Called to a Mission of Charity: The Sisters of St. Joseph in the Civil War

Nursing History Review

Volumn 6, Issue 1, 1995, Pages 85-113

  Wall, Barbra Mann ^a  

^a NONE

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[No Author keywords available]

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EID: 0347138880     PISSN: 10628061     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1891/1062-8061.6.1.85     Document Type: Article

References (126)

1. Mother St. John Fournier to Sisters of St. Joseph, undated, possibly 19 April 1862, Archives of the Sisters of St. Joseph, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Mount St. Joseph Convent, Chestnut Hill, Philadelphia (hereafter cited as ASSJP).
2. Patricia Byrne, CSJ, "Sisters of St. Joseph: The Americanization of a French Tradition," U.S. Catholic Historian 5 (1986): 241-72. For quote, see fn, 249.
3. Margaret Susan Thompson, "Discovering Foremothers: Sisters, Society, and the American Catholic Experience," U.S. Catholic Historian 5 (1986): 286. See also Leslie Woodcock Tentler, "On the Margins: The State of American Catholic History," American Quarterly 45 (1993): 104-127; and copy of Margaret Susan Thompson, "The Treatment of Women in American Catholic Historiography," (n.p.), prepared for presentation at the 1990 annual meeting of the Organization of American Historians, Washington, D.C. For an examination of southern Protestant women's work in the Civil War, see Drew Gilpin Faust, Mothers of Invention: Women of the Slaveholding South in the American Civil War (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1996). Other recent works on Protestant women include Stephen B. Oates, A Woman of Valor: Clara Barton and the Civil War (New York: The Free Press, 1994); and David Gollaher, Voice for the Mad: The Life of Dorothea Dix (New York: The Free Press, 1995). For an analysis of Catholic sisters' nursing in the Civil War, see Sister Mary Denis Maher, To Bind up the Wounds: Catholic Sister Nurses in the U.S. Civil War (New York: Greenwood Press, 1989). Prior to 1983, the terms "nun" and "sister" as well as designations such as "order," "congregation," and "community," had distinct meanings in Canon Law: "nuns" included those who took solemn vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience with strict rules of cloister and who were devoted completely to lives of prayer and contemplation; "sisters" took simple vows, had modified rules of enclosure, and performed works of charity in addition to focusing on prayer. A group who had solemn vows was called an "order," and "community" was used for sisters with simple vows, in addition to smaller units of sisters within an order or a larger community. In this study, the terms will be used interchangeably, as they are in most of the primary and secondary literature and in the 1983 revised Code of Canon Law. See also Christopher J. Kauffman, Ministry and Meaning: A Religious History of Catholic Health Care in the United States (New York: Crossroad Publishing Co., 1995). Kauffman particularly focuses on the role of religious sisters and how they blended nursing and pastoral ministry. While his work is not intended to be a contribution to gender studies, it enhances our understanding of nuns' past experiences in health care.
4. Margaret Susan Thompson, "Discovering Foremothers: Sisters, Society, and the American Catholic Experience," U.S. Catholic Historian 5 (1986): 286. See also Leslie Woodcock Tentler, "On the Margins: The State of American Catholic History," American Quarterly 45 (1993): 104-127; and copy of Margaret Susan Thompson, "The Treatment of Women in American Catholic Historiography," (n.p.), prepared for presentation at the 1990 annual meeting of the Organization of American Historians, Washington, D.C. For an examination of southern Protestant women's work in the Civil War, see Drew Gilpin Faust, Mothers of Invention: Women of the Slaveholding South in the American Civil War (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1996). Other recent works on Protestant women include Stephen B. Oates, A Woman of Valor: Clara Barton and the Civil War (New York: The Free Press, 1994); and David Gollaher, Voice for the Mad: The Life of Dorothea Dix (New York: The Free Press, 1995). For an analysis of Catholic sisters' nursing in the Civil War, see Sister Mary Denis Maher, To Bind up the Wounds: Catholic Sister Nurses in the U.S. Civil War (New York: Greenwood Press, 1989). Prior to 1983, the terms "nun" and "sister" as well as designations such as "order," "congregation," and "community," had distinct meanings in Canon Law: "nuns" included those who took solemn vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience with strict rules of cloister and who were devoted completely to lives of prayer and contemplation; "sisters" took simple vows, had modified rules of enclosure, and performed works of charity in addition to focusing on prayer. A group who had solemn vows was called an "order," and "community" was used for sisters with simple vows, in addition to smaller units of sisters within an order or a larger community. In this study, the terms will be used interchangeably, as they are in most of the primary and secondary literature and in the 1983 revised Code of Canon Law. See also Christopher J. Kauffman, Ministry and Meaning: A Religious History of Catholic Health Care in the United States (New York: Crossroad Publishing Co., 1995). Kauffman particularly focuses on the role of religious sisters and how they blended nursing and pastoral ministry. While his work is not intended to be a contribution to gender studies, it enhances our understanding of nuns' past experiences in health care.
5. Margaret Susan Thompson, "Discovering Foremothers: Sisters, Society, and the American Catholic Experience," U.S. Catholic Historian 5 (1986): 286. See also Leslie Woodcock Tentler, "On the Margins: The State of American Catholic History," American Quarterly 45 (1993): 104-127; and copy of Margaret Susan Thompson, "The Treatment of Women in American Catholic Historiography," (n.p.), prepared for presentation at the 1990 annual meeting of the Organization of American Historians, Washington, D.C. For an examination of southern Protestant women's work in the Civil War, see Drew Gilpin Faust, Mothers of Invention: Women of the Slaveholding South in the American Civil War (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1996). Other recent works on Protestant women include Stephen B. Oates, A Woman of Valor: Clara Barton and the Civil War (New York: The Free Press, 1994); and David Gollaher, Voice for the Mad: The Life of Dorothea Dix (New York: The Free Press, 1995). For an analysis of Catholic sisters' nursing in the Civil War, see Sister Mary Denis Maher, To Bind up the Wounds: Catholic Sister Nurses in the U.S. Civil War (New York: Greenwood Press, 1989). Prior to 1983, the terms "nun" and "sister" as well as designations such as "order," "congregation," and "community," had distinct meanings in Canon Law: "nuns" included those who took solemn vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience with strict rules of cloister and who were devoted completely to lives of prayer and contemplation; "sisters" took simple vows, had modified rules of enclosure, and performed works of charity in addition to focusing on prayer. A group who had solemn vows was called an "order," and "community" was used for sisters with simple vows, in addition to smaller units of sisters within an order or a larger community. In this study, the terms will be used interchangeably, as they are in most of the primary and secondary literature and in the 1983 revised Code of Canon Law. See also Christopher J. Kauffman, Ministry and Meaning: A Religious History of Catholic Health Care in the United States (New York: Crossroad Publishing Co., 1995). Kauffman particularly focuses on the role of religious sisters and how they blended nursing and pastoral ministry. While his work is not intended to be a contribution to gender studies, it enhances our understanding of nuns' past experiences in health care.
