HISTORIC CIVIL WAR HOSPITAL ALBUM PRESENTED TO NURSE MARY L. ROBINSON IN 1863

 

Original CDV album containing (50) carte-de-visite and gem-sized tintypes, including 43 photographs of Civil War soldiers and seven of women associated with their care. Thirty-eight photographs identified. Embossed leather album with brass clasps. Presented to Mary L. Robinson by the soldiers of Washington Park Hospital, Cincinnati, Ohio, May 1863.

 

Inscription to flyleaf: “I have been asked to write names below these pictures of the soldiers. Some cards were marked, some of the others I remember well, but a few of them who were in Miss Mary Andrew’s & Miss Robinson’s ward I cannot name, as I served in another ward. I am glad to have had the chance to record the names of these brave men and wish I could have made the record complete. / H. V. Andrew Cochran. / LaPorte, June, 1925. / [in pencil] I have a similar album, but it is in Washington, D.C. - I may be able, later, to get names & dates from it.”

 

An extraordinary photo album, presented in May 1863 to Mary L. Robinson, a nurse during the Civil War, by the soldiers of Washington Park Hospital in Cincinnati, and later annotated in 1925 by H. V. Andrew Cochran, herself one of the women associated with the hospital’s work.

 

The volume contains fifty photographs in all, mostly carte-de-visite portraits, together with gem-sized tintypes, including likenesses of forty-three soldiers and seven women connected with their treatment, comfort, and recovery. Thirty-eight photographs are identified, either by contemporary notation or by the retrospective inscriptions supplied by Cochran more than sixty years later. The result is a rare compilation, produced in the midst of the conflict, then revisited by a surviving witness who restored names and histories to the faces preserved within it.

 

Washington Park Hospital itself remains imperfectly documented, though it was clearly active by the summer of 1862, when contemporary reporting noted at least 150 wounded soldiers were housed there. The evidence of this album suggests an institution of considerable scale, with multiple wards and a staff of women who served not only as nurses but also as custodians, companions, and providers of the countless forms of labor upon which hospital life depended. In this respect, the album is important documentation the bonds forged between wounded men and the women who tended them.

 

The identified soldiers represented in the album came from regiments raised in Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Kentucky, and Michigan, and their individual histories reflect the severe physical toll of the war. Many were discharged for disability; others had suffered grievous wounds in major western engagements, including Shiloh and Stones River. Several were later transferred to the Invalid Corps or Veteran Reserve Corps, making the album an especially affecting record of men whose military service was permanently shaped by injury and illness. Their portraits are joined by those of women such as Mary J. Andrew and H. V. Andrew, both nurses at Washington Park Hospital in 1862–63, as well as Mrs. Garrison, who oversaw the linen room, and members of the Campbell family, remembered for entertaining convalescent soldiers in their home.

 

 

A particularly affecting aspect of this lot is the circumstances surrounding the presentation of the album itself. In 1863, it was given as a gift by soldiers to Mary L. Robinson in recognition of her service. By 1925, it had become something else as well- a memorial object, revisited by an aging survivor who could still recall many of the faces (though not all).

 

Albums of Civil War portrait photography survive in some number, but few relate to military hospitals, and fewer still retain such explicit evidence of personal relationships between wounded soldiers and the women who cared for them.

 

Identified sitters and inscriptions by page:

 

Page 3: “J. Milton Mills / Cincinnati, Ohio.”
John Milton Mills (1841–1918). Mustered into Company B, 40th Ohio, on 17 September 1861. Discharged for disability on 13 November 1862.

 

Page 4: “J.H. Jones, / Ebensburg, Cambria Co. / Pennsylvania.”

 

Pages 5 and 16: “George M Read, Albion, Ashland Co. / Ohio.”
George Maly Read (1840–1908). Mustered into Company H, 42nd Ohio, on 27 November 1861. Discharged for disability on 10 November 1862.

 

Page 6: “D.M. Hammond, / Iberia, Morrow Co. / Ohio.”

