Mary Sophia Hill, the Florence Nightingale of the Confederacy
The exceptional story of Irish girl Mary Sophia Hill, a Civil Battle nurse who grew to become often known as the “Florence Nightingale of the Confederacy.”
Within the U.S. earlier than the Civil Battle, nearly all nursing care was achieved at house. Caring for your loved ones after they had been sick, was appeared upon as simply a part of a girl’s job.
Lots of the greater than 2000 nurses who served in the course of the Civil Battle are unsung heroes. Some did go away accounts, comparable to Louisa Might Alcott, the creator of “Little Girls,” who was a nurse on the Union Lodge hospital in Georgetown. Because of no actual report holding and the shortage of consideration being paid to the various girls and a few males who served as battlefield angels, their names are principally forgotten.
A kind of was Dublin girl Mary Sophia Hill.
Her actions in the course of the course of the struggle would see her develop into a heroine within the eyes of all of the troops she handled, who would consult with her because the “Florence Nightingale of the Confederacy.”
Born on November 12, 1819, in Dublin, Mary Sophia Hill was the daughter of a doctor, who, alongside along with her twin brother Samuel, spent a part of her adolescence dwelling in England.
When Samuel moved to New Orleans in December 1850, Mary went with him.
Described as “a instructor and a girl of unbiased means,” she rapidly established herself in her new house, educating English, French and music.
All went nicely till brother and sister had some type of altercation, and Samuel left in a match of pique to hitch the Accomplice Military on the outset of the Civil Battle.
Mary Hill went off to struggle to “control her brother,” following the Louisiana sixth infantry which Samuel had joined, a largely Irish regiment that was destined to serve within the Military of Northern Virginia.
Mary felt that her brother was not lower out to be a soldier. She later wrote:
“I concluded I’d comply with him to Virginia to look after him … and that I’d, wherever wanted, look after the wounded, the sick, and the distressed.”
She even went as far to jot down a letter to the British Consul asking him to rearrange for his discharge, to no avail. As Samuel marched off to struggle and was transferred into the Irish Brigade after which ordered to Richmond, Mary went too.
Mary hooked up herself to the unit’s medical employees as a nurse, and it was not lengthy till her companies had been required. She quickly discovered herself dealing with the tough realities of struggle as casualties started to stream in following the primary battle of Manassas, also called the Battle of Bull Run by Union forces.
The First Battle of Manassas on July 21, 1861. Engraving by FOC Darby, after W Ridgway. Credit score: Hulton Archive/Getty
Fought on July 21, 1861, north of the town of Manassas in Prince William County, Virginia, this was the primary main battle of the Civil Battle. Almost 36,000 males confronted off in a battle, leading to a Accomplice victory adopted by a disorganized retreat of the Union forces.
Mary cared for the wounded and recorded in her diary that she was:
“Requested by some to select Minie balls out of their legs and arms, whereas they waited their flip of the docs, who after all needed to attend to probably the most critical circumstances first. They haven’t half provides. I tore down all of the window blinds and rolled them into bandages; nor was there half hospital lodging. I made good chicken-soup and flew round usually. The sights of the wounded had been fearful to have a look at; I used to be almost wild with pleasure, pondering, as every batch of wounded arrived, I would see my brother, or my Louisiana pals of Walker’s Brigade.”
Mary was relieved that her brother’s regiment was not critically engaged on the battle. Because the struggle progressed, the Accomplice troopers below her care got here to name her ‘mom’ due to her attentiveness to their wants after they had been sick and wounded.
All through the years, she at all times discovered time to take care of her brother, attempting to be sure that he was nicely fed and clothed, whereas typically despairing at his lack of means as a soldier!
Whereas Sam’s regiment ready to participate in Stonewall Jackson’s 1862 Valley Marketing campaign, Mary determined to journey to the Richmond hospitals to see what she may do for the wounded troopers there. She quickly discovered that the sixth Louisiana had been engaged and determined to re-join her brother and his comrades. Whereas en-route, she heard a report that her brother had been killed in motion, information which Mary describes as driving her “almost loopy,” Fortunately, the studies had been untimely, though Sam had been gravely wounded.
Whereas nursing him again to well being in Richmond, Mary additionally labored within the Louisiana Hospital, the place she cared for a lot of males who had been wounded in the course of the Seven Days Battles, a collection of battles over seven days from June 25 to July 1, 1862.
Quickly Mary was not solely caring for her brother however all of the members of the regiment that had been wounded or grew to become sick. Such was her dedication that her efforts had been widely known by officers and privates alike of their studies and letters.
In later years she would recall that in the course of the Seven Days Battles round Richmond, “she noticed many a poor mom’s son decently buried, and from dying lips took cost of loving and final phrases to spouse, sister, mom.”
Mary was matron of the Louisiana Hospital, seen by many as an angel of mercy and subsequently grew to become often known as: “The Florence Nightingale of The Military of Northern Virginia.”
Whereas her nursing vocation stored her busy, Mary nonetheless discovered time for different adventures.
Her British citizenship allowed her to maneuver freely in the course of the struggle between Accomplice and Union managed areas, which included New Orleans following its fall to Union forces in April 1862.
