Tag Archives: Emily Bliss Souder

Death surrounded the nurses of Gettysburg, part 2

Rain falling since July 14, 1863 had turned the grounds at III Corps’ hospital at Gettysburg “so wet and muddy” that nurses wore India-rubber boots to get around, said nurse Emily Bliss Souder, a Kennebunk-born Mainer now living in Philadelphia with her husband and surviving children. Not letting up until July 18, the rain cooled […]

Death surrounded the nurses of Gettysburg, part 1

At 7:30 a.m., Tuesday, July 14, several Philadelphia nurses left Baltimore on a Northern Central Railroad train for Hanover Junction. Among the women was 49-year-old Emily Bliss Souder, née Thacher, born to Stephen and Harriet (Preble) Thacher at Kennebunk in York County in June 1814. Her parent later moved to Lubec, where brother Joseph A. […]