 

Pages 7 and 19: “James H. Ruddell, Co. K. 37th Ind. / Springfield / Discharged for disability, May 1863.”

James Harvey Ruddell (1842–1913). Mustered into Company K, 37th Indiana, on 8 October 1861. Discharged for disability on 4 May 1863.

 

Pages 10 and 29: “Joseph Avery.”

 

Page 11: “Robert Raison, Co. E. 15th Regt. / Newville Dekalb Co. Indiana.”
Robert Raison (ca. 1839–?). Mustered into Company A, 44th Indiana, on 22 November 1861. Transferred into the 15th Infantry, U.S. Regular Army, on 15 December 1862. Date and method of discharge unknown.

 

Page 12: “Noble L. Robb, / Cincinnati, Ohio.”
Noble L. Robb (ca. 1843–?). Muster and discharge dates unknown. Regiment unknown.

 

Page 14: “John M. Carran, / Oberlin, Lorain Co., / Ohio.”

 

Page 15: “Adolphus B. Humler, Co. E. Ohio V.I. / Cincinnati.”

 

Page 17: “W.J. Loafman, Scottsville, Allen Co. / Co. F. 9th Kentucky.”
William Jasper Loafman (1843–1872). Mustered into Company F, 9th Kentucky, on 26 November 1861. Wounded at Shiloh, Tennessee, on 7 April 1862, resulting in the amputation of his left leg. Discharged for wounds on 24 June 1862.

 

Page 20: “Erie Lamb, Co. D, 36th Ind. V.M. / Cadiz, Henry Co. Ind.”
Erie Lamb (1840–1922). Mustered into Company D, 36th Indiana, on 23 October 1861. Mustered out on 21 September 1864 at Indianapolis.

 

Page 21: “James C. Brown / Yellow Springs, Ohio. / Co. D. 44th. Ohio.”
James Calvin Brown (1836–1923). Mustered into Company D, 44th Ohio, on 5 September 1861. Transferred into Company D, 8th Ohio Cavalry, on 4 January 1864. Mustered out on 30 July 1865 at Clarksburg, West Virginia.

 

Page 22: “C.S. Burrows, / Co. G. 21st Ill. / Montoursville, Lycoming Co. Penn.”
Charles Scott Burrows (1837–1920). Mustered into Company G, 21st Illinois, on 28 June 1861. Mustered out on 5 July 1864.

 

Page 23: “Albert Brace, / Prophetstown, Ill.”
Albert Harden Brace (1839 or 1844–1910; he likely misstated his age at enlistment). Mustered into Company C, 75th Illinois, on 2 September 1862. Mustered out on 20 April 1864.

 

Page 24: “John Westbrook / Co. A. 21st Michigan.”
John W. Westbrook (1837–1912). Mustered into Company A, 21st Michigan, on 3 September 1862. Listed as wounded and missing at Stones River, Tennessee, on 31 December 1862; returned to regiment on 25 January 1863. Transferred into Company B, 2nd Regiment, Veteran Reserve Corps, on 10 April 1864. Discharged on 5 July 1865 at Detroit.

 

Page 25: “James L. Cline, / Co. C. 29th Ind. / Transferred to Co. F. 8th Regt. I.C. (on back of card). / Report of Adjt. Gen’l of Ind., states transfer to V.R.C. Nov. 1, 1863.”
James L. Cline (ca. 1840–?). Mustered into Company C, 29th Indiana, on 22 September 1861. Transferred to the Invalid Corps around 1 November 1862 and later to the Veteran Reserve Corps around 1 November 1863. Date and method of discharge unknown.

 

Page 26: “Alexander Tweed. / 81st Ill.”
Alexander Tweed (1843–1863). Actually mustered into Company G, 51st Illinois, on 24 December 1861. Suffered a gunshot wound and likely died at the hospital on 11 February 1863.

