It is a simple marble military headstone in a sea of more than a thousand white marble military headstones. It is not a soldier, though, who is buried there. The marker reads;
Mrs. Canant
Vol. Nurse
CSA
There is no other record of her. Her name appears in no history book. Who she is and where she was from is a mystery.
All that is known about her is that a grave in the Confederate military section of Friendship Cemetery in Columbus is recorded as being that of a volunteer nurse known only as Mrs. Canant. Her story is intertwined with Columbus having served as a major hospital center during the Civil War. At times over 3,300 sick or wounded soldiers were cared for here. Interestingly, more died from illness such as typhoid fever or dysentery than from battle wounds.
Plans for a Columbus military hospital were made early in 1862. The Battle of Shiloh, however, expanded Columbus’ role from just a hospital to a major hospital center. Rev. James Lyon witnessed the flood of wounded soldiers brought by rail to Columbus after Shiloh. He described the horrific scene at the Columbus railroad depot where he saw more than 3,000 sick or wounded soldiers “stacked like cord wood” around the depot.
Three large military hospitals were in Columbus. The Gilmer Hotel was converted into a 450 bed hospital that at times overflowed with more than 750 soldiers being treated. Callaway Hall at the Columbus Female Institute (now MUW) had 190 beds but at times was filled with almost 300 sick and wounded. There was also another large hospital constructed at the fairgrounds which were on the north side of town. In addition there were five other buildings and several homes used as hospitals when Columbus was overwhelmed with thousands of sick and wounded soldiers in April 1862, after the Battle of Shiloh.
The women of Columbus organized to help, forming a “Soldier’s Relief Society” of which Mrs. James W Harris of Whitehall was president. The organization was dedicated to “ministering to the wants of Confederate soldiers as far as lay within their power and of nursing the sick and wounded.” Though their goal was to help sick or wounded Confederate soldiers, many, including Mrs. Harris, also cared for captured sick or wounded Union soldiers as well. The basement at Whitehall provided extra hospital beds when needed (holes once visible in the basement wall there would have supported six cots or stretchers) and Mrs Harris also assisted at the military hospitals. Ladies from Mobile and other places in Alabama and Mississippi would appear at times of crisis to help at the hospitals and serve as nurses.
The Confederate army surgeons and battlefield nurses were all male and at first the women volunteering to help in the hospitals were frowned on by the doctors. However, it was quickly realized that the women could play an important role. These volunteer “nurses” would help the wounded soldiers write letters and try to help make them more comfortable. The doctors realized that the nurses could provide valuable service and began to welcome them in hospitals and give them increasing duties.
In his “History of Columbus” published in 1909, Dr. W.L. Lipscomb described the work of the volunteer nurses. “They divided themselves into committees, each committee taking charge of its assigned hospital, and day and night they ministered to the wants of the sick and wounded, preparing suitable food, bandages, dressings, clothing and other things necessary for their comfort and improvement.”
But what about Mrs. Canant? The surviving Columbus hospital records do not mention any nurses dying here. There was one Columbus lady, Mrs. Stephen Brown, who while serving as a volunteer nurse in a military hospital contracted typhoid fever and died. There is a local story, though, that may provide insight into Mrs. Canant, if in fact that is her correct name — the Confederate grave records contain many misspellings of names.
While visiting with Uncle Bunky a couple of months ago he recalled a story told to him by Charles Garnett. From my childhood I still have a mental image of “Chief” Garnett wearing a white suit with a Confederate flag necktie and always with a pistol holstered on his belt. Garnett’s father, who was in Columbus during the Civil War, had told him many stories about the war, and Garnett, having basically a photographic memory, could vividly recall them. Bunky remembers standing in front of the old, now demolished, First Christian Church next to the courthouse one day in the late 1950s and Garnett coming over to tell him about the church’s history.
In addition to the church having served as a legislative chamber when the state capital was in Columbus during the Civil War, the basement had served as a hospital. Garnett took Bunky into the church’s basement and showed him two large old tables. He pointed out some cut marks on them and told Bunky that they had been used as operating tables and the cut marks had been caused when surgeons were cutting or sawing through soldiers arms or legs during amputations. Garnett also mentioned the sad incident of one of the volunteer nurses there dying.
That raises the question of who was the nurse at the Christian church who had died? Was it Mrs. Brown, Mrs Canant or someone else? My first thought as to Mrs. Brown was what church did she attend, and her husband’s diary from 1860 showed they were attending the Methodist Church (First Methodist), which at times also served as a hospital. In addition, many descendants of the Browns still lived in Columbus and if she were the nurse who died at the church it is unlikely Garnett would have not commented on that to Bunky. “Chief” Garnett was big on details such as that.
Who was Mrs. Canant and where was she from? We may never know. But then again she might well be the nurse at the First Christian Church who gave her life tending to the sick and wounded of both sides of that most bitter conflict.
This column was written with great assistance from Gary Lancaster, the authority on the hospitals of Columbus during the Civil War, and Carolyn Kaye of the Lee Home, who is better than anyone else at tracking down who was who in the Columbus of 150 years ago.
Rufus Ward is a Columbus native a local historian. E-mail your questions about local history to Rufus at [email protected].
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