On June 10, 1861, the Union Army appointed the legendary social reformer Dorothea Dix as the Superintendent of Army Nurses, placing her in absolute, unprecedented control of all female nurses volunteering for the Union military hospitals. Already famous for her relentless, decades-long crusade to revolutionize the care of the mentally ill, Dix immediately set to work organizing a massive, efficient wartime medical apparatus from scratch.
To maintain absolute discipline within the chaotic, disease-ridden military camps, Dix enforced a famously rigid, unyielding code for her recruits. She strictly decreed that all applicants must be between the ages of 35 and 50, plain-looking, and dressed entirely in unadorned black or brown dresses, fiercely banning any jewelry, cosmetics, or bows to deter unwanted romantic distractions. Though her stern, uncompromising administrative style earned her the nickname “Dragon Dix,” her meticulous standards permanently elevated nursing from an unorganized domestic chore into a highly respected, professional wartime military career.
