TLC: $12 Per Month
From the Archives of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle
Although it had been known from the time the Second Continental Congress authorized the Continental Army (June
14, 1775) that "…the sick suffered much for want of good female nurses…" (General Washington had asked
the Congress to authorized a matron and nurses corps) progress was slow. The pay of a nurse originally $2 per month
and one ration per day, was increased to $8 and one ration per day on April 7, 1777. On August 3, 1861, 84 years
later Congress authorized the Surgeon General to employ women as nurses for army hospitals at a salary of $12 per
month plus one ration per day.