6. Margaret Susan Thompson, "Discovering Foremothers: Sisters, Society, and the American Catholic Experience," U.S. Catholic Historian 5 (1986): 286. See also Leslie Woodcock Tentler, "On the Margins: The State of American Catholic History," American Quarterly 45 (1993): 104-127; and copy of Margaret Susan Thompson, "The Treatment of Women in American Catholic Historiography," (n.p.), prepared for presentation at the 1990 annual meeting of the Organization of American Historians, Washington, D.C. For an examination of southern Protestant women's work in the Civil War, see Drew Gilpin Faust, Mothers of Invention: Women of the Slaveholding South in the American Civil War (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1996). Other recent works on Protestant women include Stephen B. Oates, A Woman of Valor: Clara Barton and the Civil War (New York: The Free Press, 1994); and David Gollaher, Voice for the Mad: The Life of Dorothea Dix (New York: The Free Press, 1995). For an analysis of Catholic sisters' nursing in the Civil War, see Sister Mary Denis Maher, To Bind up the Wounds: Catholic Sister Nurses in the U.S. Civil War (New York: Greenwood Press, 1989). Prior to 1983, the terms "nun" and "sister" as well as designations such as "order," "congregation," and "community," had distinct meanings in Canon Law: "nuns" included those who took solemn vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience with strict rules of cloister and who were devoted completely to lives of prayer and contemplation; "sisters" took simple vows, had modified rules of enclosure, and performed works of charity in addition to focusing on prayer. A group who had solemn vows was called an "order," and "community" was used for sisters with simple vows, in addition to smaller units of sisters within an order or a larger community. In this study, the terms will be used interchangeably, as they are in most of the primary and secondary literature and in the 1983 revised Code of Canon Law. See also Christopher J. Kauffman, Ministry and Meaning: A Religious History of Catholic Health Care in the United States (New York: Crossroad Publishing Co., 1995). Kauffman particularly focuses on the role of religious sisters and how they blended nursing and pastoral ministry. While his work is not intended to be a contribution to gender studies, it enhances our understanding of nuns' past experiences in health care.
7. Margaret Susan Thompson, "Discovering Foremothers: Sisters, Society, and the American Catholic Experience," U.S. Catholic Historian 5 (1986): 286. See also Leslie Woodcock Tentler, "On the Margins: The State of American Catholic History," American Quarterly 45 (1993): 104-127; and copy of Margaret Susan Thompson, "The Treatment of Women in American Catholic Historiography," (n.p.), prepared for presentation at the 1990 annual meeting of the Organization of American Historians, Washington, D.C. For an examination of southern Protestant women's work in the Civil War, see Drew Gilpin Faust, Mothers of Invention: Women of the Slaveholding South in the American Civil War (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1996). Other recent works on Protestant women include Stephen B. Oates, A Woman of Valor: Clara Barton and the Civil War (New York: The Free Press, 1994); and David Gollaher, Voice for the Mad: The Life of Dorothea Dix (New York: The Free Press, 1995). For an analysis of Catholic sisters' nursing in the Civil War, see Sister Mary Denis Maher, To Bind up the Wounds: Catholic Sister Nurses in the U.S. Civil War (New York: Greenwood Press, 1989). Prior to 1983, the terms "nun" and "sister" as well as designations such as "order," "congregation," and "community," had distinct meanings in Canon Law: "nuns" included those who took solemn vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience with strict rules of cloister and who were devoted completely to lives of prayer and contemplation; "sisters" took simple vows, had modified rules of enclosure, and performed works of charity in addition to focusing on prayer. A group who had solemn vows was called an "order," and "community" was used for sisters with simple vows, in addition to smaller units of sisters within an order or a larger community. In this study, the terms will be used interchangeably, as they are in most of the primary and secondary literature and in the 1983 revised Code of Canon Law. See also Christopher J. Kauffman, Ministry and Meaning: A Religious History of Catholic Health Care in the United States (New York: Crossroad Publishing Co., 1995). Kauffman particularly focuses on the role of religious sisters and how they blended nursing and pastoral ministry. While his work is not intended to be a contribution to gender studies, it enhances our understanding of nuns' past experiences in health care.
8. Margaret Susan Thompson, "Discovering Foremothers: Sisters, Society, and the American Catholic Experience," U.S. Catholic Historian 5 (1986): 286. See also Leslie Woodcock Tentler, "On the Margins: The State of American Catholic History," American Quarterly 45 (1993): 104-127; and copy of Margaret Susan Thompson, "The Treatment of Women in American Catholic Historiography," (n.p.), prepared for presentation at the 1990 annual meeting of the Organization of American Historians, Washington, D.C. For an examination of southern Protestant women's work in the Civil War, see Drew Gilpin Faust, Mothers of Invention: Women of the Slaveholding South in the American Civil War (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1996). Other recent works on Protestant women include Stephen B. Oates, A Woman of Valor: Clara Barton and the Civil War (New York: The Free Press, 1994); and David Gollaher, Voice for the Mad: The Life of Dorothea Dix (New York: The Free Press, 1995). For an analysis of Catholic sisters' nursing in the Civil War, see Sister Mary Denis Maher, To Bind up the Wounds: Catholic Sister Nurses in the U.S. Civil War (New York: Greenwood Press, 1989). Prior to 1983, the terms "nun" and "sister" as well as designations such as "order," "congregation," and "community," had distinct meanings in Canon Law: "nuns" included those who took solemn vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience with strict rules of cloister and who were devoted completely to lives of prayer and contemplation; "sisters" took simple vows, had modified rules of enclosure, and performed works of charity in addition to focusing on prayer. A group who had solemn vows was called an "order," and "community" was used for sisters with simple vows, in addition to smaller units of sisters within an order or a larger community. In this study, the terms will be used interchangeably, as they are in most of the primary and secondary literature and in the 1983 revised Code of Canon Law. See also Christopher J. Kauffman, Ministry and Meaning: A Religious History of Catholic Health Care in the United States (New York: Crossroad Publishing Co., 1995). Kauffman particularly focuses on the role of religious sisters and how they blended nursing and pastoral ministry. While his work is not intended to be a contribution to gender studies, it enhances our understanding of nuns' past experiences in health care.
9. Margaret Susan Thompson, "Discovering Foremothers: Sisters, Society, and the American Catholic Experience," U.S. Catholic Historian 5 (1986): 286. See also Leslie Woodcock Tentler, "On the Margins: The State of American Catholic History," American Quarterly 45 (1993): 104-127; and copy of Margaret Susan Thompson, "The Treatment of Women in American Catholic Historiography," (n.p.), prepared for presentation at the 1990 annual meeting of the Organization of American Historians, Washington, D.C. For an examination of southern Protestant women's work in the Civil War, see Drew Gilpin Faust, Mothers of Invention: Women of the Slaveholding South in the American Civil War (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1996). Other recent works on Protestant women include Stephen B. Oates, A Woman of Valor: Clara Barton and the Civil War (New York: The Free Press, 1994); and David Gollaher, Voice for the Mad: The Life of Dorothea Dix (New York: The Free Press, 1995). For an analysis of Catholic sisters' nursing in the Civil War, see Sister Mary Denis Maher, To Bind up the Wounds: Catholic Sister Nurses in the U.S. Civil War (New York: Greenwood Press, 1989). Prior to 1983, the terms "nun" and "sister" as well as designations such as "order," "congregation," and "community," had distinct meanings in Canon Law: "nuns" included those who took solemn vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience with strict rules of cloister and who were devoted completely to lives of prayer and contemplation; "sisters" took simple vows, had modified rules of enclosure, and performed works of charity in addition to focusing on prayer. A group who had solemn vows was called an "order," and "community" was used for sisters with simple vows, in addition to smaller units of sisters within an order or a larger community. In this study, the terms will be used interchangeably, as they are in most of the primary and secondary literature and in the 1983 revised Code of Canon Law. See also Christopher J. Kauffman, Ministry and Meaning: A Religious History of Catholic Health Care in the United States (New York: Crossroad Publishing Co., 1995). Kauffman particularly focuses on the role of religious sisters and how they blended nursing and pastoral ministry. While his work is not intended to be a contribution to gender studies, it enhances our understanding of nuns' past experiences in health care.
