The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1917-10-27
Continued from page ~
The Sisters in the Civil War

The Sisters in the Civil War
medical director escorted the Sisters
around the hospital, and said to the
| patients: "Now you will have no
cause to complain of not getting nour-
!shment, medicine and attention at the
right time, for the Sisters of Charity
will see to all these things"
Sisters Are Preferred.
The towns by turns had been held
| by Union and Confederate troops and
as consequence had been stripped of
everything that might serve for reliev-
| ing the sufferings of the sick. While
| the Sisters were cas- ding about for
means of meeting a critical situation,
an order came from Winchester that
all Confederate troops in the vicinity
of Harper's Ferry should repair to the
town. No time was lost, as the Con-
federates feared they would be cut off
from their base of supplies. The Sis
ters awaited word from Winchester.
1t came in request from the ladies
of Winchester to the medical au-
thorities asking that they might be
allowed to serve in Winchester in.
place of the Sisters of Charity. The
Sisters made characteristic reply to
the authorities: I'm case you feel any
difficulty respecting the ladies of Win
chester, the Sisters consider it reason
able that they should wish to serve
their own people, and will not feel
offended but rather grateful for your
friendly candor" The medical au-
thorities informed them that no at
tention would be Taid to the Win
chester objection. "The ladies of Win
chester could never do for the sick
what the Sisters of Charity would do,
and therefore unless the Sisters in
sisted on returning home, the doctors
would hold them to their undertake
ing" To Winchester accordingly they
| went. In one of the largest hospitals
| in the town they began their labors,
and continued them till the Confeder-
ates gradually removed all their sick
to Richmond. Among the last to
leave the fallen capital of the Con-
| federacy were the Sisters of Charity.
At the Federal hospitals, too, in
Washington and ST. Louis, the sick
and wounded received the ministra-
lions of the Sisters of Charity. Nor
| were they absent from the battlefields.
1t was in April, 1862, that Shiloh was
fought. The story of relief work there
was told very we'll by Sister Anthony
O'Connell, who had gone to the front
from Cincinnati with band of Sisters
of Charity:
"At Shiloh we ministered to the men
on board the floating hospitals. Often
we had to move upstream to get the
wounded away from the terrific
stencil coming from the dead on the
field. This was bad enough, but what
we endured on the field of battle while
gathering up the wounded is simply
beyond description. The sol
diers were remarkably kind to one
| another. They went around the bat
| tlefield giving what assistance they
could, placing the wounded in COM
Portable positions until such time as
| the nurses could reach them. I re-
| member one poor soldier whose nose
| had been shot off, who had almost bied
to death, and would have been missed
had we not discovered him in pen,
where some kind comrade had placed
| him before he left the field, every
other place of refuge being occupied.
!. Day often dawned on us,
| only to renew the work of the preced-
ing day without moments rest"
It is in soldiers diary that we find
| this tribute to Sister Anthony:
amid the sea of blood she perform
ed the most revolving duties for the
poor soldiers. She seemed like a
| ministering angel and many young
soldier owes his life to her care and
charity. Happy was the soldier who
wounded and bleeding had her near
him to whisper, words of consolation
and courage. She was reverenced by
Blue and Gray, Protestant and Cath
Ollie alike, and we conferred on her
the title of the Florence Nightingale
of America Her name became a
household word in every section of
the North and South.
The Confederates retreated from
Shiloh to Corinth, followed by the
Union army, and with the army went
| the Sisters to continue their work
among the wounded and the sick.
Sisters in Demand.
In the summer of this year, 1862,
| the Surgeon-G General at Washington
asked for one hundred Sisters to
be. sent to station called White
House, in Virginia, then held by
Northern troops. So many Sisters
were with the armies that there was
no possibility of finding more than
sixty to answer the Government re-
quest. These were at White House
only few days when the Confeder-
ates appeared within two miles of the
station. The wounded and dying
were hurriedy placed on transports,
and with them went their nurses. One
of the Sisters died from her labors on
this journey. The remainder of the
band returned to Baltimore, where
they received orders TO proceed to
Point Lookout, a peninsula at the end
of southern Maryland, sprayed by the