Cordelia Perrine Harvey was born December 7, 1824 in Barre, New York The family moved to Wisconsin in 1842 and owned a prosperous farm in the Kenosha area.
She was teaching school in that city when she met and married Louis Harvey, who was also a teacher. In 1845, they moved to Clinton Junction where Louis operated a country store. They then moved their home to Rock County, where they remained until 1859, when Louis was elected Secretary of State.
In 1861, the people of Wisconsin elected Louis as their governor. From Fort Sumter on, both he and Cordelia had a deep interest in the Civil War. A company of volunteers were named the "Harvey Zouaves."
On April 10, 1862, when her husband had been governor for only one hundred days, he slipped and fell while stepping from one boat to another, falling into the Mississippi River, and drowned. The governor had been on a mission to check on the treatment of soldiers from Wisconsin who had been wounded at the Battle of Shiloh.
Four months after his death, a friend of Cordelia's wrote to the new governor and requested that she be appointed to the Sanitary Commission. The friend wrote, "It is the sort of missionary labor for which you know her to be very capable and she must have something to do or she will follow her husband I fear."
She received this appointment and immediately went to work in the Union hospitals along the Mississippi River. Devoted to her duties, she was soon labeled the "Wisconsin Angel." During the war, wounded or sick Wisconsin soldiers were not allowed to leave the hot southern temperatures for the cooler climates in the north to recover. The army felt that by letting the soldiers leave to other climates, they might desert. Cordelia was appalled by this logic. Then, when she herself came down with one of the camp fevers, she then returned to Wisconsin, whereby she recuperated quickly, further convincing her that the soldiers should be afforded this same opportunity. She then appealed to President Lincoln telling him that keeping these sick and wounded men in the hospitals in the hot climates of the South was really a death sentence. She further told Lincoln that dead soldiers cannot fight, nor can they desert. At first, both Lincoln and Secretary of War Edwin Stanton refused to alter the military procedures, however Ms. Harvey persisted in there plight. Finally, both Lincoln and Stanton saw the logic in her argument and authorized the construction of hospitals in the North.
After obtaining permission to use Northern Hospitals, she returned to her duties at the fron and served there until the end of the war.
She spent her remaining years in the home she had shared with the governor. She died February 27, 1895, at the age of 70. She was buried in Madison with the governor.
An historical marker on a highway near Kenosha serves as a wonderful tribute to Cordelia's selfless devotion to the helpless victims of the war. It reads:
"Cordelia A. P. Harvey"
"Wisconsin women rallied to support the Union during the Civil War. They became nurses, hospital matrons, sanitary agents, and ministers. C. A. P. Harvey attained national prominence for her role in promoting convalescent aid for sick and wounded soldiers."