Carrie Sheads was an American nurse and school principal. She was the principal of an all-girls boarding school near Gettysburg,

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a U.S. state, state spanning the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern United States, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes region, Great Lakes regions o ...

. In early July 1863, she wanted to take the girls on a field trip to visit the Union

military camp A military camp or bivouac is a semi-permanent military base, for the lodging of an army. Camps are erected when a military force travels away from a major installation or fort during training or operations, and often have the form of large cam ...

s. Before she got the chance, everyone at the school awoke one morning to the sound of gunfire. They couldn't get out of Gettysburg in time, so they used the school as a hospital to help wounded soldiers. Carrie Sheads and all the schoolgirls worked as nurses. During a confederate raid “ Colonel Charles Wheelock” ran into her estate and ending up hiding in her cellar. He was later found but Carrie Sheads hid his sword so it would not be stolen.

References

Female wartime nurses Women in the American Civil War Year of birth missing Year of death missing {{US-edu-bio-stub