Wanting something to do, Tribulation Periwinkle (“Trib”) accepts her younger brother Tom’s suggestion of becoming a nurse for soldiers fighting in the Civil War. Local townswomen set up an interview with a leading nurse from her community, Miss General S., who is “home on a furlough” (2). Trib enlists. Expecting to receive her commission within days, she begins packing immediately, but when the commission comes, it is at Hurly-burly hospital, a less desirable one than she had hoped for. Tom assumes she will reject the posting. She admits that her resolve had been wavering, but his “disdainful pity” (3) reinvigorates it. She leaves the same day after an emotional goodbye with her mother.

At her next stop, she receives instructions and encouragement from her General. She sets about trying to secure a “free pass to Washington” (4). Being “a bashful individual” (4), she struggles to make her request to the President of the railroad, who refers her to the State House’s Governor. At the State House, she corners a man who frustratingly claims to have no information regarding who she can speak with, but her General comes to her rescue, extracting the name of a Mc K. who might be at Milk Street.