the border state of missouri the scene of some of the most dramatic events of the war. soldiers ask the nurses if they are free masons. the chaplain obtains a pardon for a prisoner of war. archbishop ryan and his work among the sick and wounded. the young confederate who declined to express sorrow for his course in the war. amusing and pathetic incidents.
in the meantime operations in the great civil conflict were beginning in the southwest. the fact that missouri was a border state made it the scene of some of the most dramatic events of the war. thousands of the sick and wounded of both armies were cared for in st. louis. it was on the 12th of august, 1861, that major-general fremont, commanding the department of the west, established a military hospital in the suburbs of st. louis.
general fremont desired that every attention should be paid to the wounded soldiers. he visited them frequently, and perceiving that there was much neglect on the part of the attendants, applied to the sisters of st. philomena’s school for a sufficient number of them to take charge of the hospital. he promised the sisters, if 46 they would accept, to leave everything to their management. there was no delay in acceding to this request. rev. james francis burlando, the superior of the sisters of charity, during a visit made to st. philomena’s school a few months previous had forseen the probability of such an occurrence and given the sisters directions to guide them in such a case.
the sisters had the superintendence of everything relating to the sick in the hospital. some of the soldier attendants at first looked with wonder on the strange dress and appearance of the new nurses, asking them if they were free masons. the sisters were, however, treated with the greatest respect, so much so that not an oath or disrespectful word was heard in the hospital during the three years that they were there.
the hospital was visited every other day by the ladies of the union aid society, who could not help admiring the almost profound silence observed in the wards. they could not understand the influence the sisters exercised over the patients, both sick and convalescent, who were as submissive as children. the archbishop of st. louis, the late most rev. p. r. kenrick, d. d., was pleased when he learned that the sisters had been asked for at the hospital. the prelate provided a chaplain, who said mass every morning in the oratory arranged in their apartment. after the mass the chaplain visited every ward instructing, baptizing and reconciling sinners to god. there were hundreds of baptisms during the time the sisters were in the hospital, the greatest number of the persons thus baptized dying in the hospital. the institution was closed at the end of the war, and the sisters returned to their former homes. 47
father burke was one of the priests who did a great deal of work in the hospital, and he bears testimony to the fact that the patients thought there were no persons like the sisters. they would often say: “indeed, it was not the doctor that cured us; it was the sisters.” when returning to their regiment they would say: “sisters, we may never see you again, but be assured you will be very gratefully remembered.” others would say: “sisters, i wish we could do something for you, but you do not seem to want anything; besides, it is not in the power of any poor soldier to make you anything like recompense. all that we can do for you is to fight for you, and that we will do until our last breath.”
they preferred applying to the sisters in cases where they could do so than to the doctors, and as a result the sisters had a difficult task in encouraging them to have confidence in the doctors. every evening the sisters were accustomed to visit a tent a few yards distant from the hospital, where the badly wounded cases were detained. one night a sister found a poor man whose hand had been amputated from the wrist, suffering very much, the arm being terribly inflamed. he complained that the doctor had that morning ordered a hot poultice and that he had not received it. the sister called the nurse and wound-dresser and inquired why the doctor’s orders had not been attended to. they told her that there were no hops in the hospital; that the steward had gone to town that morning before they knew it, and they had no other opportunity of sending to obtain any that day. the sisters immediately sent across the yard to a bakery and got some hops and had the poultice put on. the poor man was gratified and surprised. “the sisters,” he said, “find ways and 48 means to relieve everyone, but others who make a profession of the work do not even know how to begin it.”
when a new doctor came to the hospital it was from the patients that he would learn to appreciate the value of the sisters. when the patients returned to their regiments they would say to their sick companions: “if you go to st. louis try to get to the house of refuge hospital; the sisters are there and they will soon make you well.” late one evening a sister went to see that nothing was wanting for the sick. she found a man suffering from intense pain in his forehead and temples. he had taken cold in camp and the inflammation went to his eyes, so that he became entirely blind. the pain in his forehead was so intense that he thought he could not live until morning. the sister asked him to let her bind up his forehead with a wide bandage.
