Introduction

Motivated by their love for Christ and an unparalleled inclination to serve their fellow sisters and brothers, the Sisters of Charity, the Daughters of Charity, and the Sisters of the Holy Cross, were three women religious orders who, like the Sisters of Mercy, are remembered for their Catholic and courageous nursing achievements throughout the Civil War. In being members of a universal church that experienced persecution in the United States, the three orders of Sister-Nurses did not allow the anti-Catholic sentiments of the time to dissuade them from charitable endeavors. Rather, it gave them more fuel to counteract the negative view many Americans held toward their so-called “papist” beliefs and activities.

In spite of their detractors, when the bodies of wounded flooded Union and Confederate hospitals, no one could argue that these service-driven women were not fulfilling a vital need. As nurses in multiple locations across the country, they whole-heartedly ran toward trouble and ministered to the sick, injured, and deathbed patients who lay before them. In proving their patriotism to either side by indiscriminately consoling and healing the fallen warriors, the religious sisters pressed on, demonstrating an unselfish benevolence that captured the notice of the two armies and the media. For example, a September 6, 1862 engraving in Harper’s Weekly placed a spotlight on the nursing role of the Daughters of Charity in the annotated image below, even though they had been misidentified as Sisters of Charity.

As a result of this type of positive press, the American public, particularly non-Catholic citizens, became more familiar with the merciful deeds of the religious sisters. By letting their actions speak for the caliber of women they were, the Sister-Nurses were able to show their genuine care for the weak and suffering. Beyond the untold number of patients they served, the women religious were also able to transcend former prejudices through an unforgettable humility. After watching these religious nurses tend to the soldiers due to her work with the U.S. Sanitary Commission, Mary Livermore commented, “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, bred no mischiefs".^[1] Because of their nursing excellence and the favorable impressions they made on patients and observers alike, the Sisters of Charity, the Daughters of Charity, and the Sisters of the Holy Cross were in considerable demand when the Civil War broke out in April 1861.

^[1] McNamara, Patrick."The Nuns of the American Civil War.” Aleteia. 3 Sep. 2017, https://aleteia.org/2017/09/03/the-nuns-of-the-american-civil-war/. Accessed 22 Apr. 2021.