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| MARY GARDNER HOLLAND (1825-1895) |
Mary Ann Gardner Holland dedicated her life to nursing others. She never married. Her devotion to nursing the Union soldiers during the Civil War for 14 months carried forward to her earning several medals, and compiling a book of nurses' anecdotes from the War, entitled Our Army Nurses, which was published in 1895, and she would die in November of that year, satisfied from a life's work.
Mary Ann was born in 1825, in Plymouth, Maine, the ninth out of eleven children born to Daniel Hollien of Bavaria and Jane Bell of Nova Scotia (who were my 4th great grandparents), both of whom had migrated from Nova Scotia (shortly after their wedding) to Central Maine in 1810, settling initially in the town of Jay, which at the time had a population of just over a thousand. It's not clear what made them move to Jay to start their large family. Daniel disappears from records after 1840, when he was living in Bangor with his son John, mother Jane lived in Dover Maine for the last 30 years of her life, when she died in 1873, and her daughter Mary Ann dutifully cared for her every need, except for 14 months when Mary Ann was compelled to join the War effort.
She tells of this inspiration in the first chapter of her book:
"My service in hospitals covered a period of nearly fourteen months. The first gun fired on Sumter fired every drop of my blood. Had it been possible I should have made my appearance at the first battle of Bull Run. I had an aged mother, who depended almost altogether upon me for her support and that duty deterred me. At one time I said to her, "It seems to me that I must go to war." I worked for her and for myself during the day and on Sanitary Commission work evenings. I told her there were married women, with families of half-grown girls who could not go to the front, but could do all I was doing. She had long known my desire to be identified with some more important work, so after considering calmly for a few moments she answered, "Well, my daughter, if you can go under government protection, your mother is willing." "But," I answered, "you cannot spare me." She continued the same reflective attitude and repeated what she had just said, adding: "God will take care of your mother. If you ever go, do all you can, and tell the dying boys of God and heaven."
"From that day I left no method untried to go under government protection; but not until early in the spring of 1864 did I accomplish my desire. I had tried to enlist under Miss Abbie May, of Boston. At one time it seemed that my plans were well nigh completed to go to Fortress Monroe, where Mrs. Lander was trying to establish a hospital. She failed in her enterprise, and I was doomed to further delay. Later, I procured one of Miss Dix's circulars, and read it again and again. It appeared to me a queer demand. It read like this: "No woman under thirty years need apply to serve in government hospitals. All nurses are required to be very plain-looking women. Their dresses must be brown or black, with no bows, no curls, or jewelry, and no hoop-skirts."
"It was fashionable at that time to wear immense hoops. I had worn one for some time, and really felt it a sacrifice to leave it off. Other requirements were agreeable, but I felt I could not walk without a hoop. I said 'Well, if I can't walk without it, I will crawl; for I must go, and I will do the best I can.' Soon after this I took up a morning paper and read that the wounded were being brought into Washington so fast that more help was needed at once. I wrote immediately to Miss Dix, saying: 'I am in possession of one of your circulars, and will comply with all your requirements. I am plain-looking enough to suit you, and old enough. I have no near relatvies in the war, no lover there. I never had a husband, and am not looking for one. Will you take me?' In a few days her answer came: 'Report at once to my house, corner of 14th Street and New York Avenue, Washington."
From there, Mary Ann worked in a variety of hospitals: Columbia College Hospital, Meridian Heights, Washington, Seminary Hospital of West Washington (later known as Officer's Hospital of Georgetown), Annapolis, and Lincoln Barracks Hospital, East Capitol Street, DC (aka "Lincoln General Hospital") which was the largest hospital in DC during the War. She worked mostly as a linen matron during the day, and sat with soldiers at night, feeding them dinner and speaking with them.
It's interesting that she had claimed to Dorothea Dix that she had no near relatives in the War, when she clearly had many. In addition to her nephew, William K. Nason, all four of her brothers (Daniel, John, William & George) fought in the War as well.
In her chapter, she tells a couple of memorable stories of soldiers she helped, one whom died unexpectedly of lockjaw, and she had given him his last supper, and one who had a leg amputation, who survived on blackberries that she fed him, and lived to go home and thank her by letter later on. The book has hundreds of stories such as these.
Mary Ann's book was published just before her death in 1895, and it was successful enough to achieve multiple subsequent pressings. I'm reading it right now, and it's easily purchased online at various retailers, or for free as a public domain book at Internet Archive.
