Madame Baptiste writes to Bishop Patrick Lynch about recent gifts received by the Ursulines and the purchase of several lots in Columbia for a future convent. 4p.
Madame Baptiste writes to Bishop Patrick Lynch about recent inquiries concerning the burning of Columbia and their convent during the war and asks the Bishop for permission to publish their account of the events. 4p.
Madame Baptiste writes to Bishop Patrick Lynch about the Ursuline sisters' annual retreat, the start of the school year and plans to set up an academy in Alabama. 7p.
Madame Baptiste writes to Bishop Patrick Lynch about finances and the start of the school year at the Ursuline Convent and Academy in Valle Crucis and of her upcoming trip to Tuscaloosa, Alabama. To get to Tuscaloosa, she informs the Bishop, she will have to travel "via Montgomery per R.R., Selma per steamer, to Marion per R.R. and to Tuscaloosa per stage coach for 60 miles." 12p.
Madame Baptiste writes to Bishop Patrick Lynch about the difficulties encountered on the last leg of her journey to Tuscaloosa via stage coach and the condition of the building secured for their new convent and academy there. 8p.
Madame Baptiste writes to Bishop Patrick Lynch about legal papers that need to be formalized before hands can be hired to work at the convent grounds in Valle Crucis. 4p.
Madame Baptiste writes to Bishop Patrick Lynch about soliciting funds for the convent and academy. She asks the Bishop for the addresses of the Visitation Convent in Paris and Empress Eugenie, who have sent aid to other American convents in the past, writing "we can do nothing more in this country." 4p.
Madame Baptiste writes to brother, Bishop Patrick Lynch, about family news and affairs at the Ursuline Convent including the arrival of the "little French woman" and another boarder. 2p.
Madame Baptiste writes to her brother Bishop Patrick Lynch about the health of their family, the Ursuline Convent in Columbia and the prevalence of yellow fever. 4p.
Madame Baptiste writes to her Ursuline sisters in Valle Crucis that her return to Columbia will be delayed while she finishes work on the new convent and academy in Tuscaloosa. 4p.
Madame Baptiste writes to Reverend J. W. Cummings describing the current status of the Ursulines in Columbia and encloses a letter for her brother, Bishop Patrick Lynch, who is expected soon in New York. 3p.
Madame Baptiste writes to Sister Mary Charles Curtin about the sister's request to join the Ursuline Convent. Madame Baptiste informs her that the rules of the Ursuline Order make it difficult to accept someone who has already "professed" in another order writing that "a secular fresh from the world is preferred.....as it is more difficult to eradicate preconceived ideas of right, than to implant true ones for the first time." She also cautions the sister about the difficulty of moving from an active and worldly community to a contemplative and cloistered one. 3p.
Madame Lynch writes to Bishop Patrick Lynch congratulating him on his 4 year anniversary as Bishop and comments on her own tenure as Mother Superior at the Ursuline Convent. 4p.
Madame Lynch writes to Bishop Patrick Lynch concerning the effects of the escalating war. She informs the Bishop, who is visiting White Sulphur Springs in Montgomery, Virginia, that "the Yankees are trying to take James Island" to get closer to Charleston. Glad that he is away from Charleston she writes, "I am a very strong secessionist, but only generous with other people's brothers." 4p.
