Dr. Oriana Moon, A Female Confederate Doctor

From: scottsvillemuseum.com Oriana Russell Moon was the second child in the family of seven children born to Anna Maria Barclay (1809-1870) and Edward Harris Moon (1805-1853).  Oriana, often called 'Orie' by her friends and family, was born in 1834 and lived with her family at Viewmont, a 1500-acre estate on Scottsville Road.  Edward Moon was a wealthy merchant with business interests in Scottsville and Memphis, and a store at Carters' Bridge.  His wife, Anna, was equally wealthy and had inherited Viewmont with all of its slaves and furniture from her stepfather, John Harris. Their daughter, Orie, and her siblings grew up in...

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Civil War U. S. Hospital, Ambulance, and Related Flags (Excerpt)

By Tom Martin, vexillologist, purveyor of Piedmont Flag Company. (Piedmontflag.com), Winter, 2014 The first flags to indicate military hospitals were yellow. In 1861, nineteen hospitals of the Marine Hospital Service were taken over for use by the Army, and they continued to fly the yellow flag already customary for quarantined ships. (Yellow or white flags were sometimes flown at civilian homes where there was an outbreak of disease.) Despite red flags being specified in Army Regulations from 1854, yellow flags were generally, if informally, used thereafter to designate general hospitals, field hospitals, and ambulance depots (aid stations),...

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Regimental Dressing Stations

From: rochestergeneral.org The initial treatment of wounded soldiers was usually administered at regimental dressing stations that were located close to the battle lines and protected by earthworks or other natural defenses. These stations were typically manned by one Regimental Assistant Surgeon and one or two medical attendants. The wounded would either come to the dressing station or be helped there by comrades. Wounds were treated with rough dressings and whiskey and opium pills would be administered to ease pain. Ideally, each regiment was assigned six ambulances with six drivers and twelve stretcher bearers that would evacuate the...

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Civil War Nurses on Hospital Ships in the Eastern Theater

By Maggie MacLean, 12-29-13 During the Civil War, the Union Army often used ships to move sick and wounded soldiers from Southern battlefields to general hospitals in Northern cities. Initially, government-run hospital transport ships performed poorly. The need for improvement was especially demonstrated during the Peninsula Campaign when well-run volunteer hospital transport ships assisted the government ships to evacuate patients. The Peninsula Campaign was a major Union operation in southeastern Virginia that lasted from March through July 1862. The plan was to travel up the Virginia peninsula by land and by river and capture the Confederate...

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Improvements in Hospital Design

From: rochestergeneral.org The devastating British deaths from disease during the Crimean War prompted improvements in sanitation and hospital design during the Civil War. The belief that improved air ventilation minimized the spread of diseases led to the development of new designs in hospitals where patients could be separated by type of injury or illness, thereby minimizing the spread of disease and infection. Florence Nightingale first suggested that military hospitals be built as pavilions.[1] These pavilions consisted of long separate wards that allowed for greater air ventilation and improved efficiency in treating similarly injured...

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Preserving the Horse Power of the Army

From: muttermuseum.org About one million horses died in service in both armies during the war. The wear and tear was extreme, constant, and inevitable, since Civil War armies were dependent upon horses and mules to keep armies supplied and to keep them on the move.  The South had 1.7 million horses and the North had 3.4 million at the beginning of the war. It did not take long for generals on both sides to exhaust their equine reserves. They were unrelenting in their demands on soldiers to properly care for their animals. An equine epidemic could imperil the military efficiency of the troops, especially in the Confederacy where...

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A Surgeon’s Sword

By Chuck Franson, Registrar, AMEDD Museum, Summer 2013 Beginning in 1840 and continuing for 62 years, U.S. Army Medical Officers were required to purchase a dress sword. This sword was completely ceremonial in purpose and was not considered an implement of war, unlike cavalry sabers or foot officer’s swords. The regulations called for a “small sword and scabbard, according to pattern in the Surgeon-General's office.” Even though the published details are vague, the M1840 sword is easily recognized. The 1840 medical sword in the collection of the AMEDD Museum has a blade marked “Solingen” indicating that it was manufactured in Solingen, Germany,...

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Depot Evacuation Hospitals

From: rochestergeneral.org By 1863, regional evacuation depots were established to process the large number of casualties. As with the division and Corps hospital systems, one medical officer would command the depot and several subordinate medical officers were delegated management of key departments within the organization such as food and shelter, Military administration, and supply replenishment. Each depot was organized into Corps hospitals consisting of Division hospitals. In 1864, the City Point Depot merged the five army corps of the Army of the Potomac effectively caring for 6,000 to 10,000 patients. The hospital wards consisted of...

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The Army Medical Department at Gettysburg

From: history.amedd.army.mil/newsletters, Summer 2013 An Overview On 1 July 1863 a meeting engagement west of Gettysburg PA escalated into one of the biggest battles in the US. The Union Army of the Potomac (roughly 92,000 strong) was moving west to block the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia (roughly 75,000 strong) which had invaded Maryland and moved into Pennsylvania. The Army of the Potomac’s Medical Director, Major Jonathan Letterman, would rise to the occasion of dealing with almost 15,000 US wounded and roughly 7,000 wounded Confederate prisoners. Each regiment (nominally 1,000 men strong) had 2 or 3 surgeons, a medical supply wagon,...

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Willie Johnston: Eleven-Year-Old Medal of Honor Winner

From: civilwarchildren.wordpress.com He was transferred from the 20th Regiment to Company H of the 3rd Vermont on May 12, 1865. He was officially discharged August 31, 1865 at Battleboro, Vermont, receiving the same bounty as his father of $500 from the United States government and $187.50 from the St. Johnsbury government. Nothing is known of Willie’s life after this point. He is believed to have enrolled in Norwich University in Northfield, Vermont in 1866, graduating in 1870. After this point, Willie practically vanishes. He may have died in 1936, but even that is debatable. Willie never married or had children. He never requested or drew...

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History of The Office of Medical History

From: history.amedd.army.mil The US Army Medical Department has an extensive and illustrious history. Brief historical highlights include maintaining one of the oldest regiments within the Army, providing the antecedent organization for the Army Reserve system, and establishing some of the first methods to capture lessons learned. Preserving, interpreting, and publishing the history of the US Army Medical Department, is the mission of the Office of Medical History. Operating almost continuously since 1862, forms of the Office of Medical History have endured numerous organizational changes. Despite the different incarnations, the Office of...

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