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- Never married.
She was a prominent nurse during the Civil War, ranking alongside Clara Barton and Florence Nightingale. She was twice captured in battle, and released by her captors. At the Second Battle of Bull Run, Dame was taken as a prisoner but released because she cared for Union and Confederate soldiers indiscriminately. In once instance, Stonewall Jackson authorized her return to Union lines.
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She received the thanks of the New Hampshire Legislature for her tender care of the sick and wounded in the field from 1861 to 1865.
Successful teacher. As a nurse in the Civil War she served continously with the 2d Regt NHV from Apr 1861 to Apr 1865; received the thanks of the New Hampshire General Court and $500; one of the founders of the Soldiers' Home at Tilton, NH; clerk in the Treasury Dept at Washington until 78 years old.
1860 - ran a boarding house on corner of Montgomery and Main Streets in Concord, NH.,
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New Hampshire in the Great Rebellion: Containing Histories of the Several New Hampshire Regiments, and Biographical Notices of Many of the Prominent Actors in the Civil War of 1861-65
By Otis F R Waite
Published by Tracy, Chase & Co., 1870
Original from Oxford University
No history of the Second New Hampshire Regiment would be complete without it contained more than a passing notice of Miss Harriet P. Dame, of Concord. She offered her services before the regiment left the State, and though not quite ready to go to Washington when they did, she soon joined them there, and was ever afterwards regarded as one of its most brave, patriotic, honored and beloved members.
A lady writes the author asking that Miss Dame may be suitably mentioned here, and says: "She stepped forth, moved with a great purpose, and offered her life for her country. Such true heroism is unparalleled and unprecedented in the history of any country. She was more than the 'Florence Nightingale of America,' because she had not the secure protection of hospital, but stood with our soldiers beneath the rain and fire of bullets, undaunted. She knew no fear, and thought not for a moment of her personal safety, for God had called her, and she felt that His divine protection was over all."
Words are too poor and a few pages too circumscribed to do her anything like justice. Her good deeds are enshrined in the memory and hearts of thousands who, but for her timely and tender care, would be numbered with other thousands who, for want of it, died upon the field of battle from wounds, and in hospital from disease incident to the exposures and hardships of war.
Rev. J. W. Adams, Chaplain of the Second from December, 1863, furnishes the following beautiful tribute to Miss Dame :
My personal acquaintance with Miss Dame commenced in the winter of 1863, when I received my commission, and joined the renowned " Old Second," at Point Lookout, Md. Even then her praise was in all the New England Regiments. Many who had unexpectedly pectedly recovered from sickness and wounds, had arisen from the sufferer's cot to call her blessed. The exploits of heroic men were not related with more enthusiasm, nor with half the satisfaction with which her deeds of sympathy were rehearsed. Her name could hardly be mentioned in a New Hampshire regiment without calling forth the response, " I owe my life to Miss Dame." Though nominally connected with my regiment, our boys were not permitted the entire monopoly of her fame. All the Granite State regiments in the armies of the Potomac and James spoke her name and referred to her acts with equal pride. I have heard them tell how she toiled day after day on the bloody field of Gettysburg, sometimes, during the battle, between the lines, and once a prisoner in the hands of the enemy, still absorbed and self-forgetful, devoting herself to the relief of our wounded men. And when the darkness of night, and the exhaustion of her energies made rest imperative, she would pillow her head upon the gory field, and sleep amid the dead and wounded scattered around her. During the winter of 1863 she had charge of the New Hampshire Soldiers' Relief Rooms in Washington, from which she frequently went forth on tours of inspection, that she might the more judiciously distribute the substantial aid and comfort directed to this channel, from the good people at home.
When the Army of the James was organized for the campaign of 1864, she arranged to leave her charge in Washington, and follow its destinies. She was a better general than McClcllan, for she always managed to have a good stock of supplies, and was ready to move at a moment's notice. She also had the rare faculty of arranging the forces under her charge, and of leading off in the execution of her own plans. She was an incessant worker herself and kept every body around her at work. If she were to frame a ritual, she would be quite sure to have in it something like this: "From empty titles and hollow pretensions, — Good Lord deliver us. From kid-gloved nurses who stand by the bedside of human suffering, merely simpering, my good fellow I pity yon, — Good Lord deliver us."
