Cornelia Hancock (February 8, 1840 – December 31, 1927) was a celebrated volunteer

nurse Nursing is a profession within the health care sector focused on the care of individuals, families, and communities so they may attain, maintain, or recover optimal health and quality of life. Nurses may be differentiated from other health c ...

, serving the injured and infirmed of the

Union Army During the American Civil War, the Union Army, also known as the Federal Army and the Northern Army, referring to the United States Army, was the land force that fought to preserve the Union (American Civil War), Union of the collective U.S. st ...

during the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...

. Hancock's service lasted from July 6, 1863 to May 23, 1865.

Early life

Hancock was born in Hancock's Bridge,

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, to

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of old colonial ancestry. The youngest of four children, Hancock was educated "in the Salem (county) academies." Her sister Ellen worked at the

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in Philadelphia. Her only brother and her cousins joined the Union Army in 1862.

Civil War service

Hancock's chance to serve came when her brother-in-law (Ellen's husband) Henry T. Child, a volunteer surgeon, offered to take her to the Gettysburg battlefield in July 1863. However,

Dorothea Dix Dorothea Lynde Dix (April 4, 1802July 17, 1887) was an American advocate on behalf of the indigent mentally ill who, through a vigorous and sustained program of lobbying state legislatures and the United States Congress, created the first gene ...

, the superintendent of Union Army nurses, personally refused to enroll Hancock because she did not meet her requirements that the military's female nurses be "mature in years (at least 30), plain almost to homeliness in dress, and by no means liberally endowed with personal attractions.” In other words: at only 23, Hancock was too young and attractive to be an army nurse. Hancock was the only female nursing volunteer to be rejected. Hancock went to Gettysburg anyway. "I got into Gettysburg the night of July sixth – where the need was so great that there was no further cavil about age,” she wrote in her journal. In a letter to her sister dated July 8, 1863, Hancock wrote, "We have been two days on the field; go about eight and come in about six—go in ambulances of army buggies...I feel assured I shall never feel horrifed at anything that may happen to me here-after." Hancock responded to an immense need: the Union lacked supplies as well as staff. She had no formal training as a nurse; but after three weeks, she was tending to eight tenths of wounded. In October she tended to the large numbers of hungry and injured escaped slaves who were arriving in Washington, D.C. On February 10, 1864, Hancock joined the

II Corps 2nd Corps, Second Corps, or II Corps may refer to: France * 2nd Army Corps (France) * II Cavalry Corps (Grande Armée), a cavalry unit of the Imperial French Army during the Napoleonic Wars * II Corps (Grande Armée), a unit of the Imperial French ...

and served with them at the II Corps Hospital near Brandy Station, Virginia, at the

Battle of the Wilderness The Battle of the Wilderness was fought on May 5–7, 1864, during the American Civil War. It was the first battle of Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant's 1864 Virginia Overland Campaign against General Robert E. Lee and the Confederate Arm ...

and the

Siege of Petersburg The Richmond–Petersburg campaign was a series of battles around Petersburg, Virginia, fought from June 9, 1864, to March 25, 1865, during the American Civil War. Although it is more popularly known as the Siege of Petersburg, it was not a cla ...

. She worked in the

hospital at the

Depot Field Hospital Depot Field Hospital was one of seven hospitals operated at City Point, Virginia during the Siege of Petersburg during the American Civil War. The largest was the Depot Field Hospital which covered nearly 200 acres (800,000 m2) and could hold u ...

in City Point.

Post-War

After the war, she opened a school for

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Mount Pleasant, South Carolina Mount Pleasant is a large suburban town in Charleston County, South Carolina, United States. In the Low Country, it is the fourth largest municipality and largest town in South Carolina, and for several years was one of the state's fastest-growin ...

. In Philadelphia, she founded several

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organizations. She was a board member of the

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1883 to 1895 and helped children orphaned after the

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. She also served as president of the

National Association of Army Nurses of the Civil War The National Association of Army Nurses of the Civil War or National Army Nurses was an organization of former nurses who served in the American Civil War. It was primarily a social organization, but it also advocated for, and helped to secure, r ...

. In 1914, Hancock retired to

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to live with her niece. She died of nephritis in 1927 and her ashes were buried at Cedar Hills Friends Cemetery in Harmersville, New Jersey.

Legacy

Her popular collection of wartime letters is no longer in print.''Letters of a Civil War Nurse: Cornelia Hancock, 1863–1865'' - Cornelia Hancock, Henrietta Stratton Jaquette

/ref> A commemorative flagstone was placed in her honor at the Lower Alloways Creek Friends Meeting House.

References

External links

Finding Aid for Hancock's Papers
at the William L. Clements Library, University of Michigan
National Park Service biographyCornelia Hancock correspondence
a
Friends Historical Library of Swarthmore College
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hancock, Cornelia 1839 births 1926 deaths People from Salem County, New Jersey People of New Jersey in the American Civil War Female wartime nurses Deaths from kidney disease Burials in New Jersey American Civil War nurses American women nurses