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Phoebe Pember

en.wikipedia.org

Originally aired on February 17, 1995 - In part 25 of our Civil War series, Virginia Tech history professor James Robertson profiles Phoebe Pember, the female nurse and administrator of Chimborazo Hospital in Richmond.

#25 – Phoebe Pember

In a war, some who endure the most never seek nor obtain the accolades they deserve. War also can put painful demands on women behind the lines. That brings us to Mrs. Phoebe Pember.

She was born in 1823 in Charleston, South Carolina. Her father was a well-to-do merchant. The daughter obtained a good education; sometime in the 1840s she became the wife of Thomas Pember of Boston. He died of tuberculosis at the beginning of the Civil War.

In November, 1862, the wife of a Confederate cabinet member offered Mrs. Pember an opportunity to serve as a matron at Chimborazo Hospital. Despite some misgivings as to the wisdom of her action, Pember accepted the offer and journeyed to Richmond, Virginia. Chimborazo, one of the largest military hospitals in American history, covered a high plateau east of downtown Richmond. The compound had 150 wards, divided into 5 divisions. In the course of the Civil War, more than 76,000 soldiers obtained treatment there.

Phoebe Pember was the first woman appointed to the staff; and from the moment she began her duties as chief matron of the second division, she was the victim of male chauvinism from the surgeons and hospital stewards. Yet this dynamic little woman would not be pushed around or discouraged. She ignored the opposition; she took little part in social activities. From December, 1862, to the end of the war, she labored day and night to ease the pain so dominant in every part of Chimborazo.

Phoebe Pember’s small memoirs, entitled A Southern Woman’s Story, contain a wealth of insights and moving scenes of life in a major hospital at the confederate capital. One of the most touching incidents was the case of a young soldier named Fisher. He had won the admiration of all by the patience and cheerfulness displayed during a ten-month convalescence from a jagged hip wound.

On the night following his first success in walking from one end of the ward to the other, Fisher cried out with pain. Mrs. Pember dashed to his bedside. An examination showed a small stream of blood spurting from the wound. A splintered bone had cut the artery.

The matron instinctively stopped the blood flow with her fingers while she shouted for a surgeon. The physician quickly concluded that the severed artery was too deeply imbedded in the thigh to be repaired. When informed of the hopelessness of his situation, young Fisher gave Mrs. Pember his mother’s name and address. He then asked: “How long can I live?”

Mrs. Pember answered: “Only as long as I keep my finger upon this artery.”

Silence followed; then the soldier looked at Mrs. Pember and said: “You can let go.”

The devoted nurse later stated: “But I could not, not if my life had trembled in the balance. Hot tears rushed to my eyes, a surging sound in my ears, and deathly coldness to my lips.” For a few moments, Mrs. Pember agonized over how she could obey the soldier and unloose her fingers. The decision came from another power: for the only time in her years of hospital service, Mrs. Pember fainted. By the time she regained consciousness, Private Fisher’s ordeal had ended.

Mrs. Pember was an aristocrat who developed a deep affection for the common soldiers and the class from which they came. She considered enlisted men more courteous than officers, and officers far more cultured than physicians. She lived to be eighty-nine, but nothing in her life matched the three years of devoted service she gave to the human debris of war.

Her only memorial were the looks of thankfulness that came from suffering soldiers who stretched out a hand for help – and found Phoebe Pember there.

Dr. James I. "Bud" Robertson, Jr., is a noted scholar on the American Civil War and Alumni Distinguished Professor Emeritus at Virginia Tech.