10. Margaret Susan Thompson, "Discovering Foremothers: Sisters, Society, and the American Catholic Experience," U.S. Catholic Historian 5 (1986): 286. See also Leslie Woodcock Tentler, "On the Margins: The State of American Catholic History," American Quarterly 45 (1993): 104-127; and copy of Margaret Susan Thompson, "The Treatment of Women in American Catholic Historiography," (n.p.), prepared for presentation at the 1990 annual meeting of the Organization of American Historians, Washington, D.C. For an examination of southern Protestant women's work in the Civil War, see Drew Gilpin Faust, Mothers of Invention: Women of the Slaveholding South in the American Civil War (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1996). Other recent works on Protestant women include Stephen B. Oates, A Woman of Valor: Clara Barton and the Civil War (New York: The Free Press, 1994); and David Gollaher, Voice for the Mad: The Life of Dorothea Dix (New York: The Free Press, 1995). For an analysis of Catholic sisters' nursing in the Civil War, see Sister Mary Denis Maher, To Bind up the Wounds: Catholic Sister Nurses in the U.S. Civil War (New York: Greenwood Press, 1989). Prior to 1983, the terms "nun" and "sister" as well as designations such as "order," "congregation," and "community," had distinct meanings in Canon Law: "nuns" included those who took solemn vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience with strict rules of cloister and who were devoted completely to lives of prayer and contemplation; "sisters" took simple vows, had modified rules of enclosure, and performed works of charity in addition to focusing on prayer. A group who had solemn vows was called an "order," and "community" was used for sisters with simple vows, in addition to smaller units of sisters within an order or a larger community. In this study, the terms will be used interchangeably, as they are in most of the primary and secondary literature and in the 1983 revised Code of Canon Law. See also Christopher J. Kauffman, Ministry and Meaning: A Religious History of Catholic Health Care in the United States (New York: Crossroad Publishing Co., 1995). Kauffman particularly focuses on the role of religious sisters and how they blended nursing and pastoral ministry. While his work is not intended to be a contribution to gender studies, it enhances our understanding of nuns' past experiences in health care.
11. Susan M. Reverby, Ordered to Care: The Dilemma of American Nursing, 1850-1945 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987), 11-16.
12. Charles Rosenberg, The Care of Strangers: The Rise of America's Hospital System (New York: Basic Books, Inc., 1987), 219; Sister Mary Ewens, The Role of the Nun in Nineteenth-Century America: Variations on the International Theme (Ann Arbor, Michigan: Xerox University Microfilms, 1971), 103; Kauffman, 27-81; Ann Doyle, "Nursing by Religious Orders in the United States, Part I, 1809-1840," American Journal of Nursing 29 (1929): 775-784;
13. Charles Rosenberg, The Care of Strangers: The Rise of America's Hospital System (New York: Basic Books, Inc., 1987), 219; Sister Mary Ewens, The Role of the Nun in Nineteenth-Century America: Variations on the International Theme (Ann Arbor, Michigan: Xerox University Microfilms, 1971), 103; Kauffman, 27-81; Ann Doyle, "Nursing by Religious Orders in the United States, Part I, 1809-1840," American Journal of Nursing 29 (1929): 775-784;
14. Charles Rosenberg, The Care of Strangers: The Rise of America's Hospital System (New York: Basic Books, Inc., 1987), 219; Sister Mary Ewens, The Role of the Nun in Nineteenth-Century America: Variations on the International Theme (Ann Arbor, Michigan: Xerox University Microfilms, 1971), 103; Kauffman, 27-81; Ann Doyle, "Nursing by Religious Orders in the United States, Part I, 1809-1840," American Journal of Nursing 29 (1929): 775-784;
15. and "Nursing by Religious Orders in the United States, Part II - 1841-1870, American Journal of Nursing 29 (1929): 959-966.
16. Doyle and Kauffman both agree on the 1823 date as the time of the establishment of the Baltimore Infirmary, "the first university hospital managed and staffed by the first Catholic community of women religious" in the United States (Kauffman, p. 33).
17. For a history of the work of Catholic women's orders in epidemics and wars, see Ursula Stepsis, CSA, and Dolores Liptak, RSM, eds., Pioneer Healers: The History of Women Religious in American Health Care (New York: Crossroad Publishing Co., 1989);
18. and Rosemary Radford Ruether and Rosemary Skinner Keller, Women and Religion in America, Vol. 1: The Nineteenth Century (San Francisco: Harper & Row Publishers, 1981).
19. For a description of nursing by Sisters of Charity during the cholera epidemics, see Charles Rosenberg, The Cholera Years : The United States in 1832, 1849, and 1866 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1962). 64, 95, 139-140.
20. Byrne, 243-46. Quote is on p. 243. Constitutions defined sisters' roles and how their community would be governed. The Council of Trent and subsequent papal decrees had required cloister and solemn vows for all women religious. But in the early 1600s, St. Vincent de Paul set a revolutionary precedent by forming an "activist," uncloistered community, the Sisters of Charity. The Sisters of St. Joseph and scores of orders founded after de Paul's death followed the Vincentian model. See Marvin R. O'Connell, "The Roman Catholic Tradition Since 1545," in Caring and Curing: Health and Medicine in the Western Religious Traditions, eds. Ronald L. Numbers and Darrel W. Amundsen (New York: Macmillan Publishing Co., 1986), 135.
21. Jay P. Dolan, The American Catholic Experience: A History from Colonial Times to the Present (Notre Dame, Indiana: University of Notre Dame Press, 1992), 127-139. Most of the Irish emigrated as a result of the potato famine which occurred between 1846 and 1851. Between 1820 and 1851, more than 1.25 million Irish immigrated to America, and 1.5 million Germans arrived between 1820 and 1860. See also Jenny Franchot, Roads to Rome: Catholicism in Antebellum America (Ann Arbor, Michigan, 1986), 2; and Walter Nugent, Crossings: The Great Transatlantic Migrations, 1870- 1914 (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1992), 49-54 and 63-72.
22. Jay P. Dolan, The American Catholic Experience: A History from Colonial Times to the Present (Notre Dame, Indiana: University of Notre Dame Press, 1992), 127-139. Most of the Irish emigrated as a result of the potato famine which occurred between 1846 and 1851. Between 1820 and 1851, more than 1.25 million Irish immigrated to America, and 1.5 million Germans arrived between 1820 and 1860. See also Jenny Franchot, Roads to Rome: Catholicism in Antebellum America (Ann Arbor, Michigan, 1986), 2; and Walter Nugent, Crossings: The Great Transatlantic Migrations, 1870- 1914 (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1992), 49-54 and 63-72.
23. Jay P. Dolan, The American Catholic Experience: A History from Colonial Times to the Present (Notre Dame, Indiana: University of Notre Dame Press, 1992), 127-139. Most of the Irish emigrated as a result of the potato famine which occurred between 1846 and 1851. Between 1820 and 1851, more than 1.25 million Irish immigrated to America, and 1.5 million Germans arrived between 1820 and 1860. See also Jenny Franchot, Roads to Rome: Catholicism in Antebellum America (Ann Arbor, Michigan, 1986), 2; and Walter Nugent, Crossings: The Great Transatlantic Migrations, 1870-1914 (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1992), 49-54 and 63-72.
24. Ray Allen Billington, The Protestant Crusade 1800-1860: A Study of the Origins of American Nativism (New York: The Macmillan Company, 1938), 68-76, 85-141. See also Michael Feldberg, The Philadelphia Riots of 1844: A Study of Ethnic Conflict (Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 1975), 19-77, for a discussion of the struggle between nativists and Catholics culminating in the 1844 riots in Philadelphia. This latter book views the struggle as an ethnic rather than simply a religious conflict. See also Franchot for an examination of anti-Catholic literature in antebellum America.
25. Ray Allen Billington, The Protestant Crusade 1800-1860: A Study of the Origins of American Nativism (New York: The Macmillan Company, 1938), 68-76, 85-141. See also Michael Feldberg, The Philadelphia Riots of 1844: A Study of Ethnic Conflict (Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 1975), 19-77, for a discussion of the struggle between nativists and Catholics culminating in the 1844 riots in Philadelphia. This latter book views the struggle as an ethnic rather than simply a religious conflict. See also Franchot for an examination of anti-Catholic literature in antebellum America.
26. Maria Monk, Awful Disclosures of the Hotel Dieu Nunnery (New York: Howe and Bates, 1836); and Ewens, The Role of the Nun, 250-251. See also Franchot, 185- 234, with quote on page 204; and Joseph G. Mannard, "Maternity...of the Spirit: Nuns and Domesticity in Antebellum America," U.S. Catholic Historian 5 (1986): 305-324. Mannard argues that the main difference between Protestant and Catholic interpretations of domesticity was that Catholics viewed religious life as a "higher calling than married life," and "for women virginity is superior to maternity." For a more comprehensive description of women's roles in the 19th century, see Barbara Welter, "The Cult of True Womanhood, 1820-1860," in Women and Womanhood in America, ed. R. Hogeland (Lexington, Mass.: D.C. Heath and Co., 1973). See also Karen Kennelly, CSJ, American Catholic Women: A Historical Exploration (New York: Macmillan Publishing Company, 1989), 2-3.
27. Maria Monk, Awful Disclosures of the Hotel Dieu Nunnery (New York: Howe and Bates, 1836); and Ewens, The Role of the Nun, 250-251. See also Franchot, 185- 234, with quote on page 204; and Joseph G. Mannard, "Maternity...of the Spirit: Nuns and Domesticity in Antebellum America," U.S. Catholic Historian 5 (1986): 305-324. Mannard argues that the main difference between Protestant and Catholic interpretations of domesticity was that Catholics viewed religious life as a "higher calling than married life," and "for women virginity is superior to maternity." For a more comprehensive description of women's roles in the 19th century, see Barbara Welter, "The Cult of True Womanhood, 1820-1860," in Women and Womanhood in America, ed. R. Hogeland (Lexington, Mass.: D.C. Heath and Co., 1973). See also Karen Kennelly, CSJ, American Catholic Women: A Historical Exploration (New York: Macmillan Publishing Company, 1989), 2-3.
28. Maria Monk, Awful Disclosures of the Hotel Dieu Nunnery (New York: Howe and Bates, 1836); and Ewens, The Role of the Nun, 250-251. See also Franchot, 185-234, with quote on page 204; and Joseph G. Mannard, "Maternity...of the Spirit: Nuns and Domesticity in Antebellum America," U.S. Catholic Historian 5 (1986): 305-324. Mannard argues that the main difference between Protestant and Catholic interpretations of domesticity was that Catholics viewed religious life as a "higher calling than married life," and "for women virginity is superior to maternity." For a more comprehensive description of women's roles in the 19th century, see Barbara Welter, "The Cult of True Womanhood, 1820-1860," in Women and Womanhood in America, ed. R. Hogeland (Lexington, Mass.: D.C. Heath and Co., 1973). See also Karen Kennelly, CSJ, American Catholic Women: A Historical Exploration (New York: Macmillan Publishing Company, 1989), 2-3.
29. Maria Monk, Awful Disclosures of the Hotel Dieu Nunnery (New York: Howe and Bates, 1836); and Ewens, The Role of the Nun, 250-251. See also Franchot, 185- 234, with quote on page 204; and Joseph G. Mannard, "Maternity...of the Spirit: Nuns and Domesticity in Antebellum America," U.S. Catholic Historian 5 (1986): 305-324. Mannard argues that the main difference between Protestant and Catholic interpretations of domesticity was that Catholics viewed religious life as a "higher calling than married life," and "for women virginity is superior to maternity." For a more comprehensive description of women's roles in the 19th century, see Barbara Welter, "The Cult of True Womanhood, 1820-1860," in Women and Womanhood in America, ed. R. Hogeland (Lexington, Mass.: D.C. Heath and Co., 1973). See also Karen Kennelly, CSJ, American Catholic Women: A Historical Exploration (New York: Macmillan Publishing Company, 1989), 2-3.
30. Maria Monk, Awful Disclosures of the Hotel Dieu Nunnery (New York: Howe and Bates, 1836); and Ewens, The Role of the Nun, 250-251. See also Franchot, 185- 234, with quote on page 204; and Joseph G. Mannard, "Maternity...of the Spirit: Nuns and Domesticity in Antebellum America," U.S. Catholic Historian 5 (1986): 305-324. Mannard argues that the main difference between Protestant and Catholic interpretations of domesticity was that Catholics viewed religious life as a "higher calling than married life," and "for women virginity is superior to maternity." For a more comprehensive description of women's roles in the 19th century, see Barbara Welter, "The Cult of True Womanhood, 1820-1860," in Women and Womanhood in America, ed. R. Hogeland (Lexington, Mass.: D.C. Heath and Co., 1973). See also Karen Kennelly, CSJ, American Catholic Women: A Historical Exploration (New York: Macmillan Publishing Company, 1989), 2-3.
31. Kauffman, 68-69 and 70-75; and Elinor Tong Dehey, Religious Orders of Women in the United States: Accounts of their Origin and of their Most Important Institutions (Hammond, Indiana: W.B. Conkey Co., 1913). While Dehey is a rather hagiographic source, it includes a chronology of dates and foundations of women's religious orders up to 1913. Between 1830 and 1859, 39 new foundations of women religious were established, 11 founded in America and 28 brought from well-established European motherhouses.
32. Byrne, 248-60; and translation of "Letter from Mother St. John Fournier to the Superior General of the Sisters of St. Joseph in Lyons, 1873," printed in Sister Maria Kostka Logue, Sisters of St. Joseph of Philadelphia: A Century of Growth and Development 1847-1947 (Westminster, Maryland: The Newman Press, 1950), 331-333. The sisters established their motherhouse in Carondelet, Missouri, just south of St. Louis. Unlike some European communities who came to America, the Sisters of St. Joseph began to adapt to the American milieu almost immediately, introducing American membership into the congregation, learning the English language, and offering new and unprecedented services to the wider civic and church communities.
33. Morris J. Vogel, in The Invention of the Modern Hospital, Boston 1870-1930 (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1980), 127, grasps the religious meaning of Catholic hospitals when he states that their major function was to maintain "religion and religious identity in the face of competition." See also James F. Connelly, ed., The History of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia (Philadelphia: The Archdiocese of Philadelphia, 1976), 113-200. By 1850, there were over 72,000 Irish-born in the County of Philadelphia. See also Kauffman, 70-75; Byrne, 254; and Logue, 17-56. In both St. Louis and Philadelphia, the Sisters of St. Joseph took over boys' orphanages that the American Sisters of Charity had to relinquish when they affiliated with the French Daughters of Charity, whose rule forbade them to care for male orphans. Then in 1859, the Sisters of Charity assumed responsibility of St. Joseph's Hospital in Philadelphia at the request of a new bishop.
34. Morris J. Vogel, in The Invention of the Modern Hospital, Boston 1870-1930 (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1980), 127, grasps the religious meaning of Catholic hospitals when he states that their major function was to maintain "religion and religious identity in the face of competition." See also James F. Connelly, ed., The History of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia (Philadelphia: The Archdiocese of Philadelphia, 1976), 113-200. By 1850, there were over 72,000 Irish-born in the County of Philadelphia. See also Kauffman, 70-75; Byrne, 254; and Logue, 17-56. In both St. Louis and Philadelphia, the Sisters of St. Joseph took over boys' orphanages that the American Sisters of Charity had to relinquish when they affiliated with the French Daughters of Charity, whose rule forbade them to care for male orphans. Then in 1859, the Sisters of Charity assumed responsibility of St. Joseph's Hospital in Philadelphia at the request of a new bishop.
35. Byrne, 255-259. When the Sisters of St. Joseph were in the process of becoming autonomous from the French motherhouse in 1860, they attempted to form a provincial structure of government with the motherhouse at Carondelet. But bishops who already had congregations in their dioceses thwarted any centralization attempts. Consequently, independent diocesan congregations emerged in Philadelphia, Toronto, Wheeling, Buffalo, Hamilton, and Brooklyn, while Albany and St. Paul, whose bishops agreed to the change, became provinces of Carondelet.
36. Patricia Wittberg, The Rise and Decline of Catholic Religious Orders: A Social Movement Perspective (New York: The State University of New York Press, 1994), 49-50, 118-128. See also Jo Ann Kay McNamara, Sisters in Arms: Catholic Nuns Through Two Millennia (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1996).
37. Patricia Wittberg, The Rise and Decline of Catholic Religious Orders: A Social Movement Perspective (New York: The State University of New York Press, 1994), 49- 50, 118-128. See also Jo Ann Kay McNamara, Sisters in Arms: Catholic Nuns Through Two Millennia (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1996).
38. Women who took up religious life also responded to tangible rewards. Besides status and power, a religious vocation gave women occupational and educational opportunities that their families could not provide. Suellen Hoy, "The Journey Out: The Recruitment and Emigration of Irish Religious Women to the United States, 1812-1914," Journal of Women's History 6 (1995): 64-98 provides a detailed discussion of this topic. Quote is on p. 84. See also Byrne, 261-271; Marta Danylewycz, Taking the Veil: An Alternative to Marriage, Motherhood, and Spinsterhood in Quebec, 1840- 1920 (Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1987); and Hasia R. Diner, Erin's Daughters in America: Irish Immigrant Women in the Nineteenth Century, (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1983), 1-29, 120-138.
39. Women who took up religious life also responded to tangible rewards. Besides status and power, a religious vocation gave women occupational and educational opportunities that their families could not provide. Suellen Hoy, "The Journey Out: The Recruitment and Emigration of Irish Religious Women to the United States, 1812-1914," Journal of Women's History 6 (1995): 64-98 provides a detailed discussion of this topic. Quote is on p. 84. See also Byrne, 261-271; Marta Danylewycz, Taking the Veil: An Alternative to Marriage, Motherhood, and Spinsterhood in Quebec, 1840-1920 (Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1987); and Hasia R. Diner, Erin's Daughters in America: Irish Immigrant Women in the Nineteenth Century, (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1983), 1-29, 120-138.
40. Women who took up religious life also responded to tangible rewards. Besides status and power, a religious vocation gave women occupational and educational opportunities that their families could not provide. Suellen Hoy, "The Journey Out: The Recruitment and Emigration of Irish Religious Women to the United States, 1812-1914," Journal of Women's History 6 (1995): 64-98 provides a detailed discussion of this topic. Quote is on p. 84. See also Byrne, 261-271; Marta Danylewycz, Taking the Veil: An Alternative to Marriage, Motherhood, and Spinsterhood in Quebec, 1840- 1920 (Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1987); and Hasia R. Diner, Erin's Daughters in America: Irish Immigrant Women in the Nineteenth Century, (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1983), 1-29, 120-138.
41. Jay P. Dolan, The Immigrant Church: New York's Irish and German Catholics, 1815-1865 (Notre Dame, Indiana: University of Notre Dame Press, 1983), 53, 74, 167; and Byrne, 248-260, 270-271. For a more thorough discussion of ethnicity, see Philip Gleason, "American Identity and Americanization," in Stephen Thernstrom, Ann Orlov, and Oscar Handlin, eds., Harvard Encyclopedia of American Ethnic Groups, (Cambridge, Mass., 1980), 31-58; and Speaking of Diversity (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1992).
42. Jay P. Dolan, The Immigrant Church: New York's Irish and German Catholics, 1815-1865 (Notre Dame, Indiana: University of Notre Dame Press, 1983), 53, 74, 167; and Byrne, 248-260, 270-271. For a more thorough discussion of ethnicity, see Philip Gleason, "American Identity and Americanization," in Stephen Thernstrom, Ann Orlov, and Oscar Handlin, eds., Harvard Encyclopedia of American Ethnic Groups, (Cambridge, Mass., 1980), 31-58; and Speaking of Diversity (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1992).
43. Jay P. Dolan, The Immigrant Church: New York's Irish and German Catholics, 1815-1865 (Notre Dame, Indiana: University of Notre Dame Press, 1983), 53, 74, 167; and Byrne, 248-260, 270-271. For a more thorough discussion of ethnicity, see Philip Gleason, "American Identity and Americanization," in Stephen Thernstrom, Ann Orlov, and Oscar Handlin, eds., Harvard Encyclopedia of American Ethnic Groups, (Cambridge, Mass., 1980), 31-58; and Speaking of Diversity (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1992).
44. Maher, 2-4, 69-70, 93. Maher qualifies her remarks on the number of sisters serving in the Civil War by stating that there is no way to accurately determine the figure. Her numbers are estimates based on figures supplied by congregations who had existing data, and on extrapolations for those communities without data.
45. Roster, "Sisters of St. Joseph in the Civil War," ASSJP. See also Archives of the Sisters of St. Joseph, Wheeling, Mt. St. Joseph Convent, Wheeling, West Virginia (hereafter cited as ASSJW). Records indicate that six sisters of the Wheeling community served in an official capacity as army nurses.
46. Howard A. Kelly and Walter L. Burrage, Dictionary of American Medical Biography (Boston: Longwood Press, 1979), 1127. Henry Hollingsworth Smith (1815-1890), was a Philadelphia physician and professor of surgery at the University of Pennsylvania. During the Peninsula Campaign, he organized and directed a corps of surgeons on hospital steamers at the siege of Yorktown and attended the wounded after the battles of Williamsburg, West Point, Fair Oaks, Cold Harbor, and Antietam. He resigned his commission in 1862. See also Henry H. Smith to Mother St. John Fournier, 9 January 1861 [2]; and for quote, 22 January 1862, ASSJP. The date on the first letter says 1861, although the dates on the following letters say 1862. Since Fort Sumter had not been fired upon in January of 1861, the date is impossibly early and is most likely an error on Smith's part.
47. Estelle Brodman and Elizabeth B. Carrick, "American Military Medicine in the Mid-Nineteenth Century: The Experience of Alexander H. Hoff, M.D.," Bulletin of the History of Medicine 64 (1990): 63-78.
48. This article contains information about relationships between female nurses and male physicians. See also Rosalyn Baxandall, Linda Gordon, and Susan Reverby, eds., America's Working Women (New York: Random House, 1976), 75-76; and Rosenberg, Care of Strangers, 213-215.
49. George W. Adams, Doctors in Blue: The Medical History of the Union Army in the Civil War (New York: Henry Schuman, 1952). Quote is on p. 182. See also Ann Douglas Wood, "The War Within a War: Women Nurses in the Union Army," Civil War History 18 (1972): 197-212; and Katherine Prescott Wormeley, The United States Sanitary Commission: A Sketch of Its Purposes and Its Work (Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1863), 246.
50. George W. Adams, Doctors in Blue: The Medical History of the Union Army in the Civil War (New York: Henry Schuman, 1952). Quote is on p. 182. See also Ann Douglas Wood, "The War Within a War: Women Nurses in the Union Army," Civil War History 18 (1972): 197-212; and Katherine Prescott Wormeley, The United States Sanitary Commission: A Sketch of Its Purposes and Its Work (Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1863), 246.
51. George W. Adams, Doctors in Blue: The Medical History of the Union Army in the Civil War (New York: Henry Schuman, 1952). Quote is on p. 182. See also Ann Douglas Wood, "The War Within a War: Women Nurses in the Union Army," Civil War History 18 (1972): 197-212; and Katherine Prescott Wormeley, The United States Sanitary Commission: A Sketch of Its Purposes and Its Work (Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1863), 246.
52. In 1862, Dr. John Brinton replaced nurses at the military hospital in Mound City, Illinois, with the Sisters of the Holy Cross from Notre Dame, Indiana. See John Brinton, Personal Memoirs of John H. Brinton: Major and Surgeon U. S. V. 1861-1865 (New York: The Neale Publishing Co., 1914), 44-45.
53. Henry H. Smith to Mother St. John Fournier, 22 January 1862. See also Sister Assisium, copy from Archives Account of 1870, "The Sisters of St. Joseph at Camp Curtin, Harrisburg, and Other Places During the War," 1-2, ASSJP.
54. Sister Assisium, 1-2. Sister Assisium McEvoy was the Philadelphia congregation's first archivist. She was born in Leeds, England, of Irish parents and came to Pennsylvania at an early age. She entered the Philadelphia congregation in 1859 and served in various capacities, including Mistress of Novices and Secretary General. She continued the documentation of congregational events until her death in 1939. See also "Sisters of St. Joseph in the Civil War," ASSJP.
55. Quoted in David Fitzpatrick, "The Modernisation of the Irish Female," in Rural Ireland 1600-1900: Modernisation and Change, eds. Patrick O'Flanagen, Paul Ferguson, and Kevin Whelan (Cork, Ireland: Cork University Press, 1987), 166. See also Hoy, "The Journey Out," 71-72, and Diner, 1-29.
56. Henry H. Smith to Mother St. John Fournier, 2 February 1862, ASSJP. Archival records do not indicate a Sister Camelia nursed in the Civil War. Dr. Smith may have been referring to Sister Camillus Phelan or Mother Monica Pue.
57. A.G. Curtin to Madam St. John, 14 April 1862, ASSJP.
58. Dolan, The American Catholic Experience, 127-139; and Mary Ann Donovan, SC, Sisterhood as Power: The Past and Passion of Ecclesial Women (New York: Crossroad Publishing Co., 1989), 43-44. By the 1850s, the American Catholic Church had moved away from lay trusteeism and congregationalism and had accepted the hierarchical concept with ecclesiastical authority centralized in the papacy. This model emphasized order, control, subordination, and disciplined uniformity, especially among nuns.
59. Dolan, The American Catholic Experience, 127-139; and Mary Ann Donovan, SC, Sisterhood as Power: The Past and Passion of Ecclesial Women (New York: Crossroad Publishing Co., 1989), 43-44. By the 1850s, the American Catholic Church had moved away from lay trusteeism and congregationalism and had accepted the hierarchical concept with ecclesiastical authority centralized in the papacy. This model emphasized order, control, subordination, and disciplined uniformity, especially among nuns.
60. Henry H. Smith to Mother St. John Fournier, 22 January, 18 February, and 14 April 1862, ASSJP.
61. Sister Assisium, 3, ASSJP.
62. James M. McPherson, Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era (New York: Oxford University Press, Inc., 1988), 426-427. See also William Quentin Maxwell, Lincoln's Fifth Wheel: The Political History of the United States Sanitary Commission (New York: Longmans, Green & Co., 1956), 144-150.
63. James M. McPherson, Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era (New York: Oxford University Press, Inc., 1988), 426-427. See also William Quentin Maxwell, Lincoln's Fifth Wheel: The Political History of the United States Sanitary Commission (New York: Longmans, Green & Co., 1956), 144-150.
64. U.S. Sanitary Commission, Hospital Transports (Boston: Ticknor and Fields, 1863), xiii. This publication by the Sanitary Commission is its memoir of the Peninsula transport service and is composed of letters written by two male officers of the Commission and six women who served with them. See also Jane Turner Censer, ed., The Papers of Frederick Law Olmsted, vol. IV: Defending the Union: The Civil War and the U.S. Sanitary Commission, 1861-1863 (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1986), 1.
65. U.S. Sanitary Commission, Hospital Transports (Boston: Ticknor and Fields, 1863), xiii. This publication by the Sanitary Commission is its memoir of the Peninsula transport service and is composed of letters written by two male officers of the Commission and six women who served with them. See also Jane Turner Censer, ed., The Papers of Frederick Law Olmsted, vol. IV: Defending the Union: The Civil War and the U.S. Sanitary Commission, 1861-1863 (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1986), 1.
66. Frederick Law Olmsted to John Foster Jenkins, May 20, 1862, in Censer, 341. See also Hospital Transports, 40.
67. Judith Ann Giesberg, "In Service to the Fifth Wheel: Katharine Prescott Wormeley and Her Experiences in the United States Sanitary Commission," Nursing History Review 3 (1995): 43-53.
68. Kristie Ross, "Arranging a Doll's House: Refined Women as Union Nurses," in Divided Houses: Gender and the Civil War, eds. Catherine Clinton and Nina Silber (New York: Oxford University Press, 1992), 102. For a description of the different personnel the Sanitary Commission employed and their job descriptions, see Hospital Transports, ix, 124, 144-145.
69. See Suellen Hoy, Chasing Dirt: The American Pursuit of Cleanliness (New York: Oxford University Press, 1995), 29-58, for a description of different women nurses with the U.S. Sanitary Commission and an examination of women's struggles against dirt and disease during the Civil War.
70. See also Jane Stuart Woolsey, Hospital Days (New York: D. Van Nostrand, 1870);
71. Wormeley, The United States Sanitary Commission; and Censer, 324.
72. Henry H. Smith to Mother St. John Fournier, 14 April 1862, ASSJP. See also Maxwell, 150.
73. Bishop James Wood to Sisters of St. Joseph, 20 April and 27 Apnl 1862; and rosters of "Positions of the Sisters of St. Joseph" and "Sisters of St. Joseph in Civil War," ASSJP. See also Logue, 351. Records indicate that some of the sisters may have served on both ships at one time or another.
74. McPherson, 426-427; Sister Assisium, 6; and Shelby Foote, The Civil War, A Narrative: Fort Sumter to Perryville (New York: Vintage Books, 1986), 410-411.
75. Henry H. Smith to Mother St. John Fournier, 16 May and 9 June 1862; and Sister Assisium, 6-8, ASSJP. While no dates are given in the sisters' archives for this last trip, the battle of Fair Oaks or Seven Pines was fought on 31 May 1862. Maxwell, 155, reports that over three thousand wounded were evacuated, and the Commodore and the William Whilden took the worst cases. No other engagement of the magnitude suggested by the large number of casualties evacuated by hospital ships occurred within the time frame. Hospital ships were not deployed to evacuate the wounded after minor skirmishes. See also Logue, 128.
76. Richard Orr Curry, A House Divided: A Study of Statehood Politics and the Copperhead Movement in West Virginia (Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1964), 7; and Boyd B. Stutler, West Virginia in the Civil War (Charleston, West Virginia: Education Foundation, Inc., 1966), 1-10. See also McPherson, 299-301.
77. Richard Orr Curry, A House Divided: A Study of Statehood Politics and the Copperhead Movement in West Virginia (Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1964), 7; and Boyd B. Stutler, West Virginia in the Civil War (Charleston, West Virginia: Education Foundation, Inc., 1966), 1-10. See also McPherson, 299-301.
78. "Annals," 26 February 1864, ASSJW.
79. Ibid., 4 March 1864. Many convents kept "Annals," but it was not unusual for the author to avoid signing her name. Mother de Chantal Keating was born in County Tipperary, Ireland, in 1833. She came to New York in 1852 and entered the Sisters of St. Joseph community in the Brooklyn diocese in 1857. She taught in St. Joseph's Academy and served as Mistress of Novices prior to her transfer to Wheeling in February, 1864. Copy of "Mother M. de Chantal Keating Papers 1857-1917," Archives, St. Joseph Convent, Brentwood, New York (hereafter cited as ASSJB).
80. Ibid., 13 April 1864. Kirker previously had been a private physician in charge of the General Hospital at Grafton, West Virginia. His contract, dated 1 April 1863, stipulated that the United States Army would pay him 100 dollars a month for his services. National Archives RG 9, Box 319.
81. "Annals," 23 April and 6 May 1864, ASSJW. Dr. John Frissell, another surgeon at the Wheeling hospital, recalled seeing several cases of typhoid fever and erysipelas among the soldiers and prisoners. See John Frissell, Epidemics of Wheeling and Vicinity Since 1832 (Wheeling: Lewis Baker & Co., 1880), 11. Wheeling Hospital registries for late 1864 and early 1865 recorded diagnoses of abscesses, burns, gunshot wounds, urethral strictures, diarrhea, chronic dysentery, diphtheria, syphilis, rheumatism, consumption, and miasmatic disease as reasons for hospitalization. See also Monthly Report of Sick and Wounded in the U.S.A. Post Hospital, Wheeling, West Virginia, September 1864. December 1864, and January 1865, Wheeling Hospital Archives (hereafter
82. "Arrival of Sick and Wounded Soldiers," Wheeling Daily Intelligencer, 27 July 1864; "Owing," ibid., 28 July 1864; and "Martinsburg," ibid., 30 July 1864, Ohio County Public Library, Wheeling, West, Virginia. See also "Annals," 26 July and 27 July 1864, ASSJW. See McPherson, 722-724, 738-739, 756-758 for accounts of battles in the Shenandoah Valley in 1864.
83. For quote, see "Annals," 1 August 1864, ASSJW. See also John Kirker to Surgeon Blaney [Medical Director, Department of West Virginia], 14 August 1864, which states that six of the sisters were employed by the army. National Archives SGO L.R. RG 112, Box 51.
84. Muster Roll of the Hospital Department at Wheeling, West Virginia, 31 August 1864, National Archives RG 94, Box 107. For quote, see John Kirker to Brigadier General Barnes, 4 November 1864, National Archives SGO L.R. RG 112, Box 51.
85. "Annals," 17 September 1864, ASSJW. See also John Kirker to Brigadier General Barnes, 4 November 1864, National Archives SGO L.R. RG 112, Box 51; and John Kirker to Surgeon Blaney, 14 August 1864, National Archives SGO L.R. RG 112, Box 51. No financial records are available to document if the sisters received the standard army pay of 40 cents per day for female nurses. While the army officially took possession of the hospital on 27 July 1864 and employed the sisters as nurses, the Medical Department did not confirm their appointments until 22 August 1864. See memo from Medical Director's Office, Department of West Virginia, 22 August 1864, National Archives SGO L.R., Box 51.
86. See Sister Rose Anita Kelly, SSJ, Song of the Hills: The Story of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Wheeling (Wheeling, West Virginia: Mount St. Joseph, 1962) for a history of the origins of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Wheeling. Information about the sisters' Civil War experiences can be found on pages 213-222. While she based her book on historical evidence after doing extensive research, Sister Rose Anita acknowledged that she projected fictional dialogue to enliven the narration. She used primary sources that were located in the Wheeling archives, but unfortunately, many of these sources were destroyed in a flood, and Sister Rose Anita's personal notes are also lost.
87. "Annals," 6 February and 18 February 1865, ASSJW. See also Diner, 120-121 and 151-153. Quote is on p. 152.
88. United States of America Department of the Interior, Bureau of Pensions, Certificate No. 988.410, 25 December 1899, ASSJW, and copy of "Mother M. de Chantal Keating Papers, 1857-1917," ASSJB. Mother de Chantal retained her status as a member of the Congregation of the Sisters of St. Joseph in the Brooklyn diocese, and she returned there in 1876 where she served in numerous positions until her death in 1917. The Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) was the Union veterans' organization.
89. Data on the number of foreign-born soldiers in the Union army can be found in Benjamin A. Gould, Investigations in the Military and Anthropological Statistics of American Soldiers (New York: Hurd and Houghton, published for the U.S. Sanitary Commission, 1869), 15-28; Bell I. Wiley, The Life of Billy Yank: The Common Soldier of the Union (Indianapolis and New York: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, Inc., 1951), 296-313;
90. Data on the number of foreign-born soldiers in the Union army can be found in Benjamin A. Gould, Investigations in the Military and Anthropological Statistics of American Soldiers (New York: Hurd and Houghton, published for the U.S. Sanitary Commission, 1869), 15-28; Bell I. Wiley, The Life of Billy Yank: The Common Soldier of the Union (Indianapolis and New York: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, Inc., 1951), 296-313;
91. Ella Lonn, Foreigners in the Union Army and Navy (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1951), 573-584;
92. Edward Channing, A History of the United States, vol. 6: The War for Southern Independence (New York: The Macmillan Company, 1927), 426;
93. and McPherson, Battle Cry, 606-607. Other groups included Swiss, Scottish, Welsh, Polish, Hungarian, and French. Various estimates of foreign-born soldiers have been made by different persons at different times. Gould reported that over 17,000 Irish and a similar number of Germans fought with the Pennsylvania Volunteers, compared to over 200,000 native-born soldiers. Gould also reported a total number of 144,508 Irish and 176,817 German-born soldiers in the Union army, while Wiley gave higher estimates (150,000 Irish and more than 200,000 Germans), although both authors acknowledge limitations in their inferences. Statements regarding the composition of various regiments are less accurate for the first year of the war than for the later years when country of birth was systematically required on enlistment rolls (Gould, 15; Lonn, 582). There were also fraudulent enlistments, groups who were attracted by bounties, and a large number of foreign-born men recruited from Europe for the army. Thus the proportion of foreign born in the Union army likely increased as the war progressed. While Lonn asserts that the Irish furnished "above their fair share" (p. 578), McPherson claims Catholics were under-represented (pp. 606-607). He did not count nuns who were Irish when he examined Irish contributions to the Civil War. For data on the occupational categories of Union soldiers,
94. see McPherson, Battle Cry, 604-609;
95. Gould, Investigations, 208-217,
96. and Wiley, The Life of Billy Yank 303-304. 53. This argument builds upon that presented by Byrne, 241 -272.
