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It's been estimated that approximately 640 Catholic sisters, from twelve orders, representing twenty-two different communities served during the Civil War. The Superintendent of the U.S. Army Nurses, the anti-Catholic Dorothea Dix, may not have been thrilled to see the array of habits coming into the hospitals; but she was over ruled by a higher power, cabinet members and generals as well as the soldiers who grew to love them.
They cared not what color their uniforms were; they cared not if they were wounded or suffered from a contagious disease; they cared not if they were officers or enlisted men; they cared not if they were rich or poor; they cared and they served. From tending the wounded to comforting the dying they worked tirelessly.
The Sisters of Charity
It was not always easy work as Sister Anthony O'Connell from the Sister of Charity said after witnessing the battle at Shiloh:
" [she was] unable to bear the terrific stench from the bodies on the battlefield. This was bad enough, but what we endured on the field of battle while gathering up the wounded is beyond description . . . Day often dawned on us only to renew the work of the preceding day without a moment's rest." {2}
The Sisters of Charity were busy in 1863 serving in Nashville during the Chattanooga campaign. As they were preparing to move to another location the soldiers protested. They passed around a petition urging the sisters to stay. As Private William H. Nelson of the 19th Illinois Infantry said:
"I want to sign that paper. I would sign it 50 times. For the sisters have been to me as my mother since I have been here and, I believe, had I been here before, I would have been well long ago. But if the sisters leave, I know I shall die." {3}
More than 230 men signed the petition, and the nuns stayed.
The Daughters of Charity
The Daughters of Charity
The Daughters of Charity (a branch of the Sisters of Charity) were living in Emmitsburg, Maryland it was said they could hear the cannons at Pickett's Charge less than twenty miles away. Knowing what would be needed they, along with a chaplain, loaded a wagon of medical supplies and waited for the silence. The soldiers, the sisters had knelt in prayer by the roadside as they marched away from Emmitsburg a few days earlier, were now going to need their care. As they got closer to Gettysburg the road was littered with dead bodies and horses. Under the guidance of Reverend Francis Burlando, twelve sisters arrived on July 5th ready for duty. They began their work in St. Francis Zavier Catholic Church, the Methodist church, the Lutheran Theological Seminary and Pennsylvania Hall at Gettysburg College {4}.
The Sisters of Mercy
The Sisters of Mercy, led by Mother Frances Warde, brought six other sisters to the United States in 1843. The small band of religious sisters founded the first congregation in Pittsburgh. Nicknamed the "Seven Sisters" they opened the first permanent hospital in Pittsburgh under the leadership of Bishop Michael O'Connor. Approximately at the same time the city of Pittsburg welcomed a new attorney in town Edwin Stanton. He witnessed the sisters as they ministered in a typhoid epidemic in the late 1840's and was acquainted with the professional care they provided during that dire time. During the war, the now Secretary of War remembered the sisters from Pittsburg and was among the leaders encouraging their work in military hospitals.
The work was dangerous as Sister M. Stephana Warde was taken prisoner while serving in Vicksburg. When she was released, she made her way back to Pittsburgh wearing a cast-off soldiers uniform. She was physically ill and had lost much weight. She did recover and made her way to Washington, D.C. serving at Stanton Hospital the hospital named by the Sisters of Mercy in honor of their Pittsburg fan the Secretary of War.
The Sisters worked tirelessly in Washington sitting up hospitals. In late 1862, eight sisters took charge of a 500 bed hospital providing equipment and furnishing for service. It saw soldiers that was said to be arriving in :
"pitiable" condition after days-long train trips without nursing care or, often, food. {4}
When the hospital could not find nourishing food, the sisters went out in search for it and always came back with a wagon full.
They ministered to Confederates as well. A group of sisters had arrived in Arkansas in the winter of 1851 they were poised to help out with the wounded in the Western theater. After the Union victory at Pea Ridge in the spring of 1862, they opened a hospital in Little Rock for wounded Confederate soldiers. The danger of Union troops storming the facility was so great, Confederate officers ordered guards to protect the sisters at night. When the Union captured the city, they were at first rude to the sisters until they saw how they treated the boys in blue. Then the Union officers ordered protection at the convent. The army even shared their food with the sisters and orphans that gathered there.
The Sisters of the Holy Cross
The Sisters of the Holy Cross located in Notre Dame, Indiana received the call on October 22, 1861. Mother M. Angela Gillespie and six sisters departed their familiar home to travel to a military hospital in Cairo, Illinois. As one sister noted upon arrival in the facility:
"Every room on the first floor was strewn with human legs and arms. As the wounded were brought in from the battlefield, they were laid anywhere, and amputations took place. Some of the wards resembled a slaughter house, the walls were so splattered with blood." {6}
The learning curve was hard and fast. Three sisters were assigned to the first hospital ship the USS Red Rover becoming the Navy's first paid female employees and at times they were so close to battles they could hear the firing before the wounded arrived.
Of the one hundred sixty sisters of the Holy Cross, sixty-five signed on to serve. Susan Wallace, wife of Union General Lew Wallace wrote of the Holy Cross sisters:
"But the Sisters of the Holy Cross live among the patients without the thought of deserting infected places" {6}
Mary Livermore's Observations
Mary Livermore's Observations
Mary Livermore (1820-1905) was a prominent woman's rights activist and during the war she saw first hand the important work accomplished by the Catholic nuns. She wrote in her autobiography:
"I can never forget my experiences during the War of the Rebellion. Never did I meet these Catholic sisters in hospitals, on transports, or hospital steamers, without observing their devotion, faithfulness, and unobtrusiveness. They gave themselves no airs of superiority or holiness, shirked no duty, sought no easy place and bred no mischief. Sick and wounded men watched for their entrance into the wards at morning and looked a regretful farewell when they departed at night. They broke down in exhaustion from overwork; they succumbed to the fatal prison-fever, which our exchanged prisoners' brought from the fearful pens of the South. The world has known no nobler and no more heroic women than those found in the ranks of the Catholic Sisterhoods." {7}
September 20, 1924
On September 20, 1924 a crowd gathered near St. Matthew's Cathedral in Washington, D.C. for a dedication ceremony for the congressional monument to the "Nuns on the Battlefield". Among the 5,000 people in attendance was 81 year old Sister O'Donnell from the Sisters of Mercy sitting in a place of honor among the dignitaries. A fitting tribute to these unsung heroes from the American Civil War.
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Sources
1. https://www.news-press.com/story/opinion/contributors/2017/08/03/catholic-nuns-inspiration-throughout-history/535760001/
2. https://aleteia.org/2017/09/03/the-nuns-of-the-american-civil-war/
3. https://www.wsj.com/articles/nuns-on-the-civil-war-battlefield-11556232794
4. https://www.post-gazette.com/news/state/2013/06/30/Union-s-top-military-nurses-were-nuns/stories/201306300137
5. https://www.ourstate.com/sisters-mercy/
6. https://www.chausa.org/publications/catholic-health-world/archives/issues/march-1-2014/sisters-of-the-holy-cross-entered-nursing-in-america%27s-bloody-civil-war
7. "Catholic Nuns in the Civil War" by Karen Powers
8. https://civilwarsisters.com/grid-page/sisters-in-the-south/
Photos - Library of Congress/No Known Copyright/Public Domain
. Needless to say, he revised his attitude!
A/WOMAN'S/LIFE/WORK (On plinth, incised lettering
Bringing the