To Bind Up the Wounds

by Maher, Mary D.

• ISBN13: 9780807124390
• ISBN10: 0807124397
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1999-10-01
• Publisher: Louisiana State Univ Pr

Summary

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.

Author Biography

Sister Mary Denis Maher is chair of the English department at Ursuline College, in Pepper Pike, Ohio. She is a member of the Sisters of Charity of St. Augustine and also serves as archivist for the community.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	ix
Introduction	1	(6)
Photo Essay	7	(6)
1 Catholic Sisters in Mid-Nineteenth Century America	13	(14)
2 Backgrounds of Catholic Nursing in the United States in the Nineteenth Century	27	(18)
3 Medical Care and Lay Female Nursing During the Civil War	45	(24)
4 Catholic Sisters Respond to Requests for Nursing in the Civil War	69	(30)
5 Catholic Sister Nurses in the Civil War	99	(26)
6 Contemporaneous Attitudes about the Catholic Sisters in the Civil War	125	(30)
Conclusion	155	(6)
Selected Bibliography	161	(14)
Index	175