Hospital Sketches

In November 1862, Louisa May Alcott (1832-1888) signed up as a volunteer nurse for the Sanitary Commission charged with caring for the Civil War's mounting casualties. From 13 December 1862 until 21 January 1863, Miss Alcott served at the Union Hotel Hospital in Georgetown in the District of Columbia, where she ultimately contracted typhoid and pneumonia and very nearly died. This book is her account of her journey south from Concord and her six weeks in the nation's wartime capital. Styling herself by the fanciful name "Tribulation Periwinkle," she brought humor as well as pathos to her subject, making this first-hand account of the absolute horrors of a 19th-century war hospital seem less shocking and more appreciative of the sacrifices being made by the wounded warriors and their families.