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Re: Seeking information on African-American Nurses on USS Red Rover
Lisha Penn
Sep 20, 2019 9:03 AM
Dear Ms. Mangum,
Thank you for posting your request on History Hub!
We searched the National Archives Catalog and located 3 series Civil War Muster Rolls, 5/1861-10/1863; and Papers Relating to Female Nurses in the Civil War, 1861-1865 in the Records of the Bureau of Naval Personnel (Record Group 24); and Case Files of Approved Pension Applications of Civil War and Later Navy Veterans, 1861-1910 in the Records of the Department of Veterans Affairs (Record Group 15). The RG 94 records have not been digitized yet, but one RG 15 series Stokes, Ann - Certificate Number 17834 (Card 1 of 1) isavailable to view on the Catalog. For access to and/or copies of these personnel-related records, please contact the National Archives at Washington, DC - Textual Reference (RDT1) via email at archives1reference@nara.gov.
The 5 African American nurses on the USS Red Rover worked were under the direction of the Sisters of the Holy Cross, and were: Ann Bradford (later Bradford Stokes), Ellen Campbell, Alice Kennedy, Sarah Kinno and Betsy Young (later became Young Fowler). Ann Bradford successfully applied for and was approved to receive a pension in the amount of $12.00 from the Navy in 1890. The U.S. Navy did not have an official Nurse Corps until World War II. You may request a copy of her approved pension application from RDT1 by email as noted previously.
On Ancestry, we located Ann Bradford Stokes’ Pension Application and the Approved Pension Index. We were unable to locate any Census records for any of the nurses using Ancestry or the National Archives Catalog. There may be a fee for using Ancestry. However, you may view these records online at one NARA's facilities for free via a NARA PC. For the nearest NARA location, please consult our web page at https://www.archives.gov/locations/. Also, some of the images from Ancestry are available for free on Family Search at https://www.familysearch.org/en/.
For more information about these nurses and about the USS Red Rover, please see Ann Bradford Stokes; Five Black Nurses; USS Red Rover Hospital; USS_Red_Rover; and a Naval Heritage Command Summary about the USS Rover.
We hope this is helpful. Best of luck with your research!