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

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 new 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.

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“The author chronicles the lives of figures such as Georgeanna Woolsey, Hannah Ropes, Mary Phinney von Olnhausen, and Louisa May Alcott as they taught themselves how to deal with horrific conditions and injuries in hospitals, camps, and transport ships. These women worked long, difficult hours and often faced arrogant or chauvinistic physicians as well as dishonest hospital stewards…Accessible and well researched, Toler’s book coincides with the recent PBS series Mercy Street and successfully illustrates the beginnings of nursing as a designated field of medical practice.”

— Library Journal