Maine Archives and Museums

photo courtesy of Fifth Maine Regiment Center

Amy Morris Bradley Birthplace
East Vassalboro

Privately owned, not open to the public.

Maine women filled many important roles during the Civil War. Many volunteered as nurses, others as relief workers. Some even served as spies or soldiers. Perhaps the most illustrious of Maine's Civil War heroines is Amy Morris Bradley. Born in the small farming community of East Vassalboro in 1823, Amy was an inquisitive child eager to improve her intellect. She chafed at limitations placed on women in the 19th century.

When the Civil War erupted, Amy quickly volunteered her services as a nurse. She was assigned to the Fifth Maine Infantry but soon transferred to a hospital ship on the James River, Virginia. Her abilities led her to the United States Sanitary Commission where she rose through the ranks to become Special Relief Agent. In that capacity she worked miracles transforming make-shift army hospitals from unsanitary, disease-ridden camps to clean, efficiently-run hospitals. Her success earned her the respect of influential military and political leaders, an opportunity she made the most of in her efforts to make soldiers' lives a little easier.

Amy spent the post war years in Wilmington, North Carolina where, once again, she broke convention and founded what is now the public school system. Her simple headstone in Wilmington's Oakdale Cemetery reads "Our School Mother."

Open - Privately owned, not open to the public.

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