97. See also Carol K. Coburn and Martha Smith, "'Pray for Your Wanderers': Women Religious on the Colorado Mining Frontier, 1877-1917," Frontiers 15 (1995): 27-52.
98. Mother St. John to Sisters of St. Joseph, undated, possibly 19 April 1862, ASSJP.
99. Kauffman, 6, 37-39. The 1852 Book of Customs of the Sisters of St. Joseph describes their duties toward the sick: "They should seek to relieve the distress sometimes found in the rooms of the sick poor, first by promoting cleanliness, and the ease and comfort of the patient" (Chapter XII, #5), ASSJW.
100. Maher, 86-88. See also Bishop James F. Wood to Sisters of St. Joseph, 20 April and 27 April 1862, ASSJP.
101. I am indebted to Suellen Hoy for assistance in these interpretations. See also Mary Ewens, OP, "Removing the Veil: The Liberated American Nun," in Women of Spirit: Female Leadership in the Jewish and Christian Traditions, eds. Rosemary Ruether and Eleanor McLaughlin (New York, Simon and Schuster, 1979), 258; and Roger Finke and Rodney Stark, The Churching of America, 1776-1990: Winners and Losers in Our Religious Economy (New Brunswick, New Jersey: Rutgers University Press, 1992), 143. There were also conflicts over class and ethnic issues within Catholic women's religious communities themselves. See Margaret Susan Thompson, "Sisterhood and Power: Class, Culture, and Ethnicity in the American Convent," Colby Library Quarterly 25 (1989): 149-175.
102. I am indebted to Suellen Hoy for assistance in these interpretations. See also Mary Ewens, OP, "Removing the Veil: The Liberated American Nun," in Women of Spirit: Female Leadership in the Jewish and Christian Traditions, eds. Rosemary Ruether and Eleanor McLaughlin (New York, Simon and Schuster, 1979), 258; and Roger Finke and Rodney Stark, The Churching of America, 1776-1990: Winners and Losers in Our Religious Economy (New Brunswick, New Jersey: Rutgers University Press, 1992), 143. There were also conflicts over class and ethnic issues within Catholic women's religious communities themselves. See Margaret Susan Thompson, "Sisterhood and Power: Class, Culture, and Ethnicity in the American Convent," Colby Library Quarterly 25 (1989): 149-175.
103. I am indebted to Suellen Hoy for assistance in these interpretations. See also Mary Ewens, OP, "Removing the Veil: The Liberated American Nun," in Women of Spirit: Female Leadership in the Jewish and Christian Traditions, eds. Rosemary Ruether and Eleanor McLaughlin (New York, Simon and Schuster, 1979), 258; and Roger Finke and Rodney Stark, The Churching of America, 1776-1990: Winners and Losers in Our Religious Economy (New Brunswick, New Jersey: Rutgers University Press, 1992), 143. There were also conflicts over class and ethnic issues within Catholic women's religious communities themselves. See Margaret Susan Thompson, "Sisterhood and Power: Class, Culture, and Ethnicity in the American Convent," Colby Library Quarterly 25 (1989): 149-175.
104. Gollaher, 413-415. See also Helen E. Marshall, Dorothea Dix: Forgotten Samaritan (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1937), 218-19;
105. and Dix to Millard Fillmore, 22 October [1856], in Charles M. Snyder, ed., The Lady and the President: The Letters of Dorothea Dix and Millard Fillmore (Lexington: University of Kentucky Press, 1995). Dix wrote to Fillmore after he lost the presidential election in 1856 when he ran as the candidate of the anti-Catholic Know-Nothing movement's American party: "My sympathies have been from the first, with the American party." Quote is in Snyder, 255.
106. Logue, 351. Mother St. John wrote that the sister-nurses in the Civil War were "instruments of conversion for a great many soldiers who had forgotten God and their souls." See also Wittberg, 114.
107. Henry H. Smith to Mother St. John, 21 April 1862, ASSJP.
108. Woolsey, 42-43.
109. Katharine Prescott Wormeley, The Other Side of the War with the Army of the Potomac (Boston: Ticknor and Company, 1889), 102.
110. Giesberg, 49.
111. Maher, 131; and James K. Kenneally, The History of American Catholic Women (New York: Crossroad Publishing Co., 1990), 85.
112. Ross, 104. See also Lori D. Ginzberg, Women and the Work of Benevolence: Morality, Politics, and Class in the Nineteenth-Century United States (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990), 133-173.
113. Mary Livermore, My Story of the War (1889; reprint, New York: Arno Press Inc., New York Times Co., 1972), 218. She made this statement after her contact with the Sisters of the Holy Cross from South Bend, Indiana.
114. Sister Assisium, 5.
115. Maxwell, 68. See also John Kirker to Surgeon Blaney, U.S.V., 14 August 1864, National Archives, SGO L.R. RG 112, Box 51.
116. Ewens, The Role of the Nun, 238. Non-Catholics commonly referred to all Catholic sisters as "Sisters of Charity."
117. "Pastoral Letter of 1866 (of the Second Plenary Council of Baltimore)," in The National Pastorals of the American Hierarchy (1792-1919), ed. Peter Guilday (Washington, D.C.: National Catholic Welfare Council, 1923), 222-223.
118. Sister Assisium, 2.
119. George Barton, Angels of the Battlefield (Philadelphia: The Catholic Art Publishing Co., 1897), 225.
120. Wittberg, 118-141. Sisters' vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience bound them to their order and its ideals. Celibacy simply means "unmarried" but also is identified with an asexual life. It was not restricted to women; from the first century on there were also male celibates. Jo Ann McNamara argues these points for the early church in A New Song: Celibate Women in the First Three Christian Centuries (New York: Institute for Research in History and The Haworth Press, Inc., 1983).
121. Penelope Johnson makes these arguments for the Middle Ages in Equal in Monastic Profession: Religious Women in Medieval France (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1991);
122. and Elizabeth Rapley for 17th-century France in The Devotes: Women and Church in Seventeenth Century France (Montreal: McGill Queens University Press, 1990).
123. For an insightful treatment of religious and gender issues involving the Sisters of St. Joseph's experiences on the western frontier, see Coburn and Smith, "Pray for Your Wanderers;" and "Creating Community and Identity: Exploring Religious and Gender Ideology in the Lives of American Women Religious, 1836-1920," U.S. Catholic Historian 14 (1996): 91-108.
124. Maher, 138.
125. Frederick Law Olmsted to Henry Whitney Bellows, 25 September 1861, quoted in Censer, 202-203.
126. Mannard, 322-324; Maher, 120. Oates, 373-382, provides an analysis of Clara Barton's stance on the postwar feminist movement. After the war, several women who had served with the Sanitary Commission during 1862 led efforts to establish women's nursing schools in the United States. See also Michael E. Engh, S.J., Frontier Faiths: Church, Temple, and Synagogue in Los Angeles 1846-1888 (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1992), 101-120, 139-163.