Searching for America

Cape Girardeau was occupied by Union Army troops from July 10, 1861 until Aug. 14, 1865. The military commandeered businesses, warehouses and private homes for quartermaster stores, officer quarters and hospitals. On a research trip to the National Archives in Washington D.C., I requested records for Post Cape Girardeau's Hospital Corps Muster Rolls, Field Records of Hospitals and Command Records to understand better the care for the sick and wounded.

Post records of 1861 show the Giboney house and the courthouse were used as hospitals. In April 1863, an inspection report indicated the existence of two soldier hospitals: The Johnson House and the "Pest House," described as a two-story brick building "on a small hill half a mile north of town." Most historians agree the residence at 444 Washington St. -- built by Baptist pastor Dr. Adiel Sherwood before the war and owned by Judge H. R. Smarr (subsequently known as the Minton house) -- was the 1863 smallpox hospital.

Early muster rolls indicated hospital corps -- stewards, dispensary workers, nurses, ward masters and cooks -- were all enlisted men on special duty under the command of regimental surgeons.

Women matrons appear on hospital muster rolls in March 1863. Matrons were paid $6-12 per month to cook, serve food, administer medicines, launder and distribute bedding and clothing. Matrons in Cape Girardeau included: Rebecca Armstrong, Rebecca Condart, Eliza Creth, Agnes Cross, Jane Downs, Tabitha Edwards, Louisa Giblin, Huldah Jones, Elizabeth Lee, Sarah Leonard, Mary Ann Macomb, Violet Macomb, Amy Prince, Eliza Robinson, Mary Shelly, Ann Smith, Haddah Triddle, Sarah Winneford and Ann Wright. Mrs. Mary Allen, a trained nurse assigned from the St. Louis Sanitary Commission, arrived in June 1863 to supervise hospital care and the matron staff.

Few of these women are easily found in public record. Rebecca Armstrong, assigned matron to the smallpox hospital, gave ultimate sacrifice when she died of smallpox herself in only six weeks of service. America Parrott, Agnes Cross and Tabitha Edwards, all women-of-color, enlisted for matron duty as their first expressions of freedom. America and Agnes enlisted together on June 1, 1863. Of the trio, evidence of America's sojourn is best documented. In 1858, America was listed with 10 other slaves in the inventory of the Scott County estate of her deceased master, Woodson Parrott. Three years later, Woodson's surviving son, Major James Parrott, chose the side of the Rebellion by joining William Jeffers' Swamp Rangers. He paid a heavy price when Union forces burned his mills in Benton and Commerce and freed his inherited slaves including America -- presumably escorting them to the protection of the post at Cape Girardeau. When the opportunity arose, America Parrott proved her competency, skill and reliability as a matron employed for 20 months at Post Cape Girardeau hospitals -- the longest serving of all Cape matrons. After the war, America, wife and mother of nine, appears to have settled in Mayfield, Kentucky. Her long life of service to her family and others continued until her death in 1924.