Hospital Sketches is a short book or pamphlet written by Louisa May Alcott based on letters she sent home when she volunteered as a nurse during the American Civil War. Alcott spent six weeks working for the Union Army at Georgetown, Washington D.C.
At the time of publication Alcott was still an amateur writer, and the works did much to advance her career. The first of the four ‘sketches’ was published on May 22, 1863 in the Boston Commonwealth magazine. After their initial publication as a serial they were compiled into a book by James Redpath, an abolitionist publisher.
The book is interesting to historians as it reveals the lack of supplies and experience during the war even in the capital, as well as revealing the procedures followed in hospitals during the war.
The book follows a nurse called Nurse Tribulation Periwinkle. Nurse Periwinkle is initially assigned to a hospital where those injured in battle are brought. This contains heart-wrenching parts such as when an un-named soldier asked for a glass of water, but upon returning with one Nurse Periwinkle finds the soldier dead.
Nurse Periwinkle’s second assignment is to the “K” Ward, where soldiers are sent who are unlikely to recover with the medicle available. Nurse Periwinkle then develops Typhoid herself, and as a result of the medication loses her hair.