This enabled her to hold out additional compassionate work, comparable to bringing information of killed and wounded troopers to their households and family members behind the traces. Nevertheless, her actions didn’t go unnoticed by the Federal authorities.
Mary returned to Dublin in 1863 to take care of household issues, leaving New Orleans on a cross from the Union provost marshal. It was alleged in her absence that she was a Accomplice spy, and upon her return in 1864 she was arrested by Union troopers.
The seize of New Orleans in 1862. Credit score: Getty
The costs had been carrying a solid letter to an unknown (later proved non-existent) Accomplice common and different letters for the enemy between the traces, together with garments and meals.
The final two fees Mary accepted, because the letters, garments, and meals had been all for her brother Samuel.
The opposite cost she fought. Throughout her trial, she questioned why she was arrested whereas there have been no less than three different women by the title of “Mary Hill” in New Orleans on the identical time. She was discovered responsible of spying, and regardless of recovering from scarlet fever, she was positioned within the Julia Road Girl’s Jail.
Mary was convicted and imprisoned for 4 months, struggling harsh therapy and cruelty earlier than finally being launched when the British Consul identified that she was a British topic.
Throughout her imprisonment, she tended to different prisoners.
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It seems that her conviction in the end was overturned by the actions of Christian Roselius, a Union lawyer who represented her earlier than a navy fee. A part of the case file consists of letters from the heads of assorted Accomplice hospitals testifying to her service.
In a compromise to save lots of face, she was finally sentenced “to be despatched into the Confederacy as an enemy.” Her well being would by no means get better from her imprisonment.
However the ordeal didn’t halt Mary. She was despatched on a number of confidential missions to Europe in the course of the struggle years, and right this moment family nonetheless have her “cross,” which says, “Miss Mary S. Hill has permission to sail from a Accomplice port below the standard navy circumstances.” It’s signed by James Seddon, secretary of the Military, and dated Sept. 16, 1864.
She returned to Eire in 1865 and whereas visiting household she took the chance to assist others as soon as once more with males concerned within the struggle.
Her diary illustrates that the Irish expertise of the American Civil Battle was not restricted to those that had left for America; she met an Irish household who gave her presents to take to their solely son who was a sergeant in Firm F of the sixth Louisiana, and a custom-house official who requested her to hold a letter to his brother within the struggle division in Richmond. Mary’s assist and knowledge was drastically appreciated by households who had family preventing from their native Eire.
It appears the glory of navy life pale rapidly for Samuel, who would have returned house eagerly had not Mary been there to bolster his fading curiosity and to look after him when wounded. The younger man apparently was not soldier materials; he was at all times dropping his coat or his cartridge belt or another tools he wanted, and his sister steadily needed to change misplaced gadgets.
Mary’s nursing profession was interspersed along with her makes an attempt to get her brother transferred out of the service and out of hurt’s method, her essential aim in life. It was to not occur till late within the struggle, when he was lastly reassigned to the Engineer Corps the place he would survive the struggle.
After the struggle, Mary returned to Louisiana the place she started voluntary working at a Troopers Dwelling for veterans of the Armies of Northern Virginia and Tennessee, rising to the put up of matron. Mary would take no pay because the hospital was nonetheless looking for its ft financially.
Her onerous work was exceptional when you think about that Mary’s well being suffered badly as a result of her imprisonment and she or he was thought of an invalid.
She determined to carry a lawsuit towards the US Authorities for compensation for her struggle time imprisonment. This was for “two thousand kilos sterling, as damages for merciless therapy and false imprisonment in the course of the months of Might, June, July and August 1864 within the Metropolis of New Orleans, LA, and banishment therefrom,”
Sadly, she was unsuccessful in her declare.
Her declining well being pressured her to maneuver to Brooklyn, New York, to dwell along with her nephew William VanSlooten, the place she died of most cancers on January 7, 1902. Her brother Samuel was sick and couldn’t even attend the funeral for his devoted sister.
Mary Hill stipulated that, upon her loss of life, she ought to be buried in New Orleans.
When the practice bearing her physique arrived within the metropolis, it was met by growing older males in gray uniforms who accompanied her casket to the Greenwood Cemetery. Her coffin was draped within the flag of Camp 1, Military of Northern Virginia.
Her burial was reported within the New Orleans Instances-Picayune for Jan. 13, 1902, it stated: “Veterans Bore Her to the Grave. Wrapped the Stars and Bars Round Her Casket And Sounded Faucets because the Earth Claimed Her. The Uncommon Tribute Paid to Miss Mary Hill, Who Was One of many Heroines of the South’s Struggle Towards Odds.”
Sadly, Mary was forgotten for a few years till in March 2005, the President of the Louisiana Division of the Daughters of the Confederacy unveiled a granite grave marker devoted to:
MARY SOPHIA HILL , Nov. 12, 1819 – Jan. 7, 1902 , CONFEDERATE NURSE, HOSPITAL MATRON
The mourners left a small inexperienced string of rosary beads with a inexperienced Irish shamrock hanging from it atop the stone on that March day of the marker dedication, in honor of the nurse from Eire who will ceaselessly be often known as the “Florence Nightingale of the Confederacy.”
* Initially printed in 2021, up to date in Nov 2024.
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