![]() Soldiers' Orphans Home, formerly Harvey Hospital in Madison She was referred to as the "Wisconsin Angel" by soldiers, both Union and Confederate alike. When she returned to the front, she was recognized by the black cape she often wore. Three hospitals were built in Wisconsin as a result of her efforts- one in Milwaukee, another in Prairie du Chien, and the final one in Madison, which was named Harvey United States Hospital. It was not until her fifth visit that she was finally able to persuade them to authorize the construction of hospitals away from the front. Harvey traveled to the White House to speak with President Abraham Lincoln and Secretary of War Edwin Stanton on the matter, but they refused to alter their procedures. With the humid, disease-ridden air, ill-staffed hospitals, and insufficient food the south proved to be a death sentence for most. Harvey argued that the soldiers were more likely to die, than to leave. She was met with resistance, as army harbored the belief that soldiers would desert if they left the camps. Īfter a quick recovery, Harvey would not be dissuaded in her conviction that wounded soldiers should have the same chance to recover in their home state. On one of her tours, she caught camp fever and had to return north to recover. At each stop, she would send for supplies to treat the numerous needs of her patients. In this new position, she visited Union Military Hospitals along the Mississippi River and Wisconsin Regiment Hospitals. ![]() It was at this time she was appointed an agent of the Western Sanitary Committee at St. Wisconsin Angel įollowing the death of her husband, Cordelia decided she must finish the work he had begun with wounded soldiers. I am well, and have done more good by coming, than I can well tell you." Cordelia received the devastating news while aiding a destitute family in Madison. Thank God for the impulse that brought me here. The last letter Cordelia received from her husband, dated two days before his death, he wrote, "Yesterday was the day of my life. After only 94 days in office, he drowned on April 19, 1862, in the Tennessee River while visiting wounded soldiers from Wisconsin in the South. Cordelia became the 7th First Lady of Wisconsin when her husband was elected governor in 1861. Once Louis was elected secretary of state in 1859, they moved to Madison, Wisconsin. Their next home was in Shopiere, Rock County Wisconsin, where they had one daughter who died in infancy. The two were married that same year, and briefly moved to Clinton Junction, Wisconsin, where Louis Harvey owned and operated a county store. It was there that she taught school until 1845, when she met fellow teacher Louis P. In 1842 she moved with her family to Kenosha, Wisconsin, where they owned a prosperous farm. Early life īorn on December 27, 1824, as Cordelia Adelaide Perrine, she grew up in Barre, New York. Following her involvement in the war, she took on the challenge of finding homes for children of fallen soldiers. Cordelia Adelaide Harvey (1824-1895) is most well known for her advocacy for Wisconsin Union soldiers as an American Civil War nurse.
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