No Place for a Woman

By: Mike Pride

Narrated by: Todd Curless

In June of 1861, 46-year-old Harriet Patience Dame joined the Second New Hampshire Volunteer Infantry Regiment as a matron. No Place for a Woman recounts her dedicated service throughout the Civil War. She camped with the regiment on campaign, nursed its wounded after many major battles, and carried out important wartime missions for her state and the Union cause. Late in the 19th century, she battled alongside her friend Dorothea Dix to overcome prejudice against bestowing pensions on women who nursed during the war.

Historian Mike Pride traces Harriet Dame’s service as a field nurse with a storied New Hampshire infantry regiment during the Peninsula campaign, Second Bull Run, Gettysburg, and Cold Harbor. Twice during that service, Dame was briefly captured. In early 1863, she spent months running a busy enterprise in Washington, DC, that connected families at home to soldiers in the field. Later, at the behest of New Hampshire’s governor, she traveled south by ship to check on the care of her state’s soldiers in Union hospitals along the coast. Dame entered Richmond shortly after the Union victory and rejoined her regiment for the occupation of Virginia. After the war, she worked as a clerk in Washington well into her 70s and served as president of the retired war nurses’ organization.

This biography convincingly argues that in length, depth, and breadth of service, it is unlikely that any woman did more for the Union cause than Harriet Dame.

The book is published by The Kent State University Press. The audiobook is published by University Press Audiobooks.

©2022 The Kent State University Press (P)2024 Redwood Audiobooks

Critic reviews

"A welcome addition...will hopefully serve as a model for historians to bring other largely forgotten individuals the attention they deserve." (Emerging Civil War)

“A living, breathing history...Riveting.” (Ken Burns, filmmaker)

“A compelling, new understanding of one of the Union’s true heroes.” (New York Times)