On Hospitals in Ships

By Thomas L. Snyder, 12-24-11

According to the International Red Cross, the history of hospital ships, at least in the west, starts in the 17th century, when navies began to routinely send ships intended for the care of wounded and sick sailors and soldiers in company with fleet actions. In the 17th and 18th centuries, naval authorities chose veteran combat vessels for hospital use. Typically these tired men-of-war served as warehouses for the sick and wounded–victims of the rigors and deprivations of long distance sailing, or of war. During the 19th century, the procedure of taking ships up from trade–contracting civilian passenger liners or cruise ships and converting them to hospital use–found increasing use among many navies. Even as recently as the war in the Falkland Islands, the British Royal Navy took SS Uganda up from her civilian service as an educational cruise vessel to serve UK and allied troops during that short but violent conflict.

By the twentieth century, while the vast bulk of ships serving hospital duty were taken up from trade, some nations–the United States in particular–began constructing purpose-built hospital ships, the first example being the USS Relief (AH-1), laid down in 1917 and commissioned in 1919. In World War II, the British, Australian, Canadian, New Zealand, Dutch, French and German naval services all boasted hospital ships taken up from trade and converted for hospital or sick-transport use. The U S Army commissioned 24 hospital ships, all in hulls converted from civilian use and manned by Navy crews and Army medical staffs. To this day, the vast bulk of ships serving a dedicated hospital role are commercial or transport hulls converted to hospital purpose.

In 1907, hospital ships received explicit international legal status with international legal protections from attack and seizure, under Article Four of the Tenth Hague Convention. In order to receive such international protection, the hospital ship must meet the following standards: they must carry on no military activities, including interference with navigation by enemy ships; they must be painted white and bear large images of the red cross, the red crescent, or the red lion and sun. In order to ensure their protection under the Convention, these ships may be illuminated at night and during periods of poor visibility in order to make their hospital ship status readily apparent. Ironically, it was the Russian Hospital ship Orel (Eagle) that, by being so illuminated, tipped off elements of the Japanese navy to the presence of the Russian Admiral Rozhesvensky’s fleet trying to sneak its way under cover of fog and dark through the Tsushima Strait to Vladivostok. This contact led directly to the 1905 epochal naval battle that devastated the combined Russian fleet, and confirmed the ascendancy of Japanese naval power.

In World War I, hospital ships continued their traditional role as transports of the sick and wounded, bringing them from far away points of combat back to their home country for definitive treatment. The same can be said for hospital ships in World War II, though by this time, increasingly sophisticated care could be provided aboard these ships. By the time of the Korean War, hospital ships could take the role of stationary hospitals simply located at sea. An example of this is the Danish hospital ship Jutlandia, which, operated by the Danish Foreign Ministry and staffed by Danish volunteers, and with agreement of the United Nations, anchored off the Korean city of Pusan, and later Inchon, to provide medical services to military and civilian casualties and sick alike for three years during the U N’s police action in that peninsular nation.

Today, only the U S (Mercy class), Chinese (Type 920) and Russian (Project 320 Ob’ Class) navies operate large hospital ships; these are almost inevitably hulls converted or adapted from other purposes. The Spanish Department of Labor operates a large purpose-built hospital ship to serve that nation’s commercial and fishing fleet, and many nations, including Argentina and Brazil, operate smaller hospital units afloat in their extensive river waterways to provide care to civilian populations. Given the trend toward delivering nearly definitive care to wounded soldiers very close to, or in, combat action zones, and the extensive use of air evacuation, many are questioning the need for large hospital ships. The American experience is instructive: since 2003, U S hospital ships have been absent in areas of U S combat operations; increasingly, they are seen as assets to provide humanitarian care in areas of natural disaster. The US, Chinese, British, and German navies increasingly use medical and surgical capabilities built into combat or combat support ships to provide at-sea medical support for operations distant from the home country. The US has extensive medical capability in amphibious warfare ships of the LHD, LHA, LPD and LSD classes; the British have the Royal Fleet Auxiliary (Aviation Training Ship) Argus, now designated as a Primary Casualty Receiving Ship) and the Germany navy counts two ships (with a third on order) in its Berlin Class of replenishment ships, designed to support German military forces away from their home ports.

It would appear that while the nature of hospital facilities at sea are changing, there is little doubt that soldiers, sailors and Marines can look forward to receiving medical and surgical care “from the sea” for some time to come.

Image: USS Relief

From: ofshipssurgeons.wordpress.com

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Hospital Ships of the Sanitary Commission

From: revolvy.com

Frederick Law Olmsted, the executive director of the United States Sanitary Commission, set up a system of hospital ships for wounded and sick soldiers in the American Civil War. The USSC was a private agency that cooperated closely with the U.S. Army.

