Elizabeth Tuttle Certificate

Elizabeth A. Tuttle. Certificate of Honorable Discharge, Army of the Potomac, September 19, 1891.

Lilly Library Tuttle mss., 1838-1912, LMC 2115

It was during the War Between the States that nursing became a legitimate profession for women. Elizabeth Tuttle, 1823?-1896, a school teacher from Colebrook, Ohio, served as an army nurse from September 19, 1862 to September 19, 1865. Her correspondence describes her experience at Antietam after the battle, the establishment hospitals at Harper's Ferry and Gettysburg, the evacuation of Harper's Ferry to Washington by canal boats and the destruction of Chambersburg, Pennsylvania.