“oh, sister,” he said, “it is no use. the doctor has been bathing my forehead with spirits of ether and other liquids, and nothing will do me any good. i cannot live until morning; my head is splitting open. but you may do what you like.”
she took a wide bandage which, unknown to him, was saturated in chloroform, bound up his head and left him. early in the morning she went to ask him how he spent the night. he said: “oh, sister, i have rested well; from the moment you put your hands on my forehead i experienced no pain.” he never thought of attributing the relief to the chloroform, because he did not know of it, and the sister, feeling that in this case ignorance was bliss, did not enlighten him.
the patients had the best of feeling toward the sisters, and when the medical doctor visited the hospital he 49 would stand in the middle of the ward and tell the patients to whom they owed their comfort, the good order, cleanliness and regularity that reigned there. he told them that all these things came through the sisters. it is a notable fact that the respect with which they were treated in the beginning never diminished, but went on increasing while the hospital lasted.
two of the prisoners of war, as the result of a court-martial, were to be executed, but the worthy chaplain who daily attended the prison obtained the pardon of one, while the sisters obtained that of the other. on one occasion a soldier who was accused of desertion was sentenced to be hanged, and the sisters attended him until all was over.
there was an elderly man confined in the prison hospital who always found great pleasure in seeing to the wants of his companions. he told the sisters it made him happy to see them get what they most desired. toward the close of the war he obtained his release, and afterwards sent fifty dollars to the sisters to supply the wants of the suffering sick. his son soon after this was charged with some military offense, tried by court-martial sentenced and executed. the young man became a catholic, and in his last moments received the consolations of the church. his remains were given up to his family, and his father requested the clergyman who attended him before his execution to preach the funeral sermon, which the priest did in a baptist church, where his hearers were all baptists.
one of the priests who was untiring in his work among the soldiers in st. louis during those heart-breaking days was father patrick john ryan, now the archbishop 50 of the great archdiocese of philadelphia. early in the war he was appointed a chaplain by the government, but resigned his position, feeling that he could do better work among the southern prisoners of war if he appeared among them simply as a priest. the rector of one of the protestant episcopal churches in st. louis succeeded him as chaplain. father ryan is authority for the statement that there were probably more baptisms in this military hospital than on any of the battlefields or in any other hospital of the civil war.
he was a witness to many pathetic and humorous incidents in the daily routine of hospital service. on one occasion he was attending a poor drummer boy who was only too surely approaching the end of his life of warfare. he spoke to him gently of the things necessary to do under such circumstances, instructed him to glance over his past life and try and feel a genuine sorrow for all of his sins and for anything he had done against his fellow-man.
the boy listened meekly for a while, but when he was told to be sorry for all his wrong-doing a new light flashed upon him. he half rose in bed and defiantly declared that if this contemplated the severing of his allegiance to the southern confederacy and an admission that the “yankees” were right he would have none of it. half-amused at the outburst, and not entirely unmoved at this flash of spirit in what the lad no doubt deemed a righteous cause, the good priest soon assured him that his mission was not of the north or the south, but of god. the young sufferer died soon after this with most edifying sentiments upon his lips.
sister juliana, a sister of bishop chatard, of vincennes, who did good service in this and other hospitals, 51 was the witness of many affecting death-bed scenes and many wonderful death-bed conversions. fervent aspirations to heaven went up from the lips of men who had never prayed before. soldiers from the backwoods who had known no religion and no god were in a few hours almost transformed. it is estimated that priests and sisters baptized between five and six hundred persons at this one hospital.
archbishop ryan tells the following incident that came under his personal observation, and which john francis maguire, member of parliament from cork, has incorporated in one of his works:5
“a sister was passing through the streets of boston with downcast eyes and noiseless steps when she was suddenly addressed in a language that made her pale cheeks flush. the insult came from a young man standing on a street corner. the sister uttered no word of protest, but raising her eyes gave one swift, penetrating look at the brutal offender.”
time passed on; the war intervened. the scene changed to a ward in a military hospital in missouri. a wounded soldier, once powerful but now as helpless as an infant, was brought in and placed under the care of the sisters of charity. it was soon evident that the man’s hour had arrived; that he was not long for this world. the sister urged the man to die in the friendship of god, to ask pardon for his sins, and to be sorry for whatever evil he might have done.
