Heroines of Mercy Street: The Real Nurses of the Civil War

A look at the lives of the real nurses depicted in the PBS show Mercy Street.

Heroines of Mercy Street tells the true stories of the nurses at Mansion House, the Alexandria, Virginia, mansion turned war-time hospital and setting for the PBS drama Mercy Street. Among the Union soldiers, doctors, wounded men from both sides, freed slaves, politicians, speculators, and spies who passed through the hospital in the crossroads of the Civil War, were nurses who gave their time freely and willingly to save lives and aid the wounded. These women saw casualties on a scale Americans had never seen before, and medicine was at a turning point.

Heroines of Mercy Street follows the lives of women like Dorothea Dix, Mary Phinney, Anne Reading, and more before, during, and after their epic struggle in Alexandria and reveals their personal contributions to this astounding period in the advancement of medicine.

Pamela D. Toler, Ph.D., a member of the World History Association and the American Society of Journalists and Authors, is regularly published in national journals specializing in history and culture, including American History, Calliope, History, the Quarterly Journal of Military History, and SaudiAramco World.

She is a contributor and author of several books including The Everything Guide to Understanding Socialism (Adams, 2011), She is particularly interested in the times and places where two cultures meet and change each other.