Eunice Elizabeth (Hamilton) George (1808 - 1865)

Born 20 Oct 1808 in Bridport, Addison, Vermont, United States

Died 9 May 1865 at age 56 in Wilmington, New Hanover, North Carolina, United States

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Biography

Eliza (Hamilton) George is Notable.

Elizabeth "Eliza" George known as Mother George was an American volunteer nurse who served in the Sanitary Commission (a predecessor of the Army Nurse Corps) during the Civil War. Mother George accompanied Indiana regiments. She nursed the sick and wounded soldiers. Mother George died of typhoid fever contracted while caring for soldiers.

Eliza (Hamilton) George was born in Vermont..

Eliza became a nurse in the USSC at age 54. Affectionately known as Mother George to the hundreds of soldiers she cared for, she died in service contracting Typhoid Fever treating soldiers with the disease in Wilmington, North Carolina.
Honored for eternity:
In Memoriam

Eunice Eliza Hamilton, known as Eliza, was born to parents Robert and Polly Hamilton in 1808 in Bridport, Vermont. ^[1][2]

She married Woodbridge Cottle George before moving to Fort Wayne, Indiana in 1850. In that year, one of her daughters, also named Eliza, married another young newcomer to the city, Sion Bass, who had arrived from Kentucky in 1849.

Prior to moving, the family is shown in the 1850 Census in Berrien Township, Berrien, Michigan: ^[3]

Her son-in-law Sion Bass joined the army in 1861 at the outbreak of the Civil War and helped to organize the 30th Regiment of Indiana Volunteers; he was chosen to be its first commander. At the battle of Shiloh in April 1862, Sion was killed leading a charge of his regiment against Confederate lines.

Deeply affected by his death, early in 1863, at 54 years of age, she applied for duty in the Sanitary Commission, the forerunner of the Army Nurse Corps. Her value as a nurse was quickly realized in the rapidly overflowing hospitals in Memphis, her first duty station.

Officially, little is known of Eliza George. The only remaining reference to her in the files of the National Archives concerns this early period of her career. A hospital Muster Roll card dated March and April, 1863, indicates that she was attached as a nurse on those dates to the Union U.S.A. Hospital, Memphis, Tennessee. In the spring of 1863, she reported for duty in Memphis, Tenn., where she tended the sick and wounded that were brought there during the Union assault on Vicksburg, Miss. At the request of Governor Morton of Indiana, she focused her attention on the men of the Indiana regiments. They quickly dubbed her “Mother” George because of her great compassion for their suffering and for her devotion to them.

For the remainder of the war, George traveled through the South in the wake of the Union army, working on the battlefields and helping to set up makeshift hospitals. She also made frequent trips to procure hospital supplies, food, and clothing for the wounded soldiers. On several occasions she narrowly escaped with her life, as the Confederates shelled the hospitals or the supply trains on which she traveled. During the summer and fall of 1864, she was attached to General Sherman's troops in Georgia, where she stayed until the fall of Atlanta.

Although George periodically returned to Indiana to rest and visit family and friends, she never stayed for long and was always anxious to return to her nursing duties.

Eunice was "Mother George" as she was affectionately called by the hundreds of Indiana Civil War soldiers whom she cared for. Near the end of the war, in the spring of 1865, she traveled to Wilmington, N.C., which had just fallen to Union troops, and was assigned to the hospital. There, at the same time, came nearly eleven thousand newly freed Union prisoners of war. Mother George gave herself completely to relieve the suffering of these men. Unfortunately, there was an outbreak of typhoid among the troops. She caught typhoid fever while performing her duties and the exhausted Mother George died on May 9, 1865, scarcely a month after the end of the war. ,

Her body was brought back to Fort Wayne where she was buried with full military honors in Lindenwood Cemetery, the only woman to have been so honored there.^[4] Her son-in- law, Sion St. Clair Bass, died in the Battle of Shiloh and is buried nearby, along with her daughter Eliza.

Memorials

• "George Street" in Fort Wayne, Indiana was named in her honor. (It has since been renamed West Brackenridge).

• Eliza Mother George marker erected by the Fort Wayne Roundtable. Old Historic Marker located on Berry Street: “Mother George Civil War Nurse 1808 to 1865. The first Fort Wayne home of Mrs. Eliza E. George was near this spot." ^[5]

• Eliza Mother George Monument at Lindenwood Cemetery, Fort Wayne, Indiana. Erected by Indiana Sanitary Commission and the Fort Wayne Ladies Aid Society.

• "Mother George: Fort Wayne's Angel of Mercy", Hillary A Sadler, Fort Wayne and Allen County Public Library, 1964. ^[6]

• The Eliza Mother George Room. One bedroom in the Sion Bass house is named in her honor. The Sion Bass house is included in The LaSalle Bed and Breakfast Inn, Fort Wayne, Indiana.

• Fort Wayne's "Angel of Mercy" Event. Hosted by The Veterans National Memorial Shrine and Museum on October 22, 2022, at Lindenwood Cemetery, Fort Wayne, Indiana. ^[7][8]

Research Notes

Parents' names are given in articles. Robert was born between 1760-1795; Polly's maiden name is unknown. This requires much more research.

Sources

1. ↑ "Vermont Births and Christenings, 1765-1908", database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:F82T-C55 : 16 December 2019), Eunice Eliza Hamilton, 1808.
2. ↑ "Vermont Vital Records, 1760-1954", database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:XFVH-VR7 : 19 February 2021), Eunice Eliza Hamilton, 1808.
3. ↑ "United States Census, 1850," database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MF8C-BCH : 22 December 2020), Woodbridge C George, Berrien Township, Berrien, Michigan, United States; citing family , NARA microfilm publication (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.).
4. ↑ Find a Grave, database and images (www.findagrave.com/memorial/19737867/eliza-e.-george : accessed 18 May 2021), memorial page for Eliza E. George (20 Oct 1808–9 May 1865), Find A Grave: Memorial #19737867, citing Lindenwood Cemetery, Fort Wayne, Allen County, Indiana, USA ; Maintained by Rosemarie Robson (contributor 50188319) .
5. ↑ Mile Marker
6. ↑ Mother George : Fort Wayne's angel of mercy. https://archive.org/details/mothergeorgefort00sadl
7. ↑ Fort Wayne Civil War nurse known as the ‘Angel of Mercy’ to be honored at Lindenwood Cemetery, Clayton McMahan, WANE. https://www.wane.com/top-stories/fort-wayne-civil-war-nurse-known-as-the-angel-of-mercy-to-be-honored-at-lindenwood-cemetery/#:~:text=Better%20known%20as%20%E2%80%9CMother%20George%E2%80%9D%20or%20the%20%E2%80%9CAngel,a%20monument%20to%20her%20memory%20at%20the%20cemetery.
8. ↑ Famous Civil War Nurse To Be Honored – The Waynedale News. https://waynedalenews.com/2022/10/famous-civil-war-nurse-to-be-honored/

• FS Profile for Eunice Eliza Hamilton
• Allen County Public Library Staff, Mother George: Fort Wayne's Angel of Mercy. 1964.

• Eliza “Mother” George - IN.gov. https://www.in.gov/icw/files/20170303-George,-Mother-Eliza.pdf

• Memorial Day Spotlight: Eliza “Mother” George, The Indiana Historical Blog. https://blog.history.in.gov/memorial-day-spotlight-eliza-mother-george/

See also:

• Wikipedia: Eliza George
• Wikidata: Item Q66685209