City of Memphis and Fanny Bullit
Between 6 and 16 Feb 1862, the Union advanced across the country and captured Forts Henry and Donelson. Upon hearing word of the battle, members of the Sanitary Commission in Cincinnati gathered supplies, volunteers and procured a steamer passengered by the most senior members of the commission at the Cincinnati branch. Upon arrival at Fort Donelson, the commission learned that insufficient means were taken to treat and transport the wounded. The Union's two army "hospital" ships, the City of Memphis and Fanny Bullitt, had not been furnished to serve as such ships and were merely empty vessels on which vast numbers of wounded suffered. Supplies were distributed, and 80 wounded were transported back to Cincinnati on the steamer with doctors and nurses to tend to them. The boat traveled from Mississippi to Ohio.

Tycoon and Monarch
In April 1862, the Union's victory at Shiloh resulted in the outpouring of hospital transports to the city. The two transports refitted and dispatched by the Sanitary Commission were joined by a fleet of private, army, and state hospital ships. The Tycoon and Monarch were the Commission's first refitted hospital ships. Sympathy, benevolence, patriotism and a desire to ease the suffering of our nation's troops was the only thing these groups shared in common. Following this event, the Sanitary Commission began outfitting any hospital ship, army, state, association, or voluntary, and if necessary, they operated the ships as well. All of the army's ships used as hospital transports were refitted and initially supplied through the direction of the Sanitary Commission. Funding came from the army, Sanitary Commission, state, and volunteer organizations. The army transferred at least one ship to the Sanitary Commission, the steamer Daniel Webster No. 1. Even the Red Rover, a river boat captured by the Union Army, was well equipped and initially staffed by the Sanitary Commission until the ship was sold to the navy.

St. Philip
These were not the first hospital ships employed by the Civil War governments; previous ships used as hospitals, like the hospital ship CSS St. Philip (formerly the Star of the West) in September 1861 and April 1862, retained patients for long periods of time (30–90 days easily) and stayed on station rarely travelling. The Sanitary Commission used their steamers as a means of bringing wounded further back behind supply lines, keeping wounded on board for as short a time as possible, from 1–7 days. Men and women of all races, some hired while others volunteered, served throughout the hospital ships and hospitals of the Union as nurses.

The Western Sanitary Commission was a private agency based in St. Louis that was a rival of the larger U.S. Sanitary Commission, doing much the same work. It was led by abolitionists and focused more on the needs of Freedmen.

The Hospital Transport Service
The Sanitary Commission, at the request of the army, created the Hospital Transport Service. It acquired 16 medium and large boats and converted them to hospital ships. Its first major operations came in the Peninsular Campaign of spring 1862, when it serviced casualties from General McClellan's Army of 100,000 men after a series of battles.[1]

The Sanitary Commission quickly organized large fleets of ships and created a network system of routes to move wounded. Rivers and ocean connecting the Union became highway over which the wounded steadily traveled further North.

When possible, few embarkation points were used. Ships were assigned schedules and maximum patient allowances. If a ship embarked more patients than allowed, even though space permitted, her crew would be required to notify the receiving station. Several ships were kept in reserve, used only when another ship was unable to continue to make a journey. Thus a very predictable and organized system grew. On the Pamunkey River, 19 hospital transports working on a fixed schedule, moved 700 wounded a day, every day. Of particular interest, the ships had far greater capacity, some 600 more wounded could have been crammed onto some of the ships. But, this was frowned upon by the organizers as such a number would overcrowd the ship, overtask the medical staff, erode the quality of care, and place an unexpected burden on the receiving hospital. Thus, in theory some 70,000 wounded could be moved from Virginia in 100 days to hospitals in five states as far north as New York. A second inland force of about 16 hospital ships moved patients along riverways north to Missouri, Ohio, and Kentucky.

Hospital Ships of the Peninsula Campaign
Name Load Embarkation Area Debarkation Area Transport Days Note
S.R. Spaulding Unk Fortress Monroe New York 7
Daniel Webster No. 1 Fortress Monroe New York 7 Former Army, saw service at Yorktown
Empress 400 York River Fortress Monroe 2
Imperial 400 York River Fortress Monroe 2 Outfitted in St. Louis
Ocean Queen 400 James River Fortress Monroe 2
Wilson Small 400 James River Fortress Monroe 2
Elizabeth n/a Fortress Monroe York and James River n/a Storeboat
Elm City 400 Pamunkey River Philadelphia 6
Commodore 400 Pamunkey River Maryland 4
Vanderbilt 400 Pamunkey River Maryland 4
Louisiana 400 Pamunkey River Maryland 4
State of Maine 400 Pamunkey River Maryland 4
Kennebeck 300 Pamunkey River Virginia 2
Daniel Webster No. 2 300 Pamunkey River Virginia 2
John Brooks 400 Pamunkey River n/a n/a In Reserve
Whilldin 400 Pamunkey River n/a n/a In Reserve
Knickerbocker 400 Pamunkey River n/a n/a In Reserve
St. Mark Pamunkey River n/a n/a Stationary
Euterpe Pamunkey River n/a n/a Stationary

