In 1828 Abby Woolsey was born into an upper-class family that included eight children, seven of them females. She and her siblings spent most of their adolescence in New York City. The Woolseys took an active role in social affairs, and Abby and her siblings engaged in many church and reform activities. Abby showed strong abolitionist sentiments in the 1840s and 1850s, especially after attending a slave auction while visiting Charleston, South Carolina, in 1859. She also supported the woman's rights and temperance movements. Her most significant contribution to reform, however, came from her work in the field of nursing.

The Civil War.

During the Civil War, Abby and her sisters Georgeanna and Eliza became active members of the Woman's Central Association of Relief, organized in New York in 1861 to provide material comforts to sick and wounded soldiers. The association sent Georgeanna and Eliza to...