Civil War Heroines

Civil War Heroines

Eight different orders of Catholic nuns served during the Civil War, numbering over 600 and comprising over a fifth of all female nurses.

Beginning in 1829, Sisters who immigrated largely from France and Ireland founded 299 hospitals in America in the 19th century, including the Mayo Clinic, St. Vincent's, the Baltimore Infirmary, and hospitals for the working classes in Buffalo, Philadelphia and Boston.

In an era when most women had family obligations and could only volunteer temporarily as battlefield nurses, the sisters, not having families, were systematically trained in nursing skills and serve sacrificially their entire lives.

U.S. Surgeon General Hammond reported to President Lincoln that volunteer nurses "cannot compare in efficiency and faithfulness with the Sisters of Charity."

Nursing pioneer Florence Nightingale once said: "What training is there to compare with that of a Catholic nun."

A monument was erected in Washington, D.C., to the "Nursing Nuns of the Battlefield."

The inscription reads:

THEY COMFORTED THE DYING, NURSED THE WOUNDED, CARRIED HOPE TO THE IMPRISONED, GAVE IN HIS NAME A DRINK OF WATER TO THE THIRSTY.

TO THE MEMORY AND IN HONOR OF THE VARIOUS ORDERS OF SISTERS WHO GAVE THEIR SERVICES AS NURSES ON BATTLEFIELDS AND IN HOSPITALS DURING THE CIVIL WAR.

ERECTED BY THE LADIES AUXILIARY TO THE ANCIENT ORDER OF HIBERNIANS OF AMERICA. A.D. 1924. BY AUTHORITY OF THE CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES.