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Notable people · Medicine · Civil War · Women

Mary Ann Bickerdyke

Knox County-born nurse and U.S. Sanitary Commission agent who ran field hospitals for Grant's and Sherman's armies, and whom soldiers called 'Mother Bickerdyke'.

Born July 19, 1817, Ball farm near Mount Vernon (some sources say Mansfield)
Died November 8, 1901, Bunker Hill, Kansas

Mary Ann Bickerdyke
Public domain · Wikimedia Commons

At a glance

Born
July 19, 1817, Ball farm near Mount Vernon (some sources say Mansfield) (Knox County) source
Died
November 8, 1901, Bunker Hill, Kansas source
Buried
Linwood Cemetery, Galesburg, Illinois (Block 61, Lot 1), beside her husband source
Also known as
Mary Ann Bickerdyke, Mother Bickerdyke, Mary Ann Ball, Mary A. Bickerdyke
Known as
Medicine, Civil War, Women

Life story

Mary Ann Ball was born on her father Hiram Ball's farm near Mount Vernon, Knox County, in 1817 and was, in a friend's words, 'orphaned' at 17 months. Her early biographers say she studied at Oberlin and nursed in Cincinnati during a cholera epidemic, though no Oberlin record of her has been found. She married Robert Bickerdyke in Cincinnati in 1847 and in 1856 moved with him to Galesburg, Illinois, where after his death she practised as a botanic physician. In 1861 Galesburg sent her to Cairo, Illinois, with $500 of supplies for the sick soldiers there. She stayed for the whole war, as matron and Sanitary Commission field agent with Grant's and then Sherman's armies, from Fort Donelson through Shiloh, Vicksburg, Chattanooga and the Atlanta campaign. She is credited with organising some 300 hospitals, and generals indulged her disregard for rank. At Sherman's request she rode at the head of the XV Corps in the Grand Review in Washington in 1865. Afterwards she helped veterans' families settle in Kansas, worked as a pension advocate and at the San Francisco Mint, and returned to Ohio in 1898 for an Army of the Tennessee reunion in Cincinnati and a last visit to Knox County. She died in Kansas in 1901 and is buried in Galesburg.

Ohio ties

  • Ball farm near Mount Vernon (1817-c. 1833)
    birthplace and childhood home; log-schoolhouse education Knox County · source
  • Oberlin College, Oberlin (c. 1833-1837 (claimed))
    said by early biographers to have studied here; the college has no record of her Lorain County · source
  • Cincinnati (1840s; 1898)
    nursed in a cholera epidemic; married Robert Bickerdyke here in 1847; spoke at the 1898 Army of the Tennessee reunion Hamilton County · source
  • Mount Vernon (statue)
    statue in her honour Knox County · source

Timeline

  1. 1817 Born on 19 July in Knox County, near Mount Vernon, daughter of Hiram Ball and Annie Rodgers Ball. source
  2. 1818 Her friend Florence Kellogg wrote that she was 'orphaned when but seventeen months old'. source
  3. 1837 Began nursing at about 20; Kellogg says she left Oberlin weeks before finishing because of a fever epidemic and nursed during a cholera outbreak in Cincinnati. source
  4. 1847 Married Robert Bickerdyke, gaining four stepchildren, in a ceremony performed by Bishop McIlvaine in Cincinnati. source
  5. 1856 Moved with her husband to a new home near Galesburg, Illinois, because of his failing health. source
  6. 1859 Widowed; by 1861 the Galesburg directory listed her as a 'botanic physician' on Prairie Street. source
  7. 1861 Carried $500 of supplies raised by Galesburg's Congregational church to the army hospitals at Cairo, Illinois, and began her war service on 9 June. source
  8. 1862 Worked the field hospitals at Fort Donelson in February, organising laundries staffed by freed slaves, then served at Shiloh and as matron of the Gayoso Block Hospital in Memphis. source
  9. 1863 Reported to Chattanooga on 27 October and ran the XV Corps field hospital at Missionary Ridge, for four weeks the only woman attendant. source
  10. 1865 Ended her war service on 20 March, and at Sherman's request rode at the head of the XV Corps in the Grand Review of the Armies in Washington. source
  11. 1867 Began a movement to get ex-soldiers to go west; the Kansas State Historical Society credits her with drawing 300 families to Kansas. source
  12. 1886 Congress passed a special act on 9 May granting her a pension of $25 a month, after testimony from Grant, Sherman and Pope. source
  13. 1898 In October spoke at the 13th annual meeting of the Society of the Army of the Tennessee in Cincinnati, then spent a few weeks with relatives in Knox County. source
  14. 1901 Died on 8 November at Bunker Hill, Kansas, and was buried beside her husband in Galesburg, wearing her Army of the Tennessee badge. source
  15. 1906 A statue of her by Theo Alice Ruggles Kitson was dedicated at the Knox County Courthouse in Galesburg on 22 May before 8,000 people. source
  16. 1943 The Liberty ship SS Mary Bickerdyke was launched at Richmond, California, on 27 October. source
  17. 1979 Inducted into the Ohio Women's Hall of Fame, listed under Knox County. source