Hospital Boats of the Sanitary Commission
Fanny Bullitt (Ohio River)
City of Alton
Crescent City
Ruth
Glasgow
Diana
Nebraska
Champion
Baltic
J. S. Cairns
Ben Franklin
Continental
Hazel Dell
Bickerdyke
Tycoon (Shiloh - Cincinnati)
Monarch (Shiloh - Cincinnati)
Ships Outfitted by Sanitary Commission but transferred to Army
Red Rover (Mississippi River) later transferred to Navy
City of Memphis (Ohio River)
City of Nashville
City of Louisiana, Renamed R. C. Wood (Ohio River)
D. A. January*

Notes
Witold Rybczynski, A Clearing In The Distance: Frederick Law Olmsted and America in the 19th Century (2000) pp 208-13

Further reading
Maxwell, William Quentin. Lincoln's Fifth Wheel: The Political History of the U.S. Sanitary Commission (1956) online edition
Olmsted, Frederick Law. The Papers of Frederick Law Olmsted. Vol. 4: Defending the Union: The Civil War and the U.S. Sanitary Commission, 1861-1863 (1986) excerpt and text search
Stillé, Charles J. History of the United States Sanitary Commission, Being the General Report of Its Work during the War of the Rebellion (1866), online

Image: A Sanitary Commission barge at City Point,

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City of Memphis Hospital Ship

From: riverboatdaves.com

Name: CITY of MEMPHIS/CONSTITUTION/CITY of MEMPHIS
    Type: Sidewheel wooden hull packet          Size: 301' X 36' X 8'
    Power: 32 1/2's-8 ft.. Six boilers, each 45" X 30 ft.
    Launched: 1857, Monongahela, Pa. Hull by George Cunningham
    Area: 1857, New Orleans - St. Louis
          1862, New Orleans - St. Louis
    Owners: 1857, Kountz, Capt. William J.
            1862, Nov., Bofinger, Capt. John and others.
            *At one time was under Atlantic and Mississippi Steamship Company banner.
    Captains: 1857, Kountz, William J.
              1860, Montgomery, J, Ed
              1863, Nov., Bofinger, Capt. John and others.
    Comments: Most of her cabin works were salvaged from the CHRYSTAL PALACE.
              1864, spring, renamed CONSTITUTION, but change was dissalowed by U.S.
                    Customs and she reverted to being the CITY OF MEMPHIS.
    Comments: At time Ft. Sumter was first fired on, she was laid up at
                    Mound City, Ill..
              1862, April, became a hospital boat.

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History of U.S. Navy Hospital Ship Red Rover

From: archive.org

The first hospital ship of the United States Navy was originally a commercial side-wheel river steamer RED ROVER built at Cape Girardeau, Missouri, in 1859. She was purchased at New Orleans on 7 November 1861 by the Confederate States of America to serve as a barracks or accommodation ship for the men of the Confederate States Floating Battery NEW ORLEANS which had been placed in commission at New Orleans on 14 October 1861 by Lieutenant John Julius Guthrie, Confederate States Navy. The latter officer jointly commanded the floating battery and the RED ROVER, who had no armament but was more for the men to live on than for active service.

She made her way up the Mississippi River as far as Island No. 10 where she assisted in the blockade of the Western Gunboat Flotilla of the Union Army. Lieutenant Guthrie was relieved of his command in March 1862 by Lieutenant G. W. Averett, CSN, and on the 15th of March, Island No. 10 saw the commencement of a naval bombardment by the Western Gunboat Flotilla and Mortar Fleet of the Union Army. Though the floating battery NEW ORLEANS was jarred by the explosions of shells, under and around, she was unharmed. RED ROVER, however, was put out of action early in the bombardment by a piece of shell which cut through all her decks to her bottom and caused
her to leak considerably but not dangerously. Abandoned as a quarters ship for the NEW ORLEANS after this event she was safely moored on the opposite side of the Island Number 10 and was captured by the Federal gunboat MOUND CITY when that Island fell into Union hands on 7 April 1862. Volunteer Acting Master Cyrenius *Deminey /o r Doming of the MOUND CITY made the
actual capture of the RED ROVER. He later distinguished himself by capture of the Rebel steamer CLARA DOLSON in the White River and was on the upper deck and escaped death by scalding when the boilers of the MOUND CITY were exploded by a Confederate shell in June 1862. He saved many of the men of his gunboat on that occasion although two were shot as he hauled them aboard
while in the water. For this and other gallantry he received a promotion to Acting Volunteer Lieutenant upon recommendation of Flag Officer Andrew H. Foote, USN, who reported: "His moral character is excellent and we have no braver or more correct officer among the Volunteer Lieutenants."

