Within six months after the nurses arrived at Scutari, the site where the wounded and ill soldiers of the Crimean War were housed, the death rate had been reduced from 60% to an amazing two percent. By the end of the war the death rate had dropped to one percent. Florence Nightingale and her nurses had accomplished the impossible! Ms. Nightingale became a true hero to the soldiers, and to their families and friends back in England. Because she made rounds of the soldiers long after everyone else was asleep, the press referred to her as "The Lady With The Lamp." Ms. Nightingale not only cared for the physical needs of her patients, but she also began to look out for their social welfare. She saw to it that, for the first time, the sick and wounded soldiers received sick pay. Later during the war she went to the battle sites themselves. There she contacted Crimean Fever which some nursing historians believe affected her the rest of her life. There is some controversy about what kept Ms. Nightingale confined to her quarters after the war. There is a possibility that she suffered from Post Traumatic Syndrome or Fatigue Syndrome or some other malady. We will probably never know for sure. Nevertheless, she was able to continue her work in nursing education and public health from her quarters. The Nightingale Fund was started by her admirers, many of whom had been soldiers during the Crimean War. It was that money that allowed her to start the first modern training school for nurses at St. Thomas Hospital in 1860. Florence Nightingale became known as the founder of modern nursing. The Nightingale Pledge was drawn up at the old Harper Hospital in Detroit, Michigan, and was first used by its graduating class in the spring of 1893. It is an adaptation of the Hippocratic Oath taken by physicians.

I solemnly pledge myself before God and in the presence of this assembly, to pass my life in purity and to practice my profession faithfully. I will abstain from whatever is deleterious and mischievous, and will not take or knowingly administer any harmful drug. I will do all in my power to maintain and elevate the standard of my profession, and will hold in confidence all personal matters committed to my keeping and all family affairs coming to my knowledge in the practice of my calling. With loyalty will I endeavor to aid the physician, in his work, and devote myself to the welfare of those committed to my care.

During the Civil War, the railroad and the station were of great strategic importance. Serving first as a supply base for Union forces during the summer of 1862, Fairfax Station became a center for emergency treatment and transportation of the wounded to Alexandria. Clara Barton and two other volunteers broke convention and cut through regulations to nurse many of the over 3,000 wounded Union soldiers who lay on the hill between historic St. Mary's Church and the depot. Barton, deserted by the other two women when the increasing danger at Chantilly became apparent, finally escaped with the last of the wounded before advancing Confederate soldiers burned the station to the ground. Union troops later rebuilt the structure. Clara Barton was later instrumental in the founding of the American Red Cross.

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