 

Page 27: “B.J. Willis / Co. A. 73rd Ind.”
Actually Benjamin T. Willis (1840–1917). Mustered into Company A, 73rd Indiana, on 16 August 1862. Transferred into the Veteran Reserve Corps on 1 September 1863. Date and method of discharge unknown.

 

Page 30: “J.H. Jones — D.M. Hammond — J.M. Carran.”

 

Page 31: “Reuben Bartlett. / Cincinnati, Ohio.”
Reuben Bartlett (1841–1868). Mustered into Company G, 2nd Ohio, on 5 September 1861. Discharged for disability on 20 October 1862.

 

Page 32: “D.B. Whitmore. / Co. D. 42d. Ill.”
David B. Whitmore (ca. 1833–?). Mustered into Company D, 42nd Illinois, on 17 April 1862. Wounded at Stones River, Tennessee, on 31 December 1862. Transferred into the Veteran Reserve Corps on 31 December 1863. Date and method of discharge unknown.

 

Page 33: “Albert F. Stuck, / 21st. Michigan.”
Albert F. Stuck (ca. 1839–?). Mustered into Company K, 21st Michigan, on 4 September 1862. Discharged for wounds on 2 January 1863.

 

Page 34: “Chester D. Greenamyer. / Hamilton, Steuben Co. Ind. / Co. F. 44th. Ind. / Transferred to Invalid Corps, 1863.”
Chester Decatur Greenamyer (1843–1916). Mustered into Company F, 44th Indiana, on 22 November 1861. Transferred into the Veteran Reserve Corps on 10 May 1863. Date and method of discharge unknown.

 

Page 37: “Henry Altman, / Lingen, Hanover, Germany. / In charge of Medical Dispensary.”

 

Page 39: “Daniel Myers, / Columbus [Columbia] City, / Whitley Co. Ind.”

 

Page 40: “Daniel J. McMillan. / Olena, Henderson Co. / Illinois.”
Actually Daniel J. McMillen (ca. 1837–?). Mustered into Company K, 84th Illinois, on 1 September 1862. Discharged for disability on 1 April 1864.

 

Page 42: “Mary J. Andrew. — / LaPorte, Ind. / Nurse in Washington Park Hospital, / Cincinnati Ohio, 1862–63.”

 

Page 43: “H.V. Andrew. — / LaPorte, Ind. / Nurse in Washington Park Hospital. / Cincinnati, Ohio, 1862–63.”

 

Page 44: “Miss Morris - Sister of Gen’l Morris / of Indiana. Nurse in Washington Park / Hospital, Cincinnati, Ohio. Her sister Mrs / Thomas also a nurse.”
This was either Julia Morris (1820–1895) or Elizabeth Morris (1824–1904). A record of a Mrs. Thomas has not been located.

 

Page 45: “Mrs Garrison. — In charge of Linen / room, Washington Park Hospital, Cincinnati. / Hospital clothing — bed & personal — bandages and / dressings were in her care.”

 

Page 46: “Abram Kopp, / Co. B. 26th, O.V.M.”
Actually Abraham Kopp (ca. 1843–?). Mustered into Company B, 26th Ohio, on 15 July 1861. Wounded at Stones River, Tennessee, on 31 December 1862. Mustered out on 15 July 1864 at a hospital in Covington, Kentucky.

 

Page 48: “Mrs Campbell, with whom Miss / Mary Robinson boarded while in Cincinnati, and / who did many kind things for the soldiers.”
Margaret Campbell, née Anderson (ca. 1830–?).

 

Page 49: “Miss Florence Campbell — daughter / of Mrs Campbell & who helped in entertaining / convalescent soldiers at their home.”
Florence Campbell (ca. 1846–?).

 

Page 50: “This may be Emma Campbell, a sister of / Florence, who often came to sing for the soldiers / the war songs they loved. Sixty years is a long / time to remember, and I am not sure. / LaPorte, June 1925. H.V. Andrew Cochran.”
Emma Campbell (ca. 1852–?).

 

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