From the Civil War to Chicago’s Mercy Hospital, the extraordinary history of Irish nuns in health care. The Sisters of Mercy were the first women to go with Florence Nightingale during the Crimean War in 1854. They worked with her to make nursing more effective and to improve sanitary conditions. In America, the Sisters of Mercy would make their impact on the battlefields in … [Read more...] about Hospital Nuns: From the Civil War to Today
American Civil War
USS Monitor Sailors Laid to Rest
What will likely be the last burial of the U.S. Civil War took place at Arlington National Cemetery on March 8. Two sailors whose skeletons were found in 2002, when the gun turret of the sunken USS Monitor was unearthed off the coast of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, were finally laid to rest in a full naval ceremony. Speaking at the funeral service, Navy Secretary Ray Mabus … [Read more...] about USS Monitor Sailors Laid to Rest
James Kelly: A Sculptor of American History
James E. Kelly, sculptor and illustrator, specialized in depicting people and events surrounding the American Civil War. Historian and author William B. Styple discovered Kelly’s journals, which contained interviews with many of the generals who participated in the war. Here he writes about this amazing artist who contributed so much to recording American history. James … [Read more...] about James Kelly: A Sculptor of American History
An Irishman’s Civil War Diary
Michael Dougherty, a young Irish soldier in the American Civil War, kept a diary of his experiences, including the horrendous conditions endured in Confederate prison camps. Michael Dougherty, born in Falcarragh, County Donegal, on May 10, 1844, immigrated to America with his family at the age of 15 and went to work as a “Boots” in a Philadelphia hotel. On April 12, 1861, the … [Read more...] about An Irishman’s Civil War Diary
The Day the Irish Invaded Canada
In the sleepy town of Ridgeway, Ontario – just a stone’s throw from Crystal Beach, the “Southern Shore of Canada” and former home to the Niagara region’s most beloved amusement park – there stands a stone memorial cairn, an unobtrusive roadside monument most travelers overlook as they pass north toward Niagara Falls or east toward Buffalo. Barricaded behind a black wrought … [Read more...] about The Day the Irish Invaded Canada