Brief guide to manuscripts collections| William L. Clements Library The University of Michigan Cornelia Hancock Papers |
Cornelia Hancock came from a New Jersey Quaker family. At the outbreak of the Civil War she followed her brother and cousins to join the Union Army. She volunteered for service as a nurse but was refused because of her age. Cornelia determined to go to Gettysburg on her own and arrived on the third day after the battle. Once she was there, no one questioned her credentials, and she quickly gained the respect and affection of the soldiers and medical staff. As she wrote on July 7, 1863: "I was the first woman who reached the 2nd Corps after the 3 days fight of Gettysburg. I was in that corps all day not another woman within 1/2 mile...women are needed very badly." When the crisis passed, she turned her attention to the contraband negroes who were flooding into Washington in desperate need of food, shelter, and medical care. Her work so impressed the surgeon general, he granted her permission to go wherever she felt help was needed. On February 10, 1864, Cornelia was urgently requested to come to the field hospital of the 3rd Division, 2nd Corps, near Brandy Station, Virginia. she served through the bloody Battle of the Wilderness, then joined the 1st Division, 2nd Corps, and followed Grant's campaign through Virginia. She arrived at City Point in June and remained there until the end of the war.
In 1866 she opened the Laing School for negroes in Charleston, using Freedmen's Bureau funds and donations from Philadelphia Quakers. After nine years she returned to Philadelphia, founding the Children's Aid society and the Society for Organizing Charity. Cornelia Hancock remained active in her various charities until the age of 74.
Correspondence of Cornelia Hancock, Civil War nurse, educator, social worker, reformer. Most of the letters were written by Cornelia to family members, especially to her mother and sister Ellen, who was married to Dr. Henry T. Child, a well-known anti-slavery advocate. Letters written to Cornelia were from her mother, family members, soldiers, the mother of a young soldier Cornelia aided, and friends.
This collection of letters, written to her family during the Civil War years, is a remarkable record of Cornelia Hancock's humanitarian spirit and ambition. There are 175 letters, 5 photographs, a short newspaper obituary, and an autobiographical essay.
Gift of Henrietta Stratton Jaquette, 1938
Selected letters are published in South after Gettysburg; Letters of Cornelia Hancock from the Army of the Potomac, 1863-1865, ed. Henrietta Stratton Jaquette (Philadelphia, 1937).
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