Mary Ellen O’Connell

Mary Ellen O’Connell - Sister Anthony

1814 – 1897

Before the onset of the Great Famine in Ireland, young Mary Ellen O’Connell emigrated with her family from County Limerick to the USA and settled in Massachusetts. When Mary Ellen was twenty-one years old, she entered the convent of the Sisters of Charity and took the name of Sister Anthony. There she studied nursing techniques, and used her skills to administer to sick children in orphanages in Cincinnati.

Angel Of The Battlefield

When the American Civil War broke out in 1861, Sister Anthony, along with forty other nuns from the Sisters of Charity, volunteered as nurses. Initially, Sister Anthony tended to the wounded soldiers in floating hospital boats near Shiloh, but as the war progressed there were fewer able-bodied soldiers to transport the wounded to the boats. Although it was forbidden for women to be on the battlefield, Sister Anthony ignored this and led her team of nurses directly onto the bloody fields of battle to care for the wounded and dying.

Without Prejudice.

She encountered unbearable suffering amongst the soldiers, but she showed no prejudice. Union or Confederate soldier, black or white, made no difference to her. All that mattered was to tend to their injuries and relieve their suffering. She once said: ‘What we endured is simply beyond description.’.

Pioneer and Campaigner

Sister Anthony was a pioneer of Battlefield Triage. Her method was "the first recognizably modern triage techniques in war zones, saved countless lives through faster hospital treatment and won her praise from President Lincoln". Her techniques and the skills she developed allowed her team of ten nurses to intervene to save soldiers' limbs from amputation. After the war, Sister Anthony campaigned for better methods for treating wounded soldiers and she further developed the ‘Battlefield Triage’ – a technique that ensured faster treatment saving countless lives in peace and war.

These days, it is common for nurses to work in war zones thanks to the bravery and courage of Sister Anthony, who is remembered as ‘The Angel Of The Battlefield.’

Her Legacy

After the war, in 1866, Joseph C. Butler and a friend, Louis Worthington, purchased a large building in Cincinnati to present to Sister Anthony as a gift in recognition of the sisters’ service during the war. There were two conditions: that no one be excluded from the hospital because of color or religion, and that the hospital be named "The Hospital of the Good Samaritan," to honor the sisters' bravery. It opened later that same year and it still serves as St. Joseph Hospital, a residential facility for children and adults with severe mental and multiple physical disabilities.

Mary Ellen O’Connel, Sister Anthony, The Angel of the battlefield retired from active service in 1880, and died peacefully in 1897 in Cumminsville, Cincinnati, Ohio.