who were devoted to her, she cleansed and prepared for redistribution what formerly had been a total loss. She also made her contrabands salvage accoutrements left on the battlefield. Innumerable stories are told of her resourcefulness in overcoming obstacles.
Bickerdyke’s career after the war was a varied one. She became a legally admitted pension attorney and helped nurses and veterans secure pensions. For a year she was housekeeper in the Chicago Home for the Friendless. In 1867 she initiated a movement to get ex-soldiers to go West and through her influence some 300 families migrated to Kansas. She herself settled in Salina, and opened a hotel under the patronage of the Kansas Pacific Railroad. For four years she did missionary work in New York, under the direction of the Board of City Missions. In 1874 she returned to Kansas to live with her two sons, and at the time of the locust plague went to Illinois and secured relief for the sufferers. Later she was in California, working in the United States Mint. Congress in 1886 granted her a pension of twenty-five dollars a month. She died at the home of her son at Bunker Hill, Kansas, and was buried in Galesburg, Illinois.
Achievements
Because of the uniqueness of her character and work, Mary Bickerdyke was one of the most picturesque as well as efficient women of the army. During the Civil War she established 300 field hospitals. One of her achievements was the establishment of army laundries. After the war she served as a lawyer assisting veterans and their families with obtaining pensions. In Illinois by means of an appropriation of $5, 000 made by the State in 1903 a monument has been erected to Bickerdyke's memory.
Personality
Mary Bickerdyke was a large, heavy woman of forty-five years, strong as a man; muscles of iron; nerves of steel; sensitive but self-reliant; kind and tender; seeking all for others, nothing for herself.
Quotes from others about the person
"I desire to introduce Mother Bickerdyke. What she wants is right, and what she says will be the truth. " - Gen. Logan
Connections
On April 27, 1847, she married a mechanic, Robert Bickerdyke, who was a widower with children. Several children were born to her. In 1856 the family moved to Galesburg, Illinois, where her husband died two years later.
