FL-MO001 War of 1898

Marker text: WAR OF 1898

On this site the Catholic Convent of the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary was located.

In April of 1898 it was graciously offered and converted to a 400 bed United States Army Hospital for the treatment of soldiers and sailors, ill with dangerous tropical diseases or wounded in battle, during Cuba's War of Independence.

In spite of the great danger, the following Sisters of The Convent cared for the afflicted; Sister Superior M. Florentine, Sister Simon, Visitation, Damien, L'Evangelista, Thomas, Hormisdas, Laurentius, Marguerite de Cortona, Egidius, Berenice, Ambroise de Sienna, Antoine de Jesus, Dolores, Catherine de Palanza, L. Gabriel, Anthony, Maurice, Domitille, Gaspard, Ulderic, Tharslie and Silvestre.

Volunteer United States Army Nurses serving here were Margaret Shaffer, Alice Lyons, Agnes Lease, Jennie Sherrian, Anna Fox and Johnetta Sanger. U.S. Army Doctors were W. C. Borden, S. Armstrong, B. Baker, H. Jackson and D. Hall.

The first U.S. Army post combat use of the X-Ray (then called Rontgen Ray) to locate bullets or shrapnel in wounded soldiers was performed at this hospital. This avoided the painful, dangerous and sometimes fatal practice of probing wounds with steel instruments, virtually blind, for the foreign matter.

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