Frances Hook's Hospital Stays and Encounters

In a previous blog post from January 9th, I wrote about nurse Annie Wittenmyer's encounter in Chattanooga and Nashville with a soldier who turned out  to be Frances Hook whose real name was Elizabeth Quinn.  Click (HERE) for the post. 

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.

(Photo by Mark Hidlebaugh)

RG 94, NARA

Quinn sustained the wound that sent her to these hospitals while reportedly serving in the 90th Illinois Infantry late in 1863.  As to the nature of the injury, Annie Wittenmyer wrote, "She was wounded in the thigh.  No bones were broken; but it was a deep, ugly flesh wound, as if torn by a fragment of shell."  (Under the Guns, Wittenmyer, p. 17)  Another account claims she was shot through the calf. (Pictorial Book of Anecdotes and Incidents of the War of the Rebellion, Frazar Kirkland, 1867, p. 567). Hospital registers note that it was a thigh wound, however.  Regardless, it turned gangrenous and crippled Hook to the point where it required lengthy hospital stays. She was finally released in June 1864, having spent approximately six months recovering.  This wound undoubtedly bothered her for the rest of the few years she had remaining.  She died of dropsy in 1872 at the age of 27.

My Talk for the Margaret Reed Crosby Memorial Library

When one ages, is it common for one to become increasingly late to destinations?  I have always prided myself in arriving early to everywhere.  But it seems lately I am struggling to get myself in gear, and I don't like it.  At least it wasn't my fault yesterday.

150th Anniversary of the Battle of Bentonville

Today marks the 150th anniversary of the first day of the 3-day battle of Bentonville.  There was at least one woman who participated, Margaret Plyler Torry.  On April 11th, 1865, the Charlotte Western Democrat ran an article from two Raleigh papers, the Progress and Daily Conservative detailing her story, the former of which incorrectly calling her "Plyde."

My Triple Header

Last week, Mark and I hit the road to give three talks in three nights.  As we left the rental car place in south Mississippi, we were hoping the Ohio license plates wouldn't draw unneeded attention in central Alabama and southern Tennesseee.  I would be able to talk my way out of anything with my Mississippi accent.  But Mark probably wouldn't, considering he is from Iowa.....and would be wearing his Federal uniform.  Of course, I say all of this in jest.  We have always been treated extremely well everywhere we have gone.