Identifying the Sisters

In determining the names of the religious sisters who were instrumental in nursing the Union and Confederate armies, one can consult the Nuns of the Battlefield inventory that is shown in Figures 5-8. Digitized by the Catholic University of America in 2018, the compilation of 580 Sister-Nurses was filed with the War Department in the early 20th century to honor the graves of the women who had been designated as Soldier-Sisters. At the request of the Ladies’ Auxiliary to the Ancient Order of Hibernians, if a sister had an asterisk beside her name, then a white government marker was to be placed in front of her cross headstone, as seen in the image at the top of the list. Arranged in alphabetical order by the community’s title (e.g., Sisters of Charity), the four-page document indicates the location of each convent as well as an alphabetical roster of the sisters in each community and their place of birth.

While there are multiple groupings of the same religious order commemorated in the Nuns of the Battlefield directory, it is important to note that each community was unique and had hailed from a specific geographic site. For instance, there was six Sister of Mercy communities that served as Civil War nurses but their convents were situated in Pittsburgh, PA; New York City; Chicago, IL; Baltimore, MD; Vicksburg, MS; or Cincinnati, OH respectively. Altogether, a total of twenty different communities were included in this extensive catalog. Additionally, the final section of the document celebrated the ten surviving war veterans who, in the late 1920s, were members of eight distinct communities.

Figure 5. Nuns of the Battlefield list, page 1; Sisters of Charity and Daughters of Charity of Saint Vincent de Paul (Courtesy of Catholic University of America)

Figure 6. Nuns of the Battlefield list, page 2; Daughters of Charity of Saint Vincent de Paul (Courtesy of Catholic University of America)

Figure 7. Nuns of the Battlefield list, page 3; Daughters of Charity of Saint Vincent de Paul, Sisters of Saint Dominic, Sisters of the Poor of Saint Francis, Sisters of the Holy Cross, Sisters of Saint Joseph, and Sisters of Mercy (Courtesy of Catholic University of America)

Figure 8. Nuns of the Battlefield list, page 4; Sisters of Mercy, Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy, Sisters of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Sisters of Providence, Sisters of Saint Ursula, and Surviving War Veterans (Courtesy of Catholic University of America)

To establish the identities of the religious sisters who are featured in this exhibit, it was necessary to cross-reference their names, orders, convent locations, and birthplace against the Nuns of the Battlefield records. By doing so, a researcher could confirm the communities of which the sisters were members and also uncover any errors in their names. In the case of the Sister of Mercy who was pictured on the previous page, she had been identified by the National Archives as Sister M. M. Joseph; however, when learning that this Sister-Nurse had served at a military hospital in Beaufort, NC,^[5] it was discovered that her correct name was Mother Mary Madeline Tobin after one studied the register’s pages of Mercy nuns. Similarly, before annotating the photograph of the Daughters of Charity who nursed the ailing and injured soldiers at Philadelphia's Satterlee Hospital, it was helpful to scan the Nuns of the Battlefield list and verify that Sister Mary Gonzaga Grace was their superior during the Civil War.

^[5] "Civil War Photographs.” National Archives. 27 Jan. 2021, https://www.archives.gov/research/still-pictures/civil-war. Accessed 23 Mar. 2021.