Army Nurse Corps Established
In this week in military history, we explore the Army Nurse Corps, which was created by Congress on February 2nd, 1901.
Although the ANC was established in 1901, There is a storied history of women serving as wartime caregivers in earlier conflicts. For instance, during the Revolutionary War, General George Washington petitioned Congress for nurses, resulting in the first organized use of military nurses.
The Civil War saw an estimated 10,000 nurses serve including Clara Barton and Dorothea Dix who created a system to train women nurses and to staff them in field hospitals. Barton eventually established the American Red Cross in 1881. African American women, such as Susie King Taylor, served as a nurses to the United States Colored Troops.
The Spanish American War saw approximately 1,563 nurses serve, 21 of which lost their lives.
This long history of service led directly to the establishment of the Army Nurse Corps.
World War I began with roughly 403 Army nurses in service which grew to more than 21,480 by the war’s end. Nurse Emma Weaver recalls the terrible injuries unique to this war: “I never knew what I would find, there were many missing limbs, horrible deep wounds.”
During World War II the Army Nurse Corps swelled from fewer than 1,000 to more than 54,000 at war’s end. They included women from all ethnic and racial groups, providing care and comfort to sick, wounded, and dying men. Approximately 77 American nurses were captured in the Philippines after it fell to the Japanese Empire in 1942, becoming POWs. Four were awarded Silver Stars for actions on the Anzio beachhead in 1944 and twelve flight nurses arrived on Iwo Jima in February 1945 while the battle was still raging.
Nurses symbolically paved the way for additional opportunities granted in the Women’s Armed Services Integration Act of 1948 signed by President Harry S. Truman. 2023 marks the 75th anniversary of this act, which called for greater opportunities for women in the United States Armed Forces.
The Army Nurse Corps still exists today with army nurses deployed throughout the globe, supporting soldiers in combat zones, deterrent missions, and in support of civilians and Allies in humanitarian, peacekeeping and nation building efforts.
Join us next time for another segment of This Week in Military History with the Pritzker Military Museum & Library.