Western Maine
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Skowhegan’s Hannah Judkins Starbird by James Nalley
P
rior to the U.S. Civil War, many nurses in the United States were male since social taboos prevented females (especially “well-todo” ones) from working outside of the home. However, after the outbreak of the war, the Union Army leadership quickly realized that they required more medical staff to tend the injured on the battlefield. Thus, it decided to accept female nurses to fill the gap. According to the National Association of Army Nurses of the Civil War, “More than 3,000 middle-class white women served as paid or volunteer nurses during the war, working under Dorothea Dix, the Superintendent of Army Nurses. Many of them had no prior medical training
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An angel of mercy and they learned on-the-job through hard experience, while being exposed to the dangers of the battlefield.” One such nurse was from Skowhegan, who provided detailed accounts of her experiences at a hospital in Maryland. Hannah Judkins was born on August 10, 1832, in Skowhegan. She was the daughter of Levi Judkins and Hannah Emery Judkins, and the granddaughter of John Emery, who fought in two prominent Revolutionary War battles: The Battle of Bunker Hill and the Siege of Boston. Judkins served for approximately nine years as a schoolteacher, with plans to continue teaching as a lifelong career. However, this changed when she decided to enlist, with no pri-
Hannah Judkins Starbird ca. 1895
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