Stories

'Lord God Almighty' outranks a surgeon

At Cairo and later in the field, Bickerdyke paid little attention to rank or regulations. When a surgeon asked by what authority she acted, she is said to have answered, 'On the authority of Lord God Almighty; have you anything that outranks that?' When officers complained to Sherman about her, he reportedly threw up his hands and said, 'She outranks me. I can't do a thing in the world.' At Memphis, when a medical director sent away the freed slaves she had hired, she went straight to General Hurlbut and came back with written authority to keep them. She also got President's Island set aside as pasture for the cows and hens she bought to supply the hospital with milk and eggs.

Source

Last trip home to Ohio

In October 1898, aged 81, Bickerdyke travelled to Cincinnati for the 13th annual meeting of the Society of the Army of the Tennessee, the only time in her last years she went beyond state soldiers' reunions. She addressed the gathering, was made a member, and received an official badge she prized so much that it was pinned to her dress when she was buried. Veterans lined up to hold her hand, and she told them, 'I am getting old and must soon be mustered out.' From Cincinnati she went up to Knox County for a few weeks with relatives. She found the forests of her girlhood gone but, her friend Florence Kellogg wrote, made herself enjoy the newer scenes.

Source

The Knox County girl

Florence Kellogg, who knew her in her last years, recalled Bickerdyke talking about her girlhood 'on the old Ball farm' in Knox County. She kept farm animals as pets, broke colts, spun flax and wool, and learned the three Rs in a log schoolhouse with puncheon seats and goose-quill pens. Of the stories told about her, Kellogg wrote, the only one Bickerdyke truly resented was that she was an uneducated woman, as Mary Livermore's My Story of the War seemed to suggest. Kellogg's book carries a picture captioned 'Mother Bickerdyke's Birthplace at Mansfield, Ohio', although she, the 1886 biography and the state marker all place the Ball farm in Knox County.

Source

Named for Mary Ann Bickerdyke

  • SS Mary Bickerdyke, Liberty ship (1943) (Richmond, California) source
  • Bickerdyke Bridge (Seminary/Kellogg Street overpass, 2014) (Galesburg, Illinois) source

Sites to know

Homes, graves, markers, museums and monuments; the numbered ones are on the map.

1
  • 1 Ohio Historical Marker 3-42, Mary Ann Ball 'Mother' Bickerdyke ('born in this vicinity')
    Knox County, near Mount Vernon Knox County · source
  • Statue of Mother Bickerdyke, Mount Vernon (unknown)
    Mount Vernon Knox County · source
  • Bickerdyke Memorial by Theo Alice Ruggles Kitson (1906), Knox County Courthouse
    Galesburg, Illinois source
  • Bickerdyke grave, Linwood Cemetery, Block 61, Lot 1
    Galesburg, Illinois source

Ohio places

Where Mary Ann Bickerdyke was born, lived, worked and is remembered, with the ZIP code, town and county pages for each.

