Belle Macomber was born in Shelburne Falls, Massachusetts back in 1840. Shortly after her birth the family moved to Iowa where when she was old enough she moved back East to complete her education. She taught school in the wilderness of Cass County, Iowa. In 1860 she married and moved to Peoria, on the anniversary of her wedding news about the firing on Fort Sumter reached her.
Her husband was called up for service with the Seventeenth Illinois. Belle followed her husband experiencing all the horrors of war, sleeping on the ground with the occasional blanket. After the war she studied medicine and surgery where for the rest of her time she was on the clinical staff of Hahnemann College in Chicago. So no big deal you may be asking yourself as hard life was the norm back in those days. For you see Belle Macomber is better known as Belle Reynolds of who I am writing about today
You see she became a heroine because of her involvement in the Battle of Shiloh where she transported wounded soldiers tended the sick and comforted the dying. Governor Yates gave her a commission with the title of Major. In the commission it states in part “given to Mrs. Belle Reynolds for meritorious conduct in camp on the bloody field of Shiloh.” She died in 1937 at 96.
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