Porter County's first female physician, who served in the Civil War, finally getting her due

Chicago Tribune

2 days ago

Buried in an unmarked grave for decades in the Union Street Cemetery, one of Porter County's most remarkable Civil War casualties is finally getting her due.
Dr. Almira Fifield, Porter County's first female physician, died while serving at a Union hospital in Paducah, Kentucky.
After retired University of Minnesota medical educator Barbara Brandt began sharing her information about Fifield, the Society of Indiana Pioneers recently gave Fifield posthumous recognition as a Distinguished Hoosier, Brandt said.
The society was established in 1916, Indiana's centennial year, by the Indiana General Assembly.
The Daughters of the American Revolution's William Henry Harrison chapter is holding a commemoration for Fifield on the Porter County Courthouse's south lawn at 11 a.m. June 21.
Fifield's story has been rediscovered because of Brandt's post-retirement research on her family history.
'My dad grew up in Porter County. He died in 2007 at the age of 97,' she said. Brandt finally had time to ponder her family's history, so she read a 200-page notebook her father had with information about the Fifield family's ancestors. 'In the middle of it is three sentences about Almira,' Brandt said.
'I've had to piece together the information. She was called the lost heroine of the Civil War in the 1980s. People heard her story but didn't know much about her,' Brandt said.
Brandt, founding director of the National Center for Interprofessional Practice and Education in Minnesota, is a tenacious researcher, digging here and there to tease out more information about Fifield's life than those three sentences offered.
Fifield was born in 1833 in New Hampshire. Her family moved to Wheeler in 1842 before moving to Valparaiso. She died at age 29 in 1863, caring for Civil War soldiers.
'The No. 1 driver for it was the fact that I knew this was a very unusual story, based on my background in medical education,' Brandt said. 'There were only 200 or so female physicians before the Civil War. That was the driver for me to really uncover this story.'
Brandt's father was an orphan, so she didn't hear much about the family growing up. That was another motivation for her research.
'The next piece of the puzzle is she's been buried in an unmarked grave in the old city cemetery in Valparaiso,' Brandt said. The Grand Army of the Republic, comprised of Civil War veterans, put a wreath on her grave every year. A hand-drawn map of the cemetery showed where to put the wreath.
'Part of the story is I started writing letters,' Brandt said, reaching out to other members of the Fifield family. Almira was unmarried and childless when she died, so she didn't leave any descendants.
Along the way, Brandt found 54 letters Almira's brother wrote during the Civil War, preparing them for donation so they don't get lost to history.
'I am really deeply studying the 9th Indiana Infantry,' Brandt said, her curiosity fueled by those three sentences in her late father's notebook. 'I'm going to be spending time for sure, both at the state library and at Indiana Historical Society.'
'Once this dedication is over, I'll have my life,' Brandt said.
That's the same feeling shared by Diane Schweitzer, the DAR regent who is working with Brandt on the June 21 commemoration.
Schweitzer has her own tie to Fifield.
'My great-great-great-grandfather, Pvt. William Coslet, enlisted on Feb. 1, 1861, for a three-year period in Company B, 48th Indiana Infantry. He was medically discharged from the Paducah Hospital in April of 1863 where Almira Fifield served until her passing in March of 1863. His two sons, James Coslet, and my great-great-grandfather, Sylvester Coslet, also served as a 14-year-old flag bearer.'
Brandt had reached out to Porter County Historian Kevin Pazour, who connected her with Schweitzer and the DAR.
The DAR has done extensive restoration work at the cemetery, now working on the old Adams Cemetery in Morgan Township.
'It's been delightful working with her. She has excellent research skills,' Schweitzer said of Brandt.
The conditions at the hospital were nothing like what people would experience today. Schweitzer put it into perspective.
'There was no air conditioning, there was no ventilation, lots of airborne transmission of viruses, of bacteria,' she said. Water was often impure, too, especially with the war going on.
Antibiotics weren't around until about 60 years after the war. Gangrene was common. Civil War doctors often relied on amputations to save patients' lives.
Schweitzer's 3x great-grandfather, who enlisted in 1861, was being treated for chronic diarrhea. 'He was in his early 50s when he was discharged. One of the records when he was discharged said this man is too old to be a soldier,' she said. Some records said he could only do the work of half a man.
Despite his disability, he went on to work with Edwin Furnas. Back then, there wasn't Social Security or pensions he could rely on, so people worked a lot longer, Schweitzer noted.
Brandt requested the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs grant Fifield a Civil War marker and headstone.
Fifield started out as a schoolteacher, but at age 26 decided to become a physician, traveling across the country to attend New England Female Medical College, becoming one of only six of the 98 graduates who weren't from New England or New York. She received her degree in 1859.
Her brother, Zacheus Barnum Fifield, was wounded while fighting with the Union Army.
U.S. Rep. Schuyler Colfax, who later became vice president, wrote a letter on Fifield's behalf to support her efforts to serve the Army as a physician. 'I add my testimony to that of her other friends, knowing her to be capable, zealous, robust and has a withal good knowledge of medicine,' Colfax wrote.
Only 19 female physicians were allowed to treat soldiers during the war. Fifield was hired on as a nurse, on the condition that she tell no one about her medical training. She soon was put in charge of the surgical ward at the Paducah hospital, a large Baptist church captured by Union soldiers and converted into a hospital.
At age 29, only a year on the job, Fifield was said to have died of 'congestive chills.' But Brandt found a letter in the National Archives from a nurse at the hospital who wrote that Fifield had inflammation of the brain and spine, which Brandt believes likely indicated meningitis.
In 1890 the U.S. Senate voted to give her father a pension in recognition of her service.
Union Street Cemetery has 42 Civil War veterans, including Fifield and two nurses.