Myths and corrections

Things often said about Mary Ann Bickerdyke, and what the record shows.

Often said Bickerdyke was one of the first women to attend Oberlin College, and nearly graduated with honours.

The record Her friend Florence Kellogg (1907) says she left Oberlin just weeks before finishing, and later writers repeat that she was among its first women students. Nina Brown Baker's 1952 biography reports that official records show no proof that she attended. source

Often said She was born at Mansfield, Ohio.

The record Kellogg's 1907 book has a photograph captioned 'Mother Bickerdyke's Birthplace at Mansfield, Ohio', but its own text, Margaret Davis's 1886 biography and the state marker all place her birth on the Ball farm in Knox County, near Mount Vernon. source

Often said Bickerdyke was an illiterate washerwoman.

The record Kellogg says this was the only story about her that Bickerdyke truly resented, and blames Mary Livermore's My Story of the War and an article in Arthur's Home Magazine for spreading it. In 1861 the Galesburg directory listed her as a botanic physician. source

Often said She led 50 veterans' families to Kansas (Wikipedia).

The record The Kansas State Historical Society's 1947 account credits her influence with the migration of 300 families after she began the movement in 1867, while Wikipedia, citing Massey, says she helped 50 families move to Salina. The numbers have not been reconciled. source

Documents

Primary records: patents, letters, court and government files, nominations and old county histories, each at the archive that holds it.

Pictures

Free to use with the credit shown. Select a picture for the original and its license.

  • Fassett, S. M., photographer. [Mary Ann Ball Bickerdyke, Civil War nurse and agent for the United States Sanitary Commis
    Fassett, S. M., photographer. [Mary Ann Ball Bickerdyke, Civil War nurse and agent for the United States Sanit...
    No known restrictions
  • A woman of the century.djvu
    A woman of the century.djvu
    Public domain
  • Mary Ann Bickerdyke, American nurse in the Civil War
    Mary Ann Bickerdyke, American nurse in the Civil War
    Public domain
  • Mary Ann Bickerdyke, steel engraving by A.H. Ritchie.
    Mary Ann Bickerdyke, steel engraving by A.H. Ritchie.
    Public domain
  • Artifacts and story of Mary Bickerdyke OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA Keywords: women
    Artifacts and story of Mary Bickerdyke OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA Keywords: women
    Public domain
  • Title: Mother Mary Ann Ball Bickerdyke Abstract/medium: 1 photographic print.
    Title: Mother Mary Ann Ball Bickerdyke Abstract/medium: 1 photographic print.
    Public domain
  • Title: Mother Mary Ann Ball Bickerdyke Abstract/medium: 1 photographic print.
    Title: Mother Mary Ann Ball Bickerdyke Abstract/medium: 1 photographic print.
    Public domain
  • Mary Ann Bickerdyke
    No known restrictions
  • Mary Ann Bickerdyke
    No known restrictions
  • Following the February 1862, Union victory at Fort Donelson, Mary “Mother” Bickerdyke was among the many women who searc
    Following the February 1862, Union victory at Fort Donelson, Mary “Mother” Bickerdyke was among the many women...
    TradingCardsNPS / CC BY 2.0
  • Following the February, 1862, Union victory at Fort Donelson, Mary “Mother” Bickerdyke was among the many women who sear
    Following the February, 1862, Union victory at Fort Donelson, Mary “Mother” Bickerdyke was among the many wome...
    TradingCardsNPS / CC BY 2.0
  • Photo of a memorial statue depicting Mary Ann "Mother" Bickerdyke taking care of a wounded soldier. Memorial located at
    Photo of a memorial statue depicting Mary Ann "Mother" Bickerdyke taking care of a wounded soldier. Memorial l...
    Greg Peterson / CC BY-SA 2.0

Sources

Confidence. High: the main facts were confirmed in sources we opened.

Every link goes to the original source. Profile researched 2026-10-15.

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