Many women volunteered to be nurses during the Civil War. Even though thousands of women served as nurses, not much was written about them, so most history about the nurses was lost. There were only about 150 hospitals in the country during this period and there was no actual nursing schools at the time. Military protocol banned women from working at field hospitals so most nurses were men. The military soon broke down these gender-related restrictions on nursing and the woman of America took immediate action to get involved, with over 600 women serving at 12 hospitals. Also religious orders sent their own trained nurses to help out. Clara Barton, which later will become founder of the Red Cross, was among these 600 women.