ISU to host SPs and the Civil War presentation

Military Hospital in Indianapolis as it looked during the Civil War

Since late August, the Cunningham Memorial Library at Indiana State University has hosted the exhibit, “Binding Wounds, Pushing Boundaries: African Americans in Civil War Medicine.” The exhibit is sponsored by the U.S. National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health. The exhibit at ISU runs through Oct. 6 and is one of only two locations in Indiana where the exhibit will be on loan.

As part of the programs associated with the exhibit, Connie McCammon, a Sisters of Providence staff member, will present “Lest We Forget: The Civil War Service of the Sisters of Providence” Thursday, Sept. 27, from 5:30 to 7 p.m. (EDT) in the Special Collections Area of the ISU library. The Sisters of Providence played a unique role during the Civil War, serving as sister-nurses for the duration of the war at Military Hospital in Indianapolis and two short stints at an emergency hospital in Vincennes, Ind.

Come learn about these women who cared for Union and Confederate soldiers during this national tragedy. You’ll also learn how the war personally touched not only the sisters, but students at the Academy, the predecessor of Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College.

Sign up for our OLLI course on the Civil War

Discover how Sister Mary Agatha had a connection to Mary Todd Lincoln (pictured above) during our OLLI class Aug. 14 and 16. (Image credit: The Library of Congress)

The Sisters of Providence have a unique connection with the Civil War. Our sisters served as sister-nurses at Military Hospital in Indianapolis as well as at a hospital in Vincennes, Ind. You can learn more about this history by participating in the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI) at Indiana State University course, “Lest We Forget: The Civil War Service of the Sisters of Providence.” This class will be offered on the beautiful motherhouse grounds of the Congregation on Tuesday and Thursday, Aug. 14 and 16, from 2 to 4 p.m. (EDT) in the Community Room of Providence Hall. The course will be presented by Congregation staff member Connie McCammon, who has worked in the Office of Congregational Advancement since 1999.

You do not have to be an OLLI member to attend this class. You may register online or call 812-237-8707 for more information. Please register by Monday, Aug. 13.

We look forward to seeing you on Aug. 14 and 16!

This Civil War diary belonged to the grandfather of a Sister of Providence. Come to our OLLI course and learn more about George E. Blaire and his experience as a prisoner of war. George was a captain of Company A, 17th Regiment, Ohio Volunteer Infantry.

Public invited to Civil War presentation in Sullivan, Ind.

Sister Helena Burns served as a nurse during the Civil War.

“Cloistered by the majestic forest, the Convent and the Academy at St. Mary-of-the-Woods in 1860 would seem to have been too remote, too securely enclosed, to hear the rumblings of the approaching national disturbance. Echoes of trouble, however, reached even to this secluded spot,” wrote Sister Mary Theodosia Mug in her 1931 monograph of the Civil War, “Lest We Forget: The Sisters of Providence of St. Mary-of-the-Woods in Civil War Service.”

And those rumblings would eventually lead the Sisters of Providence to serve the Union as sister-nurses in Indianapolis and Vincennes, Ind.

On Tuesday, Oct. 25, at 7 p.m. (EDT) at St. Mary’s Catholic Church, 105 E. Jackson Street, Sullivan, Ind., Connie McCammon, a communications staff member in the Office of Congregational Advancement of the Sisters of Providence, will present “Lest We Forget: The Civil War Service of the Sisters of Providence.” Connie will share the story of Mother Mary Cecilia Bailly and the courageous sisters who answered a call to service during a turbulent time in the nation’s history.

Connie will also include information about the Wabash Valley Civil War Sesquicentennial Project, a special collection of Wabash Valley Visions & Voices (WV3). Other partners include Indiana State University’s Cunningham Memorial Library, the Vigo County Public Library, the Vigo County Historical Society, the Sullivan County Public Library, the Sullivan County Historical Society and the Sullivan County Clerk’s and Recorder’s Offices.

The public is invited to attend this presentation

For more information about the service of the Sisters of Providence during the Civil War, check out our children’s website, WoodsUp.com.

Learn more about Sister Helena Burns, who is pictured above.

SPs and the National Museum of Civil War Medicine

Last week, I spent several days on a Civil War pilgrimage to Gettysburg, Antietam, Harper’s Ferry and Manassas. On our way to Antietam (also known as Sharpsburg, Md.), we stopped at an awesome museum in Frederick, Md. — the National Museum of Civil War Medicine.

