Caring For Each Other

In a sea of white male faces in what looks like a late 19th century photo stands, in the center of the second row, a black woman.  What is going on here?  

The woman is Lucy Higgs Nichols, and the photo was taken Indiana in 1898.

Lucy Higgs, along with her very young daughter, escaped slavery in late June of 1862, traveling 30 miles before finding refuge with the 23rd Indiana Infantry Regiment near Bolivar, Tennessee.  She served with the regiment throughout the rest of the war as a nurse, cook, laundress, and forager, marching with the regiment in the Grand Review that took place in Washington DC in late May of 1865.  The 23rd saw hard fighting during the war, seeing action at Shiloh, the Vicksburg campaign, the Atlanta campaign, the March to the Sea, and on Sherman's Carolinas campaign.  Seventy two soldiers died in combat or from wounds, and 145 from disease.

The 1898 photo shows her with veterans of the 23rd, along with some veterans of the recent Spanish-American War.  They are celebrating the award of a $12 a month pension to Lucy, a pension obtained through the petitions of the regimental veterans.  Obtaining the pension became a national news story at the time.

Higgs was born into slavery in 1838.  The year after joining the 23rd, her daughter died during the Vicksburg siege and the regiment conducted her funeral.  At the invitation of the veterans, she returned with the regiment after the war to New Albany, Indiana, across the Ohio River from Louisville, Kentucky.  She worked for several of the officers and continued nursing sick veterans.  When she, in turn, became ill, the soldiers would nurse Lucy.  She was a member of the local Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) post(1), participating in all regimental reunions and marching in the annual Memorial Day parade. Among the former officers Lucy worked for was General Walter Gresham who commanded the 53rd Indiana during the war.  Gresham would go on to serve as Postmaster General in the cabinet of President Chester Arthur and as Secretary of State under President Grover Cleveland.  When Gresham's daughter married, Lucy, who by that time was considered a member of the family, attended the wedding in Chicago.

After the war, Lucy married John Nichols who had lived as a freedman in Tennessee before the war.  John passed in 1910 and Lucy Higgs Nichols died in 1915.

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(1)  Though emancipation had occurred, there was still social segregation in much of the North.  However, recent research has revealed that most GAR posts admitted black veterans of the Civil War.  The shared experience of soldiering overcame the racial prejudice that existed in much of the Northern population.