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

Sister Mary Denis Maher. To Bind Up the Wounds: Catholic Sister Nurses in the U.S. Civil War. Reprint. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1999. x + 178 pp. Ill. $14.95 (paperbound).

The Civil War broke upon the American scene with a ferocity not witnessed in previous wars. The sheer number and severity of casualties overwhelmed the unprepared Union and Confederate medical services. Each side desperately sought to meet the need for hospitals, trained surgeons, medical supplies, and nurses, with varying degrees of success. Both sides employed the services of six hundred nuns from twelve different orders and twenty-one separate religious communities throughout the Union and Confederate territories. Despite a general lack of primary source material, Sister Mary Denis Maher presents compelling evidence that the Catholic nuns were the most qualified nurses available. She points out that the tasks of sisters in mid-nineteenth-century America were "teaching, caring for orphans, nursing the sick and providing spiritual assistance for the dying" (p. 2).

Historically, European orders had been involved in nursing for several hundred years. In the United States, beginning in the early 1800s, orders such as the Sisters of Charity (which provided the largest number of nursing nuns) had been founded primarily, but not solely, as nursing orders. The Sisters of Charity had had prior experience in establishing and administrating cholera hospitals in the epidemics of 1828, 1832, and 1848. They also administered the Baltimore Clinic, the forerunner of the University of Maryland Medical School and Hospital. Other orders had established hospitals (e.g., St. Vincent's Hospital in New York City, 1836).

The Catholic nuns, unlike Protestant women nurses, had already "lived in an organized and structured form of benevolent missionary association" (p. 21). They were also accustomed to a sparse lifestyle that allowed them to readily develop the flexibility to cope with the chaotic situations accompanying war. These attributes, when added to their nursing skills, made them superior. In general, Union and Confederate physicians praised them warmly and actively sought their services. Amazingly, there were instances when they had "immunity of the Cloth," able to freely cross the lines to serve the wounded.

The contributions of Catholic nuns to the nursing in the Civil War have been largely forgotten. These women set a high standard for the fledgling profession, and gained the respect of physicians and patients--yet the knowledge of their accomplishments faded with the passing of time. The nuns were not self-seeking and generally did not record their experiences. What little primary source material there was has not, unfortunately, been preserved.

In the final analysis, the contributions of the nursing nuns, like those of "the buffalo soldiers" on the western frontier, had to await the arrival of a time in our history relatively unclouded by the prejudices of the past. This is an American story of a group of remarkable women who helped bring order to chaos, providing kindness, humanity, and nursing skills to many Union and Confederate soldiers who, without their presence, would not have survived.

Thomas T. Provost
Johns Hopkins University

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