Margaret Hamilton (nurse)

Cornelius was the son of Dennis Mahoney and his wife, Margaret[1] Hamilton was quite close to both of her parents until her mother's death in 1857.

[2] In spring of 1862, Hamilton and three other religious sisters received an order from the Mother House to go to the Satterlee General Hospital in West Philadelphia.

[3] Only a few days after she began her service, Hamilton witnessed the consequences of so few resources as hundreds of soldiers arrived from the various battles around the Chickahominy River.

[3] Due to the lack of personnel and resources, Hamilton was constantly overworked until her own health began to fail; the battle of Gettysburg specifically placed a strain on the hospital capacities.

The hospital received many people injured at the battle of the Wilderness, and this included a young woman soldier.

She married a soldier of the 19th Maine Volunteer Infantry Regiment, Charles Roberts Hamilton, in November 1864, and the two had eight children together.