NANCY HILL-CIVIL WAR NURSE, PIONEERING DOCTORDeeds such as those ultimately allowed Hill to become a candidate for medical school, enabling her to become one of the country's first female doctors. In April 1863, just before the Battle of Chancellorsville, Hill, then 29, decided to leave home to join the volunteer army nurses at Armory Square, one of the capital's largest Civil War hospitals, located on the National Mall.