Hospital Sketches

Hospital Sketches is Alcott's account of her short time as a volunteer nurse in a Union army hospital in Washington during the Civil War. Written in the voice of a fictional nurse, Tribulation Periwinkle, it draws on her own letters and experience. It describes the crowded wards, the wounded soldiers, the tiring work and the humour and kindness she found there. The tone mixes wit with sober observation. It was her first popular success and remains a vivid, human view of wartime care.