Government Job

The Importance of Cordelia's Government Position

The new governor of Wisconsin, Edward Salomon, decided to appoint Cordelia Harvey as the "Sanitary Agent" of Wisconsin. This was a massive barrier broken, as she was one of the first women to hold a government position in the U.S. Edward supported the creation of military hospitals in Wisconsin, as did Cordelia.

(Picture of Gov. Edward Salomon) Source: Wisconsin Historical Society

As the Sanitary Agent of Wisconsin, Cordelia's job was to go across the United States and check up on the soldiers, while also monitoring and recording the conditions of the hospitals the soldiers were staying in. She often wrote back to Governor Salomon, describing the horrible conditions she saw the soldiers enduring. 

(Convalescent Camp near Alexandria, VA, 1864) Source: Library of Congress

"In the fall of 1862 I found myself in Cape Girardeau. where hospitals were being improvised for the immediate use of the and dying then being brought in from the swamps by the returning regiments and up the rivers in closely crowded hospital boats." - Quote from "A Wisconsin Woman's Picture of President Lincoln" by Cordelia Harvey

"These hospitals were mere sheds filled with cots as thick as they could stand, with scarcely room for one person to pass between them. Pneumonia, typhoid, and camp fevers, and that fearful scourge of the southern swamps and rivers, chronic diarrhea, occupied every bed." - Quote from "A Wisconsin Woman's Picture of President Lincoln" by Cordelia Harvey

Click Here to go Back to Cordelia's Early Life

Click Here to Learn About Cordelia's Visit with Abraham Lincoln