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Show SISTERS OF CHARITY IN THE CIVIL WAR. BT DANIEL GEORGE JIACXAMAEA (From History of the Ninth Regiment.) And what can be said in. praise, that will do justice to its fullest extent, of our Catholic Sisters of Charity? Words of commendation, however inadequate, are left to the soldiers-; to the sick and , wounded, and to the friends of the dy ing soldier, who without regard to race or religion, received the kind and atten-- ; live care of these Christian women. In ; ; their ministrations, mark how un- ' obtrusive, gentle and diligent they wore, performing their Pelf-imposed du-ties du-ties by day and by night, in all kinds of weather: battling, as it were, with fill the hardships and miseries- o4 war. Fortunate, indeed, in their sufferings - were the comrades who received their nursing and attendance. Their presence pres-ence alone was a blessing. Untold thousands of wounded, dying soldiers, brought in fresh from the battle-field during a fratricidal war, were nursed and tended with a mother's care, and the last moments of these young departing soldiers far away from their beloved and anxious relatives were soothed and! tenderly watched, as their brave, young lives prematurely ebbed away until their eyes were closed in death, by these children of God, perchance per-chance the only ones to witness their heroic deaths, and then to write their last parting words to their loved ones at home. The end of another quarter of a century cen-tury or to, will have seen the last of the soldiers of the war, who are daily passing pass-ing over to the silent majority; then the Catholic cemeteries distributed over this- broad land can give an approximate ap-proximate number of that faith who offered of-fered their lives and services in defence of the republic to the end that the Union should remain forever indivisible under one flag, one country, one people, epeaking one language. |