Mount Auburn Cemetery

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Civil War Nurses of Mount Auburn Cemetery: Harriet Ann Jacobs

By Guest Writer | May 11, 2023

Harriet Ann Jacobs

By Bill McEvoy

In honor of National Nurses Week, local historian Bill McEvoy has compiled histories of some of the Civil War nurses who are buried at Mount Auburn Cemetery. This is part six of seven. Harriet Ann Jacobs was born into slavery, on February 11, 1813, in Edenton, North Carolina. She died on March 7, 1897, in Washington, D.C. Raised in Edenton, Harriet, and her brother, John Jacobs were born to Delilah Horniblow and Elijah Knox, a carpenter. Harriet recalled a happy early childhood. 

In her book, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, available as a free download on Google Books, she noted: We lived together in a comfortable home; and though we were all slaves, I was so fondly shielded that I never dreamed I was a piece of merchandise.

Around Town

Civil War Nurses of Mount Auburn Cemetery: Anna Cabot Lowell Woodbury

By Guest Writer | May 10, 2023

By Bill McEvoy

In honor of National Nurses Week, local historian Bill McEvoy has compiled histories of some of the Civil War nurses who are buried at Mount Auburn Cemetery. This is part five of seven. Anna Cabot Lowell Woodbury was the niece of poet James Russell Lowell, and sister of Lt. James Jackson Lowell and Brig. General Charles Russell Lowell. 

In the early summer of 1862, having recently been trained as an Army nurse, Anna was assigned to the hospital ship Daniel Webster on the James River. When she arrived at Harrison’s Landing, Virginia in June 1862, she continued her work despite news that her brother James had been killed in the Seven Days Battles during the Peninsula Campaign.

Around Town

Civil War Nurses of Mount Auburn Cemetery: Mary Phinney von Olnhausen

By Guest Writer | May 9, 2023

Mary Phinney von Olnhausen

By Bill McEvoy

In honor of National Nurses Week, local historian Bill McEvoy has compiled histories of some of the Civil War nurses who are buried at Mount Auburn Cemetery. This is part four of seven. If you heard this name recently, it stemmed from PBS’s series, Mercy Street. I located and read her diary in 2012, long before PBS’s 2016 series. I gave several lectures that noted her diary.

Around Town

Civil War Nurses of Mount Auburn Cemetery: Mary Sullivan Felton

By Guest Writer | May 8, 2023

The grave of Mary Sullivan Felton at Mount Auburn Cemetery. By Bill McEvoy

In honor of National Nurses Week, local historian Bill McEvoy has compiled histories of some of the Civil War nurses who are buried at Mount Auburn Cemetery. This is part three of seven. Mary Sullivan Felton was born on April 30th, 1839, in Cambridge, Massachusetts. She died April 29th, 1896, in Boston, from pneumonia and pericarditis. Her father, Cornelius Conway Felton, died in 1862 at age 57.