Margaret E. Breckinridge

Margaret Elizabeth Breckinridge ( – ) was a Union nurse during the American Civil War even though her family included a leading Confederate. Early life and education Margaret Breckinridge was born on in Philadelphia. She was the daughter of John Breckinridge, a Presbyterian minister, and Margaret Miller. Her paternal grandfather, John Breckinridge, was United States Attorney General. Her mother died when she was six and her father when she was nine, so she was left to the care of her maternal grandparents, Samuel and Sarah Miller, in Princeton, New Jersey. Samuel Miller was a professor at Princeton Theological Seminary. Nursing career At the state of the American Civil War, Breckinridge organized a Soldiers' Aid Society in Princeton to donate food and clothing to Union troops, but was determined to serve as a nurse. She began her volunteer service in April 1962 in hospitals in Baltimore, Maryland, but soon contracted measles. She travelled to the home of her cousin in Lexington, Kentucky, and after recovering, began working in hospitals in that city. Breckinridge was in Lexington during its Confederate occupation in September and October and her written accounts of the occupation have been preserved.