Fourteen
of our sisters were officially recognized for their service
as nurses during the violence of the Civil War. With little
training but the discipline of religious life, they nursed
the wounded and sick and worked as cooks and ward managers
at Camp Curtin outside Harrisburg, at Church Hospital
in that city, and on two floating hospitals, the Whilden
and the Commodore.
The
hospital ships traveled up and down the James River, caring
for the wounded of both sides. Sister Mary Anselm Jennings
was aboard the night Yorktown was taken. She said: “Hundreds
of wounded men were carried out to us in rowboats. Their
wounds were caked with mud and blood, and all night we
worked, sponging, dressing and doctoring them.”
She
also told how the captain of a floating hospital would
ask sisters to make themselves visible on deck when other
ships approached so that it would be recognized as a hospital
and spared from attack.
Our
sisters patiently served the sick and wounded without
regard to color, religion, or politics. Not turning away
from the dirtiest and most menial work, they earned the
respect of both Union and Confederate soldiers. The Congressional
Record of 1918 confirms that “The Sisters of Saint
Joseph, sacrificing all personal comfort, ministered faithfully
and truly to the comfort and welfare of the sick.”
