Wittenmyer wasn't the only nurse who wrote about meeting the woman soldier.
Mary Walker, from Wikipedia |
Quinn arrived at Hospital No. 2 in Chattanooga on February 18th, 1864. It was there where she crossed paths with Dr. Mary Edwards Walker, who would become the only female recipient of the Congressional Medal of Honor. Walker described her as "...about medium hight (sic), with dark hazel eyes, dark brown hair, rounded features and feminine voice and appearance." Hook was not the only woman soldier connected with Mary Walker. But that's another post.
Martha Baker's husband, Abner, enlisted in the 90th Indiana Infantry in February 1862. Following the battle of Chickamauga, he was sent to Nashville where he was transferred to the 160th Veteran Reserve Corps and detailed as a wound dresser. He wrote to Martha asking her to travel to Nashville in order provide assistance. She left Stockwell, Indiana with their young daughter in January 1864. Upon arrival, she began work in the special diet kitchen where she prepared food for the Officers' Hospital and Hospital No. 2. It was during her stay when she crossed paths with not only Hook but another woman as well. According to Baker,
I met two soldier girls who had donned the blue. One, Frances Hook, alias Harry Miller, served two years and nine months; the other was called Anna. She was put in our charge until the military authorities could send her North. (Our Army Nurses, Mary Holland, 1895, p. 230)
The identity of Anna and her fate are unknown at this time. Quinn's story, however, continues. She was transferred from Hospital No. 2 in Chattanooga to the Officers Hospital in Nashville on March 1st, 1864, and this is the one where both Baker and Wittenmyer encountered her. This hospital, also called Hospital No. 17, was the former Planter's Hotel.
Courtesy Battle of Nashville Preservation Society |
The site is now a surface parking lot located on the northeast corner at the intersection of Deadrick St. and 5th Avenue.
I then blended the two pictures: then and now.
Quinn remained here until May 5th when she was transferred to Hospital No. 1, which was at a location of an old gun factory on College Hill on 4th Avenue (formerly Cherry Street). The building was not there at the time, but this is the general location of the hospital.
RG 94, NARA |
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