“i have committed many sins in my life,” he said to the sister, “and i am sorry for them all and hope to be 52 forgiven; but there is one thing that weighs heavy on my mind at this moment. i once insulted a sister of charity in the streets of boston. her glance of reproach has haunted me ever since. i knew nothing of the sisters then. but now i know how good and disinterested you are and how mean i was. oh! if that sister were only here, weak and dying as i am, i would go down upon my knees and ask her pardon.”
the sister turned to him with a look of tenderness and compassion, saying: “if that is all you desire to set your mind at ease, you can have it. i am the sister you insulted and i grant you pardon freely and from my heart.”
“what! are you the sister i met in boston? oh, yes! you are—i know you now. and how could you have attended on me with greater care than on any of the other patients?—me who insulted you so.”
“it is our lord’s way,” replied the sister gently. “i did it for his sake, because he loved his enemies and blessed those who persecuted him. i knew you from the moment you entered the hospital. i recognized you from the scar over your forehead, and i have prayed for you unceasingly.”
“send for the priest!” exclaimed the dying soldier, “the religion that teaches such charity must be from god.”
and he died in the sister’s faith, holding in his failing grasp the emblem of man’s redemption, and murmuring prayers taught him by her whose glance of mild rebuke had long filled him with remorse through every scene of revelry or of peril.
rev. john bannon, s. j., was one of the priests who performed efficient service as a chaplain during the war. 53 father bannon is now spending the autumn of his life in performing the works of mercy and charity which go to make up the life of a good priest, at st. patrick’s cathedral, dublin, ireland.
writing of his wartime experience in a letter dated december 10, 1897, he says:
“twice only did i come into relations with the sisters’ hospitals. the first time was at corinth, miss., after my arrival with the missouri troops from arkansas. there i found the sisters of charity (bonnet blanc), from mobile, ala., in possession of an hospital, located in a large brick building situated on a hill overlooking a railroad crossing—for the town of corinth was little more at that time. during the temporary illness of father coyle, who was chaplain of the nuns, i visited the hospital for him a few times. on one occasion a sister indicated to me a cot in a distant corner of the ward, whereon lay a large, burly man, heavily bearded and of uncompromising aspect. he had been questioning the sister about her religion and desired further explanations; so i was asked to go see him and give him satisfaction.
“after a few questions about his home and family, and wounds and personal comfort, i asked him about the nursing and treatment of the hospital, a question which brought him to ‘attention,’ for he sat upright in bed, looking at me sternly, and almost fiercely said:
“‘see, now mister, if you come here to spy after the sisters you’re in the wrong shop. there’s not a man wouldn’t rise agin ye if you said a word agin them. don’t do it. don’t do it, or i’ll—’ and he fell back exhausted. 54
“‘but, my friend,’ i said, ‘i’m a friend of theirs; i’m a priest.’
“‘a priest,’ he repeated, and then, sitting up again, he called out: ‘sister, sister, this man says he’s a priest; is he?’
“to which the sister answered, ‘yes,’ and he fell back saying, ‘all right, mister, now i want to know if any man ever believed such things as the sister told me.’
“i assured him that i believed them all and had come at the sister’s request to explain them to him.
“‘all right, mister, go ahead now.’
“so i proceeded to speak of god and the trinity and principal mysteries. he demurred to every word i said, especially to the mystery of the blessed trinity, and to each new installment of doctrine would sit up in bed and call to the sister (at the other end of the ward), repeat to her my statement, and ask her was that true, to which when she answered ‘yes’ he would fall back on his pillow and with a sigh of resignation say: ‘all right, mister, go ahead now, i believe it,’ and so on. he accepted my teaching only on the word of the sister, and on his faith in the sister i baptized him and left him happy. i had not reached the door of the ward when he called me back. ‘say, mister, do ye reckon i’ll git better?’
“‘yes, i think so; at least i hope so.’
“his countenance fell visibly. but after a few seconds he looked up and said:
“‘whisper down nearer to me,’ and so pulling my head quite close to his mouth, he whispered: ‘if i get well i’ll have to leave the sisters. i’d rather stay and die than leave them. good-bye. god bless ye. pray for me,’ and so we parted.
“peace for her.” 55
“subsequently i heard dr. lynch, late bishop of charleston, narrate a very like experience.
“the only other occasion that i remember visiting a sisters’ hospital was before the siege of vicksburg, at jacksonville, miss. the hospital was located in a large hotel, downtown. as i entered the door i found the hallway occupied for its length by two rows of sick soldiers stretched on the floor, each wrapped in his old worn blanket with his small bundle for a pillow. a tall, gaunt, poor fellow had just come in and was spreading his blanket, preparing to lie down. a sister approached and asked him for his ticket. he made no answer, but having finished his preparations lay down and then proceeded to search for the paper. when found, after a long search, he handed it to the sister, who, glancing at it, said:
“‘my good man, this is not for us. it is for the hospital in the capital.’
“‘that mought be,’ he answered, ‘and i reckon it is. but that don’t matter anyhow. this is my hospital, and i’ll stay here, wherever the ticket’s for. think i’m gwine t’anywhar but the sisters’?’
“and so he was tolerated and adopted by the sisters, for though inconvenient to the nuns it was consoling and encouraging to them when they found their services so appreciated by their patients.
from jacksonville i went to port gibson, and then to vicksburg. there were not any sisters at either place. after the fall of vicksburg i went to mobile, where i visited the sisters’ hospital, but was not on duty there or elsewhere up to my departure for europe by the steamer r. e. lee, via wilmington, n. c., and halifax.” 56
many of the episodes of the war with which the sisters were associated would in their intensity and uniqueness furnish the basis for stories and dramas more wonderful than anything yet written by the novelists or constructed by the playwrights. here was frequently illustrated the poet’s contention that truth is stranger than fiction. one instance containing all of the elements that go to make up a romance comes to mind. the two principal figures in it were a sweet sister of charity, burning with love for her fellow creatures, and willing to lay down life itself in the cause of suffering humanity, and a brave soldier, filled with patriotism for his country, brought to the point of death by a malignant fever; nursed back to life and finally, twenty-five years after the war, giving an exhibition of gratitude as rare as it is beautiful.
thomas trahey was born in detroit, mich., in 1844, and was the only son of devoted parents. when the war began he was about 17 years of age. flushed with the vigor and energy of youth he desired to enlist at once. he did not succeed in carrying out his wish, however, until august, 1862, when he enlisted in company h, sixteenth michigan volunteer infantry. when he was mustered out at the close of the war it was as sergeant of his command. he was commended many times by his superiors for gallantry in action. in the battle of fredericksburg, december 13, 1862, he was struck by the fragment of a shell and severely wounded in the left breast. he was left on the battlefield all night, but finally received attention at the hands of dr. r. f. weir, who was in charge of the hospital at frederick city.
trahey recovered from this and went to the front 57 again with his regiment. after the battle of gettysburg he was taken with typhoid fever, which soon assumed a malignant form. dr. gray, of philadelphia, who was in charge of barracks h, in the united states general hospital, at frederick city, made a careful diagnosis of the case and said that trahey, who was weakened from the effects of his previous wounds and suffering, could not possibly recover.
it was at this juncture that sister louise appeared upon the scene. she inquired if careful nursing would not save the man’s life. the physician said that it was one chance in a thousand, but that if anything could prolong the soldier’s existence it was the patient and persistent care and watchfulness of a sister of charity.
“then,” she exclaimed, “i will undertake the case.”
sister louise had been detailed from the mother house at emmitsburg, and, though young in years, had acquired considerable experience, which added to her marvelous devotedness to duty and self-forgetfulness had made her phenomenally successful in the hospitals and camps. she was born of french-canadian parents in toronto. she was a devout child, and early gave evidence of a desire to embrace the religious state. consequently the whole of her early childhood was a preparation for the life she was to enter. at an early age she came to the united states and took the vows of chastity, poverty and obedience, and became a daughter of st. vincent.
at the time she was performing her labors at frederick city she was only 19 years of age, and was, moreover, possessed of unusual beauty. day and night she remained at the bedside of her patient, frequently depriving 58 herself of food and rest in order to minister to his slightest wish. finally he recovered, only to have a relapse, which resulted in a severe case of smallpox. this did not dismay the devoted nurse. she renewed her energies. for three weeks after he became convalescent the sister fed him with a spoon.
just as the patient was pronounced out of danger the sister was ordered away to another station, where her pious attentions were given to other cases as serious and as dangerous as the ordeal she had just gone through. sergeant trahey returned to the front from his hospital cot, and was wounded once again at white oak road, va., on march 29, 1865. he recovered and soon after, at the termination of the war, returned to his home. for several years he was unable by reason of his weakened physical condition to perform any of the ordinary duties of life.
after he had recovered he determined to seek the whereabouts of the sister in order to thank her for the self-sacrificing care she had taken of him during the most critical period of his life. as he expressed it at the time, he was “willing to travel from maine to california merely to get a glimpse of her holy face.”
sergeant trahey first wrote to the mother house of the order, at emmitsburg, md., and received a reply that sister louise had been ordered to st. louis soon after the war and had died there in 1867 of malignant typhoid fever, the same disease that had so nearly ended the life of the soldier. she expired at the ninth and madison streets hospital, st. louis, and was buried in calvary cemetery, in that city. the grateful soldier had the grave 59 cared for, and decorated it with religious regularity on each recurring memorial day. frequently he would visit the grave in company with his wife and family, performing a pious pilgrimage at once picturesque and edifying. the desire to render the memory of sister louise some service took a strong hold on him at this time. he determined that the good sister should have a better tombstone than the modest little headpiece that occupied a place over her grave. that there could possibly be any objection to such an act of devotion and gratitude never once occurred to the old soldier. he had the stone cut at a nearby marble yard, but when the matter was brought to the attention of the superintendent of the cemetery the latter sent a communication to the church authorities recommending that the request be refused, as the grave was already provided with such a headstone as marked the resting places of other members of the order. at last the veteran called on sister magdalena, the local superior, and gave her a full account of the case. he recited in detail the unusual service that had been rendered him by the deceased sister. the superior questioned him very closely regarding the character of the stone that he desired to erect, and was particularly anxious to know its exact dimensions. she was very much impressed with his story, and expressed a desire to accede to his wishes if it could be done without ostentation or the appearance of any unnecessary show in the sisters’ section of the cemetery. she took his request under advisement, and early in 1895 he was given permission to erect the stone.
the simple monument of a sister’s devotion to duty and an old soldier’s gratitude is in the shape of a rustic 60 cross beautifully engraved. on it is inscribed the following:
to sister regenia la croix,
died march, 1867, in this city.
erected as a tribute of gratitude
from an old soldier.
t. t.
the grave is regularly decorated with choice plants and flowers, and on memorial day especially it attracts hundreds of visitors. the old soldier, with a show of pardonable pride, says there is nothing like it that has been erected over the grave of a sister of charity by any old soldier during or since the war in this country.
the name upon the cross over the grave was the name of the sister in the world. she was known in religion by the title of sister louise.
speaking of the services rendered him by sister louise sergeant trahey says:
“she was my only attendant, and no mother could have been more tender or faithful. she brought me dainties which i knew were almost priceless at the time, and books that were as rare as gold, and in a thousand ways did she add to my obligations. naturally i became greatly attached to her, and there is nothing in reason that i could do to perpetuate her memory that i would not do. her beautiful face and kind attentions have ever remained to me as one of the most precious memories of my existence. i have not the slightest doubt but that she saved my life. a glass of water given me from her 61 hand seemed to infuse new life and strength into me. whenever she approached my humble cot she brought sunshine and holiness with her. every time i meet a sister of charity upon the street i am reminded of my ever-faithful nurse. i say, and i repeat with all reverence and fervency, god bless her. i believe she is now praying for me in heaven.”
this is one of the romances of the war, illustrating in a high degree the heroism of self-sacrifice and the beauty of gratitude. there are no doubt many other similar incidents on record, differing somewhat in detail, but all tending to show the love and reverence that invariably followed the noble self-sacrifices of the sisters.