During the sanguinary conflict at Cold Harbor, she established herself at White House, rendering great service to our soldiers, who suffered severely. It was here that Capt. Smith died, and here too, a few days after the original volunteers of the Second embarked for home to be mustered out, leaving the re-enlisted veterans and recruits to add new luster to the fame already achieved by this noble regiment. Miss Dame remained with us, caring for our sick and wounded, until we all swung around in front of Petersburg.
In the Eighteenth Army Corps field hospital, at Broadway Landing, she could be seen to advantage — one moment distributing garments, comfort.bags, cordials, &c., from her private tent, at another moving under the large cooking tent, surrounded with delicate and substantial articles of diet, and the large kettles steaming with wholesome and palatable food in a state of preparation. This tent was her throne; but she did not sit upon it. From this place she issued her orders, dispatched her messengers, and distributed luxuries to thousands. Here she not only ruled with system, but with sleeves rolled up, toiled harder than any of her assistants.
In visiting my sick men in the hospital, and in procuring such articles of comfort as were necessary to keep the partially indisposed from following them, I had occasion to call on Miss Dame quite frequently. Her first inquiries would generally be — "Well Chaplain, how are the boys at the front? Are any of them sick? When are they going to got their pay? Is there anything I can send them that will do them good?" Many a can of condensed milk, beef tea, preserved fruit, with Jamaica ginger, blackberry syrup, farina, corn starch, and under garments for thoae who had none to change, stockings, mittens &c., &c., have I received from her to distribute among the feeble ones who did not wish to leave the front, and who had not seen the paymaster for six or eight months. She understood the importance of having the soldier keep up his correspondence with home ; and the destitute never lacked for a postage stamp to forward his missive, if she could supply it.
After having compassed the rebel capital on all sides daring her three years of active service on the field, and in the hospital, it was her privilege to join our regiment soon after it entered the city of Richmond. And right well she enjoyed it, for a more patriotic heart than her’s never beat. But even now, and here, her ministrations were needed, and were cheerfully offered.
When the excitement of war had passed away and no longer quickened the pulse or braced the nerve, many of our men found themselves victims of chronic diseases and broken-down constitutions. Many a soldier who had for three years looked wistfully toward home, and now confidently expected to reach it in a few weeks, or months at most, must lie down upon the bed of sickness,
and turn his face the other way to follow the beck of Death, who was still busily engaged in opening graves in the distant South. From her headquarters at our regiment, she visited our own men, and those of other regiments, cheering the sick and desponding by her presence, and alleviating distress by skillful nursing, and substantial benefactions.
On the 10th of July, 1865, our regiment was sent by cars to Fredericksburg. Miss Dame accompanied us. Owing to the destruction of the track, we were left as night came on, two miles below the city. The sick men occupied one freight car, Surgeon Stone and myself another, and Miss Dame, among piles of baggage, made her home in the third. But she seemed to think she was highly favored to have a rude freight car so much to herself, and was only anxious to make the sick ones as comfortable as possible. One man she sent to the nearest farmhouse for milk and other things that were needed, and others in other directions, so that the hospital was soon in tolerable running order. From Fredericksburg she went to Washington ; and soon returned with fresh supplies, to resume her duties. On the 27th of July, after the headquarters of the regiment had been moved to Warsaw Court House, she took the steamer for that place, where in a few weeks she finished the prosecution of her mission in person.
The question is sometimes asked, " Was there not something indelicate in such familiar association with society composed entirely of men? And did she not subject herself to insult from the rude soldiery? " It is wholly gratuitous to say that the military authorities would have shielded her. She had no need of this. Her devoted spirit, discreet bearing, and holy mission, were all the protection she needed. A mother could be no safer with her children, nor a sister safer with her brothers, than was Miss Dame among the New Hampshire soldiers. If wo may suppose that one could be so thoughtless, as by word or deed to offend, a single word from her would have put every sword and bayonet of the command between her and the offender; and diminish his chances of life, by as many times as there were men in the command.
Two or three times during the war, her tent, with most of her personal effects, was destroyed by fire, by which, and in other ways, she sustained a loss of hundreds of dollars. Of hardships, dangers, and losses, she never complained. But she was always ready to complain far the needy, and those who were recreant, as the agents of other's charities.
The State has given but a faint expression of its obligations to this most practical and efficient of all its heroic female representatives in the War of the Rebellion. She deserves a monument, but does not need one. Her noble deeds are engraved upon the memories of thousands, whose children and children's children will rehearse them as among the most beautiful that adorn, the annals of our military hIstory.,,, [3]
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Old Dead Relatives
1815 - 1900 (85 years)
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