The Daughters of Charity coordinated many aspects of the medical department for the French Army since 1643, according to the account books of that order. Soeur Marie Marguerite, daughter of a wealthy physician and midwife, sister of an apothecary and surgeon, held the position of Administrator during the recent conflicts in Prussia. She made, “not a good transition” to life back in her motherhouse, and in March, 1778, was dispatched with four of her sisters, as part of a “mission to observe the disturbances in America which now distress our commerce”. Uncomfortable with the “politic” of the Catholic Church in Philadelphia, and fearing that she would not be permitted to do more than observe, she rations it “better to seek forgiveness than permission” and does not present her letters of introduction to “the priest of highest rank” in that City, and instead follows “ troops, accompanied by a large number or women, children, and infirm in deplorable condition” who passed though Philadelphia sometime just prior to June 10, 1778. It mattered not all to her which army this was. “Work is found where God points”.

     She and her “little medical department” quickly grew as nurses, aides of ward, laundry and foodstuffs, litter carriers, and apothecaries were recruited. By July 11, 1778 she writes of having “worked in a recent encounter where I disgraced myself in front of my troops, as I was startled by a cannonball that flew just over my head, it took quite sometime to put myself to rights”. She was supported with funds from her family and mother house for her “work” throughout the war.