It has been estimated that 5,000 women served as nurses in the Civil War.

The Sisters of Providence at St. Mary-of-the-Woods made a huge contribution. At the request of Indiana Gov. Oliver P. Morton, the Catholic order assumed sole responsibility for the military hospital in Indianapolis on May 17, 1861.

Before the war, a few Indiana communities supported pest houses -- facilities used for the care of those inflicted with smallpox and other dreaded contagious diseases -- but there were no general hospitals.

Dr. Livington Dunlap founded Indianapolis City Hospital -- Indiana's first general hospital -- in 1859, but it had not yet been finished or equipped when hostilities began. Moreover, in 1861, there were no trained nurses -- as we now understand the term -- in North America.

There were fewer than 100 surgeons in the Union Army at the beginning of the war. By 1865, more than 13,000 physicians served in the Union Army Medical Corps.

In early May 1861 noted social reformer Dorothea Dix tendered her services to Secretary of War Edward Stanton to establish a nurses corps. Fearful of proselytization, Dix did not favor the hiring of religious servants.

Faced with a heavy early toll of sickness and disease at military camps and crippling injuries on the battlefields, Gov. Morton paid little heed to Dix's concern. At Morton's request, the Sisters of Providence agreed to assume supervision of the Indianapolis hospital without any recompense.

The selection was appropriate. Through their training and indoctrination, the Sisters received excellent instruction regarding care for the sick and dispensing medication. Moreover, they were "obedient," adept at carrying out precise orders.

Sister Athanasius Fogarty, Sister Mary Rose O'Donaghue and Sister Matilda Swimley were the first to answer the call. While trying to care for the hospital's first 50 patients, they were required to clean and disinfect the neglected and filthy premises.

Assistance eventually was provided, allowing the Sisters to focus on hospital administration and nursing care. Convalescent patients were assigned duties. Sister Eugenia Gorman and Sister Mary Frances Guthneck were added to the managerial team.

Almost without exception the Sisters earned glowing tributes from surgeons, physicians and soldiers. Even seriously injured Confederate prisoners of war, incarcerated at Camp Morton, were high in their praise. The color of the uniform made no difference.

At the conclusion of the war, Sisters of Providence who served at the Indiana Military Hospital and at a Vincennes emergency hospital were honored by the war department. At their deaths, Sister St. Felix Buchanan, Sister Sophie Glenn and the five nuns previously named were honored by special tombstones, bearing the inscription "Army Nurse," in the convent cemetery.

Chauncey Rose was so impressed by the success in Indianapolis that he gave the Sisters five acres between Fifth and Sixth avenues on North 13th Street and $30,000 to build Providence Hospital, Terre Haute's first health care facility. Designed by architect Josse Vrydagh and built by contractor Thomas Snapp, the hospital was dedicated on June 30, 1872, but closed Nov. 17, 1874, and converted into St. Ann's Orphanage for Girls.

Indianapolis and Vincennes were not the only Indiana communities to have a military hospital during the Civil War. There were several. Jefferson General Hospital in Clark County was the third largest military hospital in the U.S. For a few months early in the war, a facility accommodating 600 patients was opened in the Early Block at Second and Wabash in Terre Haute. It was there that Leonora Watson Smith enlisted to become an army nurse.

A native of Henderson County, Ky., Leonora married Levi Smith of Terre Haute in 1857. Soon after the attack on Fort Sumter, Smith enlisted with an Illinois regiment. Leonora needed employment to support their two children. Nurses earned 40 cents a day.

When Evansville General Hospital opened, patients housed at Terre Haute were transferred. Smith chose not to relocate, but applied to Gov. Morton to serve closer to the front lines. She was dispatched with 24 other Indiana nurses to Nashville, Tenn., where a hospital was established for both Union and Confederates in Lindsley Hall at the University of Nashville.

While assigned to Nashville Military Hospital, Smith cared for victims at the battles of Murfreesboro and Stone River. In most instances, she secured the names and addresses of the patients' parents to notify them of their son's location and condition.

After six months in Nashville, Leonora was sent to Stonewall Jackson Hospital in Memphis to care for the wounded after the siege of Vicksburg. She remained in Memphis for the rest of the war and, eventually, was promoted to the position of medical purveyor.

She was still in Memphis when the steamship Robert Burns brought news of President Lincoln's assassination.

Returning to Terre Haute after the war and residing at 467 N. Third St., Leonora outlived Smith and two subsequent husbands. After raising five children to adulthood, she became active in the National Association of Army Nurses of the Civil War.

Four years prior to her death in Terre Haute on May 15, 1914, at age 83, Leonora (Watson Smith) Wright was made honorary president of the association.

She is interred at Arlington National Cemetery.