Angel of Mercy

Angel of Mercy. Cornelia Hancock at Brandy Station. , On February 11, 1864, a petite New Jersey Quaker woman who had just turned 24 stepped off a train at Brandy Station and made her way into the massive 1863-1864 winter camp of the Army of the Potomac that covered the rolling hills in front of you., Despite her tender age, Cornelia Hancock was an experienced nurse and no stranger to the hustle and bustle of an army camp. In 1863, superintendent of nurses Dorothea Dix rejected Cornelia for nursing work because of her "youth and rosy cheeks." But she sneaked aboard a train and traveled to Gettysburg to assist wounded Union men of the Second Corps., Her work there earned her a solid reputation, and when she came to Brandy Station, she carried a pass from Secretary of War Edwin Staunton that permitted her to move freely about the 100,000-man encampment., Cornelia Hancock served in the field- hospital for the Third Division of the Second Corps, and spent 3 months here tending to the needs of those sick with disease as well as those wounded in nearby skirmishes. As the spring campaign season approached, Cornelia and all other non-combatants were sent home. She would, however, return to the front and continue to nurse men of the Second Corps., ...along with the snow storm ... and at 8 o'clock we had them (wounded), all-loaded on stretchers, and proceeded with the long train in from the three hospitals to Brandy Station. There the platform was strewed fall of helpless men wounded at Morton's Ford." , Cornelia Hancock describes the aftermath of the February 6-7, 1864, Battle of Morton's Ford, Cornelia Hancock courtesy of the Clara Barton Museum, Cornelia Hancock stands second from right in front of her "log house" with a canvas roof at the Second Corps Brandy Station hospital. Library of Congress