[1] She spent most of her career as a nurse during the Civil War on hospital ships that tended to Union and Confederate soldiers all along the Mississippi River.

[1][2] Adaline moved to St. Louis, Missouri around 1823 from England and eventually married John Edward Decker Couzins in 1834.

[1][2] Adaline and John were two of those volunteers, and headed the relief corps for this epidemic and worked tirelessly to nurse the sick back to health.

[3] In April 1861, shortly after the start of the American Civil War, Adaline volunteered to work with Dr. Charles Pope, a surgeon in St. Louis.

[3] To continue her efforts in the war, Adaline joined the Ladies' Union Aid Society (LUAS) of St. Louis.

Adaline was oftentimes sent out to battlefields to inspect their conditions and report the number of casualties, putting herself in great danger.

Her volunteer efforts were not limited to her time on the battlefields though, as she began working on hospital ships under Dr. Simon Pollack, the chief surgeon for the Western Sanitary Commission, at the end of the American Civil War.

She suffered from serious frostbite after her and another LUAS member, Arethusa L. Forbes, went out to inspect the condition of a battlefield and report the number of casualties.

The ship she was on had stopped in Vicksburg, Mississippi, to gather wounded soldiers to take back to St. Louis, and while she was there, Adaline was struck in the knee by minie-ball.

[2][3] Many people appreciated Adaline's service during the American Civil War and recognized the need to compensate her for her work.

Both her daughter Phoebe Couzins and Michigan Senator Thomas W. Paler petitioned for Adaline to receive pension for her service in the war.