It rocked! There was information about the evacuation of the wounded, field hospitals, embalming, Dr. Letterman and his early version of triage, and, lo and behold, a brief entry on Sister Athanasius Fogarty and the Sisters of Providence of Saint Mary-of-the-Woods. Sister Athanasius served as directress of Military Hospital during the Civil War. Needless to say, I was very excited and asked one of the docents if I could take a photo of the sign. She said yes and was quite pleased to know that I had a connection with the Sisters of Providence.

If you are ever in the Frederick area, I strongly recommend you check out this museum.

What’s new in HOPE

“When I did my dissertation, we had to type it on a typewriter. You remember typewriters?”

“The children see that the sisters here [at Woods Day Care/Pre-School] are truly interested in them and love them.”

“We don’t give up on them [at Providence Cristo Rey High School]. If you create a culture that says it is OK to be successful, then the students learn how to do it.”

“The young girls and boys that I teach [at Guerin College Preparatory High School] are among the fortunate because their parents have as a priority the value of a Catholic education.”

By reading the summer 2011 issue of HOPE, you’ll discover who made the above statements as well as learn how the Congregation has valued education throughout the years. You’ll be introduced to two new faces at Providence Center: Sister Jan Craven and Andrew Conner. You’ll learn about the Congregation’s participation in the Vigo County Indiana Civil War Sesquicentennial Project. And, of course, you’ll find the usual departments: alumnae/i news, newsnotes, photo album and obituaries.

Enjoy!

Lest We Forget: The Civil War Service of the Sisters of Providence

Less than a month after the April 12, 1861, attack on Fort Sumter, Indiana Gov. Oliver Perry Morton requested that the Sisters of Providence of Saint Mary-of-the-Woods, Ind., provide assistance in the administration of City Hospital in Indianapolis, which had been turned over to the federal government for the care of soldiers. This hospital soon became known as Military Hospital and the Sisters of Providence became “Angels of Mercy” to Union and Confederate soldiers alike.

On Thursday, April 14, at 6:30 p.m. (CDT) at the Marshall Public Library, 612 Archer Avenue, Marshall, Ill., Connie McCammon, a communications staff member in the Office of Congregational Advancement of the Sisters of Providence, will present “Lest We Forget: The Civil War Service of the Sisters of Providence.” The event is free and open to the public. Connie will share the story of Mother Mary Cecilia Bailly and the courageous sisters who answered a call to service during a turbulent time in the nation’s history.

With the 150th anniversary of the start of the Civil War this year, the Sisters of Providence are proud to be a part of the Vigo County Indiana Civil War Sesquicentennial Project, a special collection of Wabash Valley Visions & Voices (WV3), a digital memory project. Other partners include Indiana State University’s Cunningham Memorial Library, the Vigo County Public Library and the Vigo County Historical Society. All digitized items are fully searchable online. A Library Services and Technology Act Mini-Digitization Grant from the Indiana State Library provided funding for this project.

To learn more about the Congregation’s service during the Civil War, visit the history section of our children’s website.

Letters from the battlefield

As we rapidly approach the 150th anniversary of the start of the Civil War, Wabash Valley Visions & Voices is putting the final touches on a special collection celebrating and remembering the War Between the States or the War of the Rebellion. Many of the items in this collection are personal letters of soldiers. These letters provide a “ground level” view of the war — the hardships, sickness, death and, yes, the simple joys of life.

One such letter [a transcript] is from Confederate soldier Joseph Thompson to his wife, Mary, written near Corinth, Miss., April 27-29, 1862. It is part of the Vigo County Historical Society’s collection. Part of this letter reads:

“At dress parade, an order from [P.G.T.] Beauregard [Confederate general] was read commanding us to cook five days[’] rations and always keep that much ahead. Our boys were very much excited last evening as it was thought that the enemy would attack us this morning. They are surely advancing upon us. Yesterday, our advance guard had a bloody skirmish with them. Quite a number of our men was lost. Indeed, there is not a day but what there is a skirmish.

“The conscript law is, I fear, going to do much more harm than good. Our Volunteers are greatly excited. While regiments and companies whose time expired last week are now under arrest for stacking arms and declaring they would go home. The Soldiers feel that this law takes away their liberties and robs them of all the honor and patriotism of volunteering. With compulsory feeling in their breasts, they never will fight as they have done.

“They say that they will pay us today and, as soon as I get the money, I will close this letter. O, how I wish I could take the money to you my Self! Although my time is now so short, God only knows, in these critical times what may happen [h]ere then. But some how, I am bouyed up by hope, and hope bids me be of good cheer. What a blessed thing is hope.”

To view this transcript more closely, click here. To learn more about the Vigo County Indiana Civil War Sesquicentennial Project, visit here.

The digitization of Civil War memorabilia is made possible by a Library Services and Technology Act Mini-Digitization Grant from the Indiana State Library. Partners in the project include Indiana State University’s Cunningham Memorial Library, the Vigo County Public Library, the Vigo County Historical Society and the Sisters of Providence of Saint Mary-of-the-Woods, Ind.

‘The little Indian of the northern Lakes’

“Here we see the little Indian of the northern Lakes becoming one of the Torch-bearers of Christian education in southern Indiana and a notable factor in the expansion of St. Mary-of-the-Woods.” Such are the words about the life of Mother Mary Cecilia Bailly, second general superior of the Sisters of Providence, from the book, “In God’s Acre.”

Mother Mary Cecilia Bailly became the leader of the Congregation upon the death of Saint Mother Theodore Guerin on May 14, 1856. Mother Mary Cecilia had held a variety of leadership positions in the Congregation prior to Mother Theodore’s death. She served as general superior until 1868, leading the Congregation through the difficult years of the Civil War.

Providence Associate Paul Beel (who is also a systems analyst for the Congregation’s IT Department) is an admirer of Mother Mary Cecilia and has spent numerous hours in Archives researching this early leader of the Congregation. The Sisters of Providence web editorial board is pleased to present Paul’s research on the second general superior of the Congregation in our history section. Click here to learn more.

Archives and the Civil War

The Sisters of Providence Archives has several historical documents and photos related to the Civil War. The Congregation, of course, provided nursing service at the Military Hospital in Indianapolis as well as the emergency hospital in Vincennes, Ind., during the conflict. Of the 11 sisters who served during the Civil War, our Archives has images of three sister-nurses: Sisters St. Felix Buchanan, Helena Burns and Henrietta MacKenzie.

Every Memorial Day the Congregation recognizes all Sisters of Providence who served in the military. The photograph above is an undated image of students from Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College placing flowers at the grave of one sister-nurse. For more images, click here.

‘Nuns of the Battlefield’

“Cloistered by forest, the convent and academy at Saint Mary-of-the-Woods, in 1860, would seem to have been too remote, too securely enclosed, to hear the rumblings of approaching war. Echoes of the trouble, however, seeped into this cloistered home. Realizing that if the war must come, so too must service, the latent spirit of nursing was aroused. One and all stood in readiness to serve and when the call did come, the Mother Superior [Mother Mary Cecilia Bailly] wrote: ‘This is an eventful occasion for the Community. May our Divine Lord help us to perform well the duties we are now undertaking.’”

Thus begins the story of the Civil War and the Sisters of Providence in the book “Nuns of the Battlefield” by Ellen Ryan Jolly. In this work, Dr. Jolly traces the service provided by women religious in the North and the South during the Civil War. The story of the Sisters of Providence is told in chapter 20. To view this chapter, click here.

For more information about the Sisters of Providence and the role they played during this tumultuous period in our nation’s history, click here.

The Hand of Providence

In 1949, a small booklet written by the Rev. John F. McShane was published. “The Hand of Providence” is a short history of Indianapolis General Hospital. It was at this facility that Indiana Governor Oliver P. Morton requested the assistance of the Sisters of Providence in running during the Civil War. The Sisters of Providence, under the leadership of Sister Athanasius Fogarty, took over the administration and “domestic arrangements” of this hospital, known then as Military Hospital, on May 17, 1861.

To read “The Hand of Providence,” click here. For more information about the Sisters of Providence during the Civil War, click here.

Lest We Forget

The rich history of the service of the Sisters of Providence during the Civil War comes alive in the small book, “Lest We Forget.” Written by Sister Mary Theodosia Mug and published in 1931 by Providence Press, this book provides insight into the role the sisters played at the Military Hospital in Indianapolis.

Click here to view the book. For more information about the sisters and the Civil War, click here.

To view other Our Past in Print publications, click here.

Preparing for the 150th anniversary of the Civil War

The Sisters of Providence Archives is one of four institutions in Vigo County to participate in a digitization project of Civil War material. Under the auspices of Wabash Valley Visions and Voices (WV3), of which the Sisters of Providence are a partner, Civil War-related items of the Congregation will be digitized and will eventually be searchable on the WV3 Web site, a local digital memory project. A Library Services and Technology Act Mini-Digitization Grant from the Indiana State Library provides the funding for this project.

The digitization of these materials coincides with the 150th anniversary of the beginning of the Civil War next year. For more information about this project, click here.

To learn more about the role that the Sisters of Providence played during the Civil War, click here.

Confederate goose charged with treason!

There were many religious congregations that provided medical care to Confederate and Union soldiers during the Civil War. While the Sisters of Providence didn’t provide care directly on the battlefield, they did serve at military hospitals in Indianapolis and Vincennes.

While there was much misery as a Civil War nurse, there were glimpses of humor. Ellen Ryan Jolly in her book, “Nuns of the Battlefield,” tells the story of religious congregations that provided nursing care during the war. In the chapter for the Sisters of Providence, the author relates a humorous story about a Confederate goose charged with treason. To read this story, click here.

For more information about the Civil War service of the Sisters of Providence, click here.

Answering a call to duty

On May 17, 1861, the Sisters of Providence took charge of of all “domestic arrangements” at City Hospital, Indianapolis. This hospital had been turned over to the federal government for the care of soldiers during the Civil War. Indiana Governor Oliver P. Morton asked the sisters for their help.

WoodsUp.com, our children’s Web site, documents the sisters’ service at this facility. From April to August 1861, 640 patients were registered in the hospital, with 430 of those inflicted with measles. To read a partial entry of the surgeons’ report and the surgeons’ appreciation for the Sisters of Providence, click here.

To learn more about hospital routines during the Civil War, click here.

WoodsUp and the Civil War

Our children’s Web site, WoodsUp.com, provides information, lesson plans and games in the subject areas of the environment, art and music, justice, history, Saint Mother Theodore Guerin and faith and values. In the history section, which meets the Indiana Academic Standards for students in fourth and eighth grades, there is a plethora of information about the Civil War.

Some of this material includes information about the final days of the Confederate presidency of Jefferson Davis. On May 10, 1865, Davis was captured by the Union Army. Click here to learn more about his last days in Richmond, Va., and his ultimate capture.

You can learn more about Davis by clicking here.

Gems from our Archives

The Sisters of Providence are truly blessed to have an Archives that is filled with artifacts, journals and papers documenting the history of this Congregation from its humble beginnings in Ruillé, France, to Saint Mother Theodore Guerin’s arrival at this sacred spot on Oct. 22, 1840.

One of the gems recently shared on our Web site is about the service of the Sisters of Providence during the Civil War, 1861-1865. The Congregation was asked by Governor Morton to run the Military (City) Hospital in Indianapolis. Mother Superior Mary Cecilia Bailly and the council gave their approval and appointed Sister Athanasius Fogarty as the directress of this facility. Sister Athanasius was well respected and well liked as a sister-nurse.

The necrology (obituary) of Sister Athanasius that resides in our Archives reveals more of the life and challenges of Sister Athanasius. It also demonstrates the gratitude of one man for Sister Athanasius’s devotion to the soldiers of the Civil War. Click here for her story.

Click here for more information on the service of the Sisters of Providence during the Civil War.

The Civil War and WoodsUp.com

Are you a teacher or a parent who homeschools her children? Then the Sisters of Providence children’s Web site — www.WoodsUp.com — might be just for you! This site provides information, lesson plans and games in the subject areas of the environment, art and music, justice, history, Saint Mother Theodore Guerin and faith and values. The history and justice sections reflect the Indiana Academic Standards.

If you are planning a Civil War unit during the winter or spring, check out that section here. This section also includes articles about Abraham Lincoln and Jefferson Davis. There is even information about the White House of the Confederacy and a short video about this historic building in Richmond, Virginia.