Harriet Patience Dame

Harriet Patience Dame (January 5, 1815 – April 24, 1900), was a prominent nurse in the American Civil War. Her portrait hangs in the New Hampshire State House.

Dame was born in Barnstead, New Hampshire (or North Barnstead) to James Chadbourne and Phebe Ayers on January 5, 1815. In 1843, Dame moved to Concord, New Hampshire and worked at various occupations. By 1861, she was running a student boarding house. She had no formal training as a nurse.

Harriet Patience Dame during the war.

When war came, Dame, aged 46, approached the recruit training station at Camp Union in Concord and offered her services to officers there. Because the camp had no infirmary, Dame was put into service as a nurse.

Dame served with the 2nd New Hampshire Volunteer Infantry from April 1861 to Christmas 1865. She served without furlough through two enlistment periods.

The regiment was mainly made up of men from Concord and Exeter, led by Col. Gilman Marston. Dame marched and camped alongside the troops, often as the only woman among a thousand men.She was appointed matron of the 18th Army Corps hospital in September 1864, and supervised the nurses on duty. Marston said of her: "Miss Dame was the bravest woman I ever knew. I have seen her face a cannon battery without flinching while a man took refuge behind her for safety from flying shells. She was always present when most needed." She saw action at first Bull Run, second Bull Run, Fredericksburg, and Gettysburg.

Dame's tending to the men went beyond medical attention; she would sometimes pick strawberries for the wounded, or write letters home for them.

She was twice captured in battle, and released by her captors. In once instance, Stonewall Jackson authorized her return to Union lines.

After the war, Dame was appointed by William E. Chandler to a Treasuy Department clerkshop in Washington, D.C., which she held into old age. She did not return to her home state until 1900. Congress voted her a military pension in 1884.

Dame served as the third president of the National Association of Army Nurses of the Civil War, upon the death of Dorthea Dix and resignation of Dr. Susan Edson.

Patience Dame never married. She died in Concord and was buried at Blossom Hill Cemetery.

• Shortly after the Civil War, the New Hampshire legislature awarded Dame $500 for extraordinary public service. She donated most of the money to the 2nd Regiment.
• Upon her death in 1900, Governor Frank W. Rollins and the state milita participated in her funeral ceremony.
• In 1901 the New Hampshire Legislature commissioned that her portrait be painted and hung in the New Hampshire State House. It was the first portrait of a woman to hang there.
• The Harriet P. Dame Elementary School in Concord was named in her honor.
• In 2002, Dame was inducted into the Hall of Fame by the American Nurses Association.

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