To Bind Up the Wounds: Catholic Sister Nurses in the U.S. Civil War

by Mary Denis Maher

Overview

The contributions of more than six hundred Catholic nuns to the care of Confederate and Union sick and wounded made a critical impact upon nineteenth-century America. Not only did thousands of soldiers directly benefit from the religious sisters' ministrations, but both professional nursing and Catholics' acceptance within mainstream society advanced significantly as a result. In To Bind Up the Wounds, Sister Mary Denis Maher writes this heretofore neglected Civil War chapter in rich detail, telling a riveting story shot with suspicion and prejudice, suffering and self-sacrifice, ingenuity, beneficence, and gratitude.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780807124390
Publisher:	Louisiana State University Press
Publication date:	11/01/1999
Edition description:	LOUISIANA
Pages:	192
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.40(d)

About the Author

Sister Mary Denis Maher, PhD, is a certified archivist and director of the archives for the Sisters of Charity of St. Augustine, in Richfield, Ohio. A member of the Sisters of Charity, she is also professor emerita of English at Ursuline College.

Table of Contents

Introduction

Photo Essay

Catholic Sisters in Mid-Nineteenth Century America

Backgrounds of Catholic Nursing in the United States in the Nineteenth Century

Medical Care and Lay Female Nursing During the Civil War

Catholic Sisters Respond to Requests for Nursing in the Civil War

Catholic Sister Nurses in the Civil War

Contemporaneous Attitudes about the Catholic Sisters in the Civil War

Selected Bibliography

Index