Georgeanna (often called Georgy) was born 5 Sep 1834 in New York City, New York, United States. Her parents were Charles William Woolsey and Jane Eliza Newton Woolsey. She was raised as a staunch opponent of slavery.
In 1840 and 1850, Georgeanna was living with her family in New York City. Her mother Jane (transcribed Eliza J) was widowed and the head of household. The 1840 Census shows 1 male under 5, and 11 females: 3 under 5, 3 from 5-9, 1 from 10-14, 2 from 15-19, 1 from 20-29, 1 from 30-39, and the 1850 Census details are in the table below. Both appear to include servants.[1][2]
Household | Role | Sex | Age | Birthplace | Occupation |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Jane E Woolsey | head | F | 48 | Virginia | |
Abby H Woolsey | F | 22 | Virginia | ||
Jane S Woolsey | F | 20 | New York | ||
Mary E Woolsey | F | 18 | England | ||
Georgianna M Woolsey | F | 16 | New York | ||
Eliza M Woolsey | F | 15 | Massachusetts | ||
Harriet R Woolsey | F | 13 | Massachusetts | ||
Chas W Woolsey | M | 10 | Massachusetts | ||
Mary R Adams | F | 50 | Virginia | ||
Ellen Mooney | F | 23 | Ireland | ||
Martha Moran | F | 22 | Ireland | ||
Mary J Taylor | F | 23 | Ireland |
She served in the Civil war as a nurse along with her mother Jane Eliza Newton Woolsey and sisters Jane Stuart Woolsey, Eliza Newton Woolsey Howland, and Mary Elizabeth Woolsey Howland.
Georgeanna volunteered as a nurse and joined The Woman's Central Association of Relief of New York shortly after the start of the Civil War in 1861. In May, she was one of one hundred women selected to become a volunteer nurse for the Union Army. Having no medical training, she was sent for "a month's seasoning in painful sights and sounds". She was assigned to Georgetown Hospital in Washington, D.C. and lived with her sister Eliza Woolsey Howland.
In April 1862, Georgeanna and Eliza received positions on the U.S. Sanitary Commission's hospital transport ship Daniel Webster. The women on these steamships were responsible for the diets of the patients, dressing wounds and comforting the soldiers. The sisters served through the 3 month-long Peninsula Campaign. In September 1862 Georgeanna took a position of assistant superintendent of the Portsmouth Grove General Hospital, when her friend Katharine Wormeley became superintendent. She remained there until spring of 1863 when she went into the field, first to care for the wounded after the battle of Chancellorsville, and then at Gettysburg.
Georgeanna and her mother Jane Eliza Woolsey went to Gettysburg immediately after the battle and were responsible for establishing and overseeing a Sanitary Commission camp near the railroad station at the edge of the battlefield. Mother and daughter oversaw the pitching of tents, cooking of food, distribution of medicine and provided skilled medical nursing for the sick and wounded men who were waiting for the next train to take them to hospitals in Baltimore and Philadelphia.
According to Georgeanna's "Three Weeks at Gettysburg", she estimated that nearly each of the 16,000 soldiers who left Gettysburg stopped for at least a meal at their tents. The memoir, published in 1863, was printed and distributed widely to raise support for the nurses.
Georgeanna remained in the service through the war, partly in hospitals, but mostly at the front caring for the wounded at Belle Plain, Port Royal, Fredericksburg, White House and City Point.
Friends and co-workers described Georgeanna as follows: "Strength and sweetness, sound practical sense, deep humility, merriment, playfulness, a most ready wit, an educated intelligence — were among her characteristics. Her work I consider to have been better than any which I saw in the service. It was thorough, but accomplished rapidly. She saw a need before others saw it…"
Georgeanna married Francis Bacon on 7 Jun 1866 in Manhattan, New York City, New York, United States. [3][4]
She and Francis lived in New Haven, Connecticut. Georgeanna was a co-founder of the Connecticut Children's Aid Society and the Connecticut Training School for Nurses. She and Francis established and operated Playridge in Woodmont, Connecticut which specialized in care for invalid children.
In 1870 and 1880, Georgeanna and Francis are living in New Haven, New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Francis is a physician. [5][6]
Household | Role | Sex | Age | Birthplace | Occupation |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Francis Bacon | head | M | 47 | Connecticut | physician |
Georgeanna Bacon | wife | F | 44 | New York | at home |
Mary McGuria | servant | F | 48 | Ireland | |
Kate Kilcullen | servant | F | 29 | Ireland | |
William Harmon | M | 23 | Ireland | laborer |
During the war, Georgeanna and sister Eliza, their mother and siblings wrote constantly to each other. The sisters published their correspondence in 1899 as "Letters of a Family During the Civil War, 1861-1865." The book was republished in 2001 as "My Heart Towards Home: letters of a family during the Civil War."
Georgeanna passed away on 27 Jan 1906 in New Haven, Hew Haven, Connecticut and is buried in Grove Street Cemetery in New Haven. [7][8]
See also:
Have you taken a DNA test? If so, login to add it. If not, see our friends at Ancestry DNA.
Georgeanna is 17 degrees from Zendaya Coleman, 27 degrees from Sting Sumner, 15 degrees from Josh Brolin, 18 degrees from Timothée Chalamet, 18 degrees from José Ferrer, 17 degrees from Frank Herbert, 13 degrees from Richard Jordan, 19 degrees from David Lynch, 17 degrees from Virginia Madsen, 21 degrees from Charlotte Rampling, 27 degrees from Patrick Stewart and 20 degrees from Denis Villeneuve on our single family tree. Login to find your connection.
W > Woolsey | B > Bacon > Georgeanna Muirson (Woolsey) Bacon
Categories: New City, New York | Nurses, United States Civil War | New Haven, Connecticut | Grove Street Cemetery, New Haven, Connecticut