Examines the first wave of autobiographical narratives written by northern female nurses and published during the war and shortly thereafter, including Louisa May Alcott, Elvira Powers and Julia Wheelock. From the hospitals of Washington, DC, and Philadelphia, to the field at Gettysburg in the aftermath of the battle, to the camps bordering front lines during active combat, these nurse narrators reported on what they saw and experienced for an American audience hungry for tales of individual experience in the war.