World War I

Nursing in World War I was done on a gigantic scale.  When war was declared the Red Cross took immediate steps to mobilize a vast army of skilled nurses to serve in camps and overseas.  At times the nurses endured untold hardships, working endless hours in the barracks and on the firing lines. 

North Carolina, like other states, mobilized units and got ready to take an active part in the conflict.  Dr. John Wesley Long, Greensboro, organized Base Hospital No. 65 with 32 medical men, 203 enlisted men and 100 nurses.  They were mobilized at one of the nurses based in New York City and from there went as a body to France where they were united with hospital forces at Brest.  Twenty-two hundred desperately ill patients were transported to them before the barracks were ready.  There were no electric lights.  One hundred and two nurses took care of these sick and dying soldiers.  In October, 1918, the Chief Surgeon of the American Expeditionary Forces called for two operating teams to be sent to the front.  Dr. Long selected two North Carolina nurses to do this work.  They spent many weeks of active service on the firing line. 

Army Nurse Josephine Finch, Charlotte, served in France at Evacuation Hospital #7, near Souilly, which was located within 12 miles of the front and moved from time to time to be close to the St. Mihiel and Meuse-Argonne battles.  The wounded were cared for in tents with dirt floors. During air raids the nurses had to carry their patients outside and cover them with their blankets and often their bodies to protect them.  She lost part of a foot due to frostbite. 

In 1918, Miss Finch cared for Henry Muenzel of Providence, RI as he lay dying of pneumonia.  Muenzel was born in Providence in 1898 and joined the Rhode Island National Guard which was absorbed by the army at the outbreak of World War I.  He was shipped off to France in 1917 as the company bugler in the 103rd machine-gun battalion of the 26th Army Division.  He saw combat in the Chateau-Thierry and Mont Blanc offensives.  A year after he died, she wrote to his mother chronicling his final days.  By then she had left the Army Nurse Corp and had taken a job at the Anson Sanatorium in Wadesboro. 

"My Dear Ms. Muenzel

I have planned so many times to write you, but being in France our letters were all censored and took all the joy out of writing letters.  I have just returned a few days ago.  I wanted to tell you that I nursed your boy and was with him when he died.  As near as I remember, it was the 24 of September, 1918.  The priest told me at the time that he wrote you.  He was one of the sweetest boys I ever knew.  I use to often look at him and think what a sweet boy you are.  He was one of the most appreciative patients I ever had.  Anyone could tell he was a boy who had been well raised and he was so unusual for his age.  He told me often how much he thought of you and Louise (his sister) and always spoke of you both in such loving terms.  He use to call Louise in his deliriums and when I would get to his bed he would be awake and would know me.  At first I thought Louise was his sweetheart and I asked him that.  He said no Louise is my sister.  I am too young to have sweethearts.  I asked him for your address and told him that some day I would like to write you and tell you what a nice sweet boy he was.  I have a young brother who I have helped to raise and your boy use to remind me of him."

Josephine Finch was born in a pre-Civil War House in Blanch (Caswell County) on March 6, 1881.  Her father, James Monroe Finch and his brother Charles fought at Gettsyburg.  She died in a VA Hospital in Maryland on December 27, 1943.  Her obituary was titled "A Fruitful Life" and described her as a pioneer in professional nursing service in Charlotte.  "She was lamented by the families of many hundreds of the homes of this community in which her kindly and achieving ministration were wrought.  She as an ornament to her profession in nobility of character as well as in the unselfishness of her services."    

Details of the story have been provided by Betty Watts, Panama City, FL, who is the niece of Henry Muenzel.

World War II