“The Whole Book Clean and Written in an Easy, Practical Style.”

I offer you my sincere congratulations for having given us a volume that illustrates heroic charity, in a manner calculated to command the admiration of all men. Men may differ about politics, economics, creed, the relative merits of men of letters and affairs; they will be one, however, in recognizing the “Angels of the Battlefield” as the grandest types of all the Christian virtues—charity—the bond of the true brotherhood of man.

The whole book is so clean, and written in such an easy, practical style that it is more fascinating than a classical novel—even than a well-written sensational one. After reading it through one feels like reading it to some friend, and calling his attention to its many beautiful passages and the thrilling episodes in which it abounds. It is a volume that all can read with ease and interest—not alone in clubs and homes, but in the refectories and community-rooms of our convents. From cover to cover it is, in every chapter, calculated to edify all and inspire thoughts and aspirations that are good, sweet and elevating.—Rev. William Walsh, of the diocese of Nashville, Tenn.

“Embodies the Work of Several Years of Research and Correspondence.”

This large volume embodies the work of several years of research and correspondence on the part of the author. The war itself is the merest thread upon which are strung these tales of womanly heroism which have naught to do with political or sectional feeling. The brave Sisters find in this volume their appreciative historian. The Catholic Columbian “veterans should see that it finds a place in post libraries.”

The author has been at pains to collect all the data he could find—anecdotes, thrilling incidents and statistics concerning the good nuns. His book is very entertaining. We can well believe that it will delight many an old soldier who knew the tender ministrations of the angels of the battlefield. Veterans should see that it finds a place in the post libraries, where such useful adjuncts are found.—Providence (R. I.) Visitor.

“Will Take Its Place With Standard Histories of the War.”

This work is one of much more than usual interest. It will take its place with the standard books concerning the history of the great Civil War.—Camden (N. J.) Review.

“Vivid Pictures of Sisters Who Have Gone to Their Reward.”

This interesting history gives especially vivid pictures of three Sisters who became conspicuous by reason of their superior attainments—Sister Anthony, Sister Gonzago and Sister Angela—all now gone to their reward.—Taggarts’ Times, Phila.

The Data is “Presented in a Very Attractive and Pleasing Form.”

This interesting book is handsomely bound and beautifully and profusely illustrated. It fills a gap in the history of the Rebellion. Mr. Barton, who is a trained and able writer, has expended considerable time in gathering the data about these noble women and he presents it in a very attractive and pleasing form. The volume abounds with the personal experience of the Sisters. The narrative is replete with thrilling and pathetic incidents.—Pittsburg Dispatch.

The Writer “Presents a Book With Not a Dull Page in it.”

The author of the book has succeeded in investing his work with an absorbing interest. While he fully accomplishes his motive in setting forth the numerous heroic acts and deeds of mercy of members of the Sisterhoods, he has so interwoven them with stirring incidents of the strife as to create a history that has an enduring value apart from its personal interest. He has made his selections with a judgment of what is most interesting and only acquired by a long experience in newspaper work. He has, therefore, succeeded in making a book of over three hundred pages with not a dull page in it. It is safe to say that no one who reads the introductory chapter will willingly lay the book aside until the whole work has been absorbed.—Major John W. Finney, in the Pottsville Miners’ Journal.

“The Story of the Sisters Well Told in This Charming Book.”

Many books have been written about the faithful work of women during the war, in hospitals and on the battlefields, but these books, at least those we have seen of them, are strangely silent about the work of the Catholic Sisterhoods in the same good cause. Some years ago we called the attention of Mr. George Barton, of Philadelphia, to this fact and suggested that a work of the Sisters in field and post hospitals during the war would afford ample material for a most interesting and edifying book. He saw the matter in the same light we did and set himself to the task. The result is this admirable work. The labors of all the Sisters are given in this charming book in detail and in chronological order.—Rev. L. A. Lambert, LL. D., in New York Freeman’s Journal.

“Illustrations in Perfect Taste from the Beginning to the End.”

Typographically the work is a masterpiece. The seventeen half-tone illustrations are beautifully executed; besides they are in perfect taste from the frontispiece, Thomas’ “Innocent Victim,” to the closing scene, “Lincoln at Gettysburg.” The volume is bound in red, with green trimmings, and the lettering is tastefully brought out in gilt, giving an artistic effect of coloring, pleasing to the eye and in keeping with the interior exquisiteness of finish. As a holiday book the publishers could not have improved on the “Angels of the Battlefield.”—The Connecticut Catholic.

“It Should Appeal Especially to Veterans of the War.”

All sorts of books have been written about the late war, enough to fill a good-sized library and, I think, I have read them all, but Mr. Barton’s book is a new thing in that class of literature. The author has ventured on untrodden paths, with the result that he has given to the public a vast amount of interesting history that has not hitherto seen the light of day. “Angels of the Battlefield” should meet with a generous welcome from all classes and conditions of people, irrespective of locality or religious belief; it should appeal especially to the veterans of the war, many of whom now living have experienced the practical charity and kindness of the gentle members of the various Sisterhoods. The general appearance of the book is very attractive and makes it suitable for presentation purposes.—Congressman James Rankin Young (S. M., in the Philadelphia Evening Star).

Fills “A Gap in the Chronicle of the Gruesome Years of the War.”

This work will fill, we believe, a gap in the chronicle of those gruesome years. The unselfish deeds of other women have been often related, but the incessant and universal help of the Catholic religious of the battlefields has never yet been placed in an orderly fashion before the world.—Catholic Standard and Times, Philadelphia.

The Effort “Was Well Worth Making, and the Task is Done Admirably.”

In the “Angels of the Battlefield” is given a history of the labors of the Catholic Sisterhoods in the Civil War. Among all the agencies for relief of suffering in that dreadful conflict, none was more beautiful and more self-sacrificing than the work of these untiring Sisters. The effort was well worth making, and Mr. Barton has done his task admirably.—Philadelphia Evening Telegraph.

The Reader “Brought Face to Face With the Sterner Realities of War.”

The author in this work leads us into an entirely new field of literature. He treats of a subject never before taken up in such pretentious shape. So vivid are his pictures of the great conflict and of the noble and humane work done by these self-sacrificing “angels” that the reader comes face to face with the sterner realities of the war. The book is an altogether readable one, and is a worthy adjunct to the already published literature of the Civil War.—Burlington (N. J.) Democrat.

All Will “Welcome This Delightful Volume With Its Sprightly Narrative.”

Everyone who took part in the late war, on either side, will welcome this delightful volume of reminiscence of one of the most beautiful and touching aspects of that history so full of misfortune and horrors. The special friends and admirers of the Sisterhoods, whose members participated, will all seek to possess it, and also many Catholic apologists and students of American history. The narrative is sprightly and abounds in anecdotes. This publication well deserves the large sale it is sure to have.—The (St. Louis) Church Progress.

The “Clear, Crisp Newspaper English” One of Its Good Points.”

The fact that a writer has actually found a field or phase of our national history unrecorded, or as newspaper men would say, uncovered, by a book is sufficient to entitle this volume to mention by the newspapers. The work has been well done, not only as to the amount and systematic presentation of evidence, the authenticity of which is confirmed by numerous authorities of unquestionable standing, both in and out of the Catholic Church, but also in the manner of treatment, the language being the clear, crisp newspaper English, without which no book need be expected to meet with any great degree of popular success.—The Camden (N. J.) Post.

Illustrating “The Extent and the Superb Courage” of the Sisters.

To the story of the part which our American womanhood played in the war for the Union Mr. Barton has contributed some new data in the field of our war literature which hitherto has been untouched. Moved by a spirit of gentle enthusiasm, Mr. Barton has painstakingly told in a book of several hundred pages how the Sistershoods of the Roman Catholic Church toiled in the lowliest and most perilous offices of the nurse, as they followed the armies into the very storm of shot and shell. The book is full of anecdotes of historic value in illustrating the extent and superb courage of the labors of these useful women. Let us hope that when the true history of the Civil War shall be written, as it has yet to be, there will be a place in it for them as among the noblest of their sex.—“Penn,” in the Philadelphia Evening Bulletin.

“A Comprehensive Book That Makes History, and Valuable History.”

Mr. Barton has written a book that makes history, and valuable history. It is not one of the kind that, according to the proverb, his enemies (if he has any) need rejoice over, but a tribute to the noble band to which every kindly heart, irrespective of religious faith, will respond. The author gives us a compact presentation of the history of these noble women in the matricidal strike of the 60’s, a subject which has been hitherto sadly neglected. The humility of the Sisters made the collection of data difficult, but stories included in the work have been gathered after much painstaking effort.—Louis N. Megargee in the Philadelphia Times.