William Wit
Private
- Joined
- Aug 10, 2017
- Location
- Charleston SC
Hey everyone - wanted to share one of my most treasured artifacts from Gettysburg. These are rosary beads worn and used by the nuns from St. Joseph’s Academy in Emmitsburg MD (just a few miles from Gettysburg). Some of them stayed behind during the engagement and traveled to the battlefields on July 5th to minister and nurse the soldiers from both sides. These were 2 of the rosary beads worn that day, and were donated by Sister Camilla O’Keffe (photo is of her). The tag is from a now-closed museum when they were donated a LONG time ago (and they misspelled her name).
I was extremely lucky to have an opportunity to add them to my personal museum and honor the incredible story of the nuns. The soldiers said their white cornettes resembled angel wings, and thus began calling them “Battlefield Angels.” They are well-documented and so is Sister O’Keffe. Here’s some links for further reading (including some entries from her diary):
http://fathernormsnotebook.blogspot.com/2010/05/angels-of-battlefield.html?m=1
https://www.stfxcc.org/hospital.html#sisters
https://www.fredmag.com/into-the-storm/
Last edited by a moderator: