The official communication written by Commander Davis after a battle on White River, June 17, 1862, indicates that Mother Angela was not unknown to the authorities.
U. S. Flag Steamer Benton, Memphis, June 20, 1862.
Hon. Gideon Wells, Secretary of the Navy.Sir:—The number of men on board the hospital boat Red Rover is forty-one. The account given me yesterday was incorrect. I shall still wait for further knowledge before presenting a final report of the casualties attending the capture of the St. Charles forts. The Department will be gratified to learn that the patients are, most of them, doing well. * * * Sister Angela, the Superior of the Sisters of the Holy Cross (some of whom are performing their offices of mercy at the Mound City Hospital), has kindly offered the services of the Sisters for the hospital boat of this squadron when needed. I have written to Commander Rennock to make arrangements for their coming.
I have the honor to be, very respectfully your obedient servant,
CHARLES H. DAVIS,
Flag Officer Commanding Western Flotilla.
The Catholic Mirror, under date of November 8, 1862, records the following:
“A fourth colony of these devoted Sisterhoods has set forth on its mission of mercy, to serve in the hospitals of Washington, as they already serve so faithfully at Memphis, Cairo and Mound City. The Hospital of St. Aloysius, erected in a week by Catholic charity, fired by the zeal of the dead Jesuit Fathers, call them to its succor; and they, fully responding to the holy fervor which built these hospitals from the very overflowings of love to God and of reverence for the tabernacle in which dwells the Holy of Holies, will fill up the measure of these by ministering to the wants of the sick and sorrowing and forlorn, the objects of His love who died on Calvary, and renders daily His sacrifice for their success, and the holy temple thus saved by piety from desecration.
“Who has not heard of the Jesuit Fathers? Their fame has spread throughout the earth; and yet so silently they work, so sublimely concealed their burning zeal, that but for an occasion like the present, when the influence they possess over the human soul manifested itself by a simultaneous impulse that cannot be repressed, they for the most part live a hidden, unobtrusive life—a life which makes the surer the good they invariably effect—for near 400 years the devoted sons of St. Ignatius toiled like their founder in striving to hide from the world the individuals who achieved a good that will not be hidden; and it seems a sort of sacrilege to withdraw the veil that hides this good even partially from the world. When we think of what the Jesuits have done through long ages, our heart burns, our spirit fires, and in our heart of hearts perceive that men who do good in every age, without being tainted with the spirit of any age, demand from us reverence and not praise.
“When, then, we heard of the last demonstration of zeal, of Catholic zeal, stirred up by the Jesuit Fathers, we felt no extraordinary surprise, we manifested no extraordinary exultation; a tranquil happiness stole over us; we thanked God that St. Ignatius still lived in his sons, and that, great as was the work of building St. Aloysius Hospitals in six days, a far greater work, though a more hidden one, is being daily, hourly, performed by these devoted soldiers of the Church.
“But, meantime, the hospital of St. Aloysius is a fact; in Washington, hospitals to form a refuge for the sick, measuring six hundred feet by twenty-six, are in actual existence, erected spontaneously by Catholic charity, and purposing to be watched over also by Catholic charity, for the Sisters of the Holy Cross are already on the way to take charge of such inmates as this unhappy war shall bring within its precincts.
“May they prosper in their mission at Washington, as at Memphis, Mound City and at Cairo; may they bring balm to the wounded heart as they bandage the wounded limb; and may the blessings they bring to others react upon themselves to enable them to lead more and more fully the life of recollection every true religious covets, even while pursuing the apparently distracting occupations of attending the sick and wounded! In bringing to the bedside the comforts of a soul in constant and habitual communication with God, by the faithfulness in which are performed the religious exercises prescribed by the rule, a Sister of Holy Cross can scarcely fail to dispense treasures far more valuable than the gold and silver of the world.
“How many are the souls aided in their passage to eternity! How many reclaimed from a life of sin! How many taught to bless the temporary suffering which brought them acquainted with the peace that passeth all understanding! The annals of these deeds are hidden now; but on the Day of Judgment they will stand forth and praise the religious, who, by her spirit of prayer, was enabled to perform these ‘miracles of the soul.’”
The following communication, signed “P,” and addressed to the editor of the New York Tablet, on April 12, 1862, is interesting, not only in particularizing the order in question, but in affording another glimpse of Mother Angela:
“In your issue of the 22d I find a notice of the military hospital at Mound City. There is a mistake in that article which I am sure you will willingly rectify. The Sisters who are in charge there are not the ‘Sisters of Charity;’ they are the ‘Sisters of the Holy Cross,’ from their Convent of St. Mary’s, St. Joseph’s County, Indiana. Under the direction of their Superioress, Mother St. Angela, these pious Sisters have had for some time the charge of the hospitals at Cairo, Mound City and Paducah. Upon their arrival, about the beginning of October, all the other female nurses were dispensed with, and the Sisters assumed the entire control of the wards, each Sister having the care of one ward.
“When it became known throughout the West that Mother Angela and her Sisters had assumed this arduous position, hundreds of her friends hastened to forward to her care large supplies of clothing and linen suitable for hospital purposes. She even made a journey to Chicago for the purpose of obtaining supplies, and right nobly did the citizens respond to her call. There are now over thirty Sisters there, who are almost exhausted by their incessant labors; they know no rest night or day. Fourteen hundred wounded men are hourly receiving at their hands such care as can only be bestowed by pious souls who look for their reward not on earth but in heaven.
“It must be a great consolation to the relatives and friends of our gallant soldiers to know that they are attended on their beds of pain and suffering by such nurses. Wherever a Sister moves she has the prayers and blessings of the poor soldier, and the thanks and gratitude of the officers. Beside whatever bed death has laid his hand, there is seen a Sister seeking to alleviate the suffering of the patient and to prepare the parting soul for the judgment so soon to be pronounced upon it.”
The following reference to the Holy Cross Sisters from the pen of Father Corby is apropos:
“Sixty Sisters of the Holy Cross went out under Mother Angela. These Sisters volunteered their services to nurse the sick and the wounded soldiers, hundreds of whom, moved to sentiments of purest piety by the words and example of these angel nurses, begged to be baptized in articulo mortis—at the point of death. The labors and self-sacrifice of the Sisters during the war need no praise here. The praise is on the lips of every surviving soldier who experienced their kind and careful ministration. Many a soldier now looks down from on high with complacency on the worthy Sisters who were instrumental in saving the soul when life could not be saved. Nor was it alone from the Order of the Sisters of the Holy Cross that Sister nurses engaged in the care of the sick and wounded soldiers. Many other orders made costly sacrifices to save life and to save souls, notably the noble Order of the Sisters of Charity. To members of this order I am personally indebted. When prostrate with camp fever, insensible for nearly three days, my life was entrusted to their care. Like guardian angels these Daughters of St. Vincent watched every symptom of the fever, and by their skill and care I was soon able to return to my post of duty.”[23]
One of the interesting features of the charitable work of the war came to the notice of Mother Angela in the early part of 1864. It was a donation of $1000 from Pope Pius the IX for the relief of the sick and wounded soldiers. Through Cardinal Barnabo the Pope expressed to Bishop Timon, of Buffalo, his tender sympathy for the sufferings of the many wounded, and requested the Bishop to give, in the Pope’s name, $500 to aid in alleviating the suffering of the wounded soldiers in the Northern army, and the same amount for the same object for the Southern soldiers. Bishop Timon gave $500 to Mrs. Horatio Seymour, president of the Sanitary Commission, to aid our wounded soldiers, and $500 to Miss D. L. Dix, to be applied in procuring for wounded Southern prisoners in the hospitals any additional comforts which might be deemed useful.
The following incident concerning Mother Angela’s war experiences is from the pen of Eliza Allen Starr: