Crystal E. McCord was born September 5, 1897 in Washington, Indiana, the daughter of Jabez McCord and Rachel (Arvin) McCord. In June 1917 she graduated from nurses training at Nichols Hospital in Battle Creek, Michigan.
On April 4, 1917 the United States declared war on Germany and entered the Great War (later to be known as World War I). At that time the U.S. Army was minuscule, with a little over 100,000 men. America rushed to mobilize an American Expeditionary Force (AEF) to fight in France. By November 11, 1918, when the war ended, the U.S. Army numbered 4.8 million men.
There was a U.S. Army Nurses Corps (ANC) in 1917, but it had just 203 active duty nurses and 170 reserve nurses. ANC nurses were volunteers and were not given a military rank. The Surgeon General, who ran the ANC, issued an urgent call for more nurses in order to deal with the inevitable onslaught of causalities. During the war, 21,000 nurses volunteered and 9,000 were deployed overseas.
Crystal E. McCord answered the call. She volunteered and was accepted into the ANC on February 15, 1918. She was 20 years old. After training at a camp in Charlotte, South Carolina, Crystal departed for France June 12, 1918 from Hoboken, New Jersey on a troop transport. She was assigned to Evacuation Hospital No. 1 at Sebastopol Barracks, about two miles north of Toul, France, just seven miles from the front lines.
Crystal E. McCord in her Army Nurses Corps uniform
Evacuation Hospital No. 1 treated wounded soldiers for amputations, gangrene (this was before penicillin or antibiotics), shell shock, disfigurement and poisonous gas. The hospital admitted 2,750 soldiers between September 12 and 15, 1918 and reached its bed capacity of 2,800. The staff consisted of 97 officers, 92 ANC nurses, and 674 enlisted men. Nurses worked shifts of eight hours on with eight hours off.
Operating room at a U.S. Army Evacuation Hospital in France
Patient ward at a U.S. Army Evacuation Hospital in France
Flushing an infected wound at a U.S. Army Evacuation Hospital in France
Not all admissions were caused by battlefield wounds. In September, 1918, nearly a thousand patients at Evacuation Hospital No. 1 were diagnosed as “contagious.” Many were likely infected with the virus called “Spanish Flu.”
The 1918-1919 influenza pandemic was one of the deadliest plagues in human history. Nearly a third of the global population, an estimated 500 million people, was infected. Estimates of total pandemic deaths range from 17 million to as high as 100 million. The disease killed 45,000 American soldiers during World War I. The virus infected 26% of the U.S. troops, more than one million soldiers. It was especially lethal for young adults, ages 20 to 40.
The war ended November 11, 1918 with the signing of the Armistice. Crystal was anxious to come home. On November 14 she wrote her mother:
My Dear Mother
I feel much more free tonight with the thoughts of coming
home soon. . . . Nothing compares to the old U.S.A . . . . Once
I see the Statute of Liberty shine will be a happy moment for
me. I do not know how much longer I will be over here. No
one knows yet. But hope it may be soon.
Your loving daughter
Crystal E. McCord
Evacuation Hospital No. 1
AEF France
Crystal did not come home. She contracted Spanish Flu and died of pneumonia December 18, 1918 at Evacuation Hospital No. 1. She was buried in the American Cemetery in Sebastopol, France. Her mother, Rachel McCord, made the decision to leave Crystal in France with those with whom she served. On August 19, 1922 her body was disinterred and moved to the Saint Mihiel American Cemetery at Lorraine, France.
Crystal E. McCord’s grave in Lorraine, France
In 1918 several women organized the American War Mothers in Washington, Indiana. Its mission was to provide assistance to veterans of World War I and it would remain active into the 1960s. The group in 1923 was granted a charter by National War Mothers in Indianapolis. The local chapter was named in honor of Crystal E. McCord.
In 1929 Congress enacted legislation that paid the expenses for parents and widows to travel to Europe to the cemeteries where AEF personnel were buried. In 1930 Crystal’s mother, Rachel McCord, made the pilgrimage to her daughter’s grave in Lorraine, France.
This article was compiled by Bruce Smith, a member of the Daviess County Historian team.
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