In addition volunteer nuns from the Catholic Sisters of the Holy Cross served aboard as nurses. The known names of four nurses are: Alice Kennedy, Sarah Kinno, Ellen Campbell and Betsy Young (Fowler). Although enlisted personnel were referred to as nurses, their duties and responsibilities were more related to those of a hospital corpsman.ĭuring the American Civil War, several African American women served as paid crew aboard the hospital ship Red Rover in the Mississippi River area in the position of nurse. Fifteen years later, the duties were transferred to the designation Bayman (US Navy Regulations, 1876). However, it wasn't until 19 June 1861 that a Navy Department circular order finally established the designation of Nurse, to be filled by junior enlisted men. Barton became the first to officially recommend that female nurses be added to naval hospital staff.

The United States Navy Nurse Corps was officially established by Congress in 1908 however, unofficially, women had been working as nurses aboard Navy ships and in Navy hospitals for nearly 100 years.

Military unit Group photograph of the first twenty Navy nurses, appointed in 1908

U.s navy civil war uniform