2-962-752 - /Heritage Images

Helen L. Gilson, Civil War nurse and head of the Colored Hospital Service, between 1861 and 1865. Half length portrait, seated graphic / J.C. Moulton, Fitchburg. Helen Louise Gilson, also known as Helen Louise Gilson Osgood, cared for wounded and dying soldiers at battles including Yorktown, Antietam, Gettysburg, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, and Petersburg. She advocated for a better hospital for African American soldiers and for the creation of the Colored Hospital Service, of which she became the head until the end of the war.