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“Economy Rules the Day:”
The Civil War Sacrifices of Judith Walker McGuire
by Tim Sheehan

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Care of Family Members

Being in the presence of suffering strangers dispirited Judith McGuire. To be in the presence of a suffering family member was by far a more emotional challenge. The first passage in which McGuire acts more like a nurse than a hospital volunteer occurs, not in the Robertson hospital, but in the care of a nephew. Major Bowyer Brockenbrough was wounded at the battle of Fredericksburg and taken to Richmond. A very kind Richmond woman, Mrs. Payne, took the Major into her own house, for the wounded from Fredericksburg overwhelmed the city’s hospitals. McGuire stayed with Mrs. Payne and both cared for her nephew. In her 8 January 1863 entry, McGuire writes, “To cut off his bloody clothes, and replace them by fresh ones, and to administer the immense doses of morphine, was all that Mrs. P. and myself could do.” Fortunately, to all involved, Major Brockenbrough survived his injuries, due to McGuire’s insistence that porter ale be bought for his nourishment. (53)

Witnessing a relative dying from war-inflicted wounds was downright distressing. In December of 1863, she rushed to Charlottesville to nurse her nephew Raleigh Thomas Colston. Colston’s left leg was amputated due to a gunshot wound received during the Battle at Mine Run, Virginia. Colston came down with pneumonia a few weeks after the amputation. McGuire and several relatives spent ten days “watching and nursing, amid alternate hopes and fears,” until Colston passed away on 23 December. His burial took place Christmas Day. The sorrow McGuire felt in the presence of those severely wounded, especially those she knew well, brought her spirits down. However, her desire to aid the Confederacy by visiting the wounded, gave her the motivation to visit the Robertson Hospital during the remainder of the war. (54)

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This page last updated 1 January 2008