In this ""unpretending story"" published in 1867, Sarah Palmer, known to
the Union soldiers she nursed during the Civil War as ""Aunt Becky,""
tells simply and directly one woman's tale of war. Palmer, believed to
have been the first woman to serve as a Union Army nurse, cared for
countless sick, wounded, and dying soldiers during her three years of
army service. Said one soldier, ""I never knew a woman so much thought
of as she was by the boys - she never showed any partiality - we all got
the same attention - officers no more than privates.""