RED ROVER was repaired by Commander Kilty and the engineers of the MOUND CITY to enable her passage up river to St. Louis, Missouri, where she was fitted out as a floating summer hospital for the Western Flotilla. Army Quartermaster George D. Wise reported on 25 May 1862: "I am in St.
Louis preparing the RED ROVER for a hospital for our sick and wounded. The Sanitary Commission have rendered me valuable advice and aid, and the RED ROVER will have every requisite for the purpose she is intended."

^Signature appears as Dominy although official records spell his name
"Deminey".

U. S. NAVY HOSPITAL SHIP RED ROVER

George H. Bixby became the senior medical officer of the floating hospital and on 3 June 1862 acknowledged his appointment as Assistant Surgeon in the U. S. gunboat service to Flag Officer Charles H. Davis, USN, commanding the Western Flotilla on the Mississippi Rivers "... I accept with gratitude this notice you have seen fit to take of me, willingly subscribing myself amendable to the laws, regulations and discipline of the Navy as they are or may be established by the Congress
of the United States or other competent authority." He remained the senior medical officer of RED ROVER throughout the Civil War. He was assisted by another medical doctor from his hometown of Boston, Doctor George H. Hopkins, and other surgeons.

Commander and Fleet Captain Alexander M. Pennock, USN, was in charge of fitting out the Western Flotilla at the Naval Depot at Cairo, Illinois. RED ROVER reported to him for duty 10 June 1862. On that day Pennock wrote to Flag Officer Charles H. Davis: " I have to thank Captain Wise, Assistant Quartermaster, for his untiring and successful exertion in the equipment of this boat, and I hope you will approve of all he has done. He informs me that she has stores on board for her crew for three months and medical supplies sufficient for 200 men for three months. She is also abundantly supplied with delicacies for the sick and has on board 300 tons of ice. Captain Wise acknowledged his obligations to the Western Sanitary Commission for the great interest they took in the equipment of this boat, for their advice and substantial aid, to the amount in dollars and cents of $3,500 gratuitously bestowed. The boat is supplied with everything necessary for the restoration to health of sick and disabled seamen. I have directed Captain McDaniel and the surgeon to report to you for orders and for assignment to their particular duties." ^Captain McDaniel, never further identified, was the first commanding officer of RED ROVER.

On 12 June 1862, in a letter to Flag Officer Foote, Quartermaster Wise wrote from the Office of the Naval Depot at Cairo: "I wish you could see our hospital boat, the RED ROVER, with all her comforts for the sick and disabled seamen. She is decided to be the most complete thing of the kind that ever floated and is every way a decided success. The Western Sanitary Association gave us in cost of articles $3,500. The ice box of the steamer holds 300 tons. She has bathrooms, laundry, elevator for the sick from the lower to upper deck, amputating room, nine different water-closets, gauze blinds to the windows to keep the cinders and smoke from annoying the sick, two separate kitchens for sick and well, a regular corps of nurses, and two water-closets on every deck."

* NOTE: Acting Master C. H. Daniels, identified by some as her commanding officer was stationed at the Washington Navy Yard during the period in question, there being letters signed by him at that location in the files of the National Archives.

U. S. NAVY HOSPITAL SHIP RED ROVER

RED ROVER received her first hospital patient on 11 June 1862, Seaman David Sans who was a cholera victim from the gunboat BENTON. Four other patients were received that day, thirteen on the 12th, and thirty-eight patients were received from ships of the Western Flotilla on the 13th.
Her great benefit to the Western Flotilla on the Mississippi River was underscored by Flag Officer Charles H. Davis on 14 June 1862 when he wrote to Quartermaster George D. Wise, U. S. Army: " No one but those w\.c have witness can comprehend the sufferings to which our sick have been
exposed by the absence of proper accommodations on board the gunboats and by the necessity for frequent and sometimes hasty change of place. The wounded and patients suffering from fever occupy, under the direction of the surgeon, those parts of the ship which are most quiet and best ventilated.

When the ship was cleared for action, as often happened when lying near Fort Pillow, it was necessary to take down their cots and hammocks more than quickly into out-of-the-way and uncomfortable places. This must always be attended with pain and distress, if not positive injury. The arrival of the RED ROVER will put a stop to all this, promote the efficiency of the Squadron
by procuring comfort and means of restoration for the sick. All the conveniences and appliances of a hospital are fully provided and to these are added the neatness and order essential to so large an establishment."

Though certain steamers including the CITY OF MEMPHIS had been pressed into service as hospital transports, they lacked accommodations, cleanliness and the medical staff which could be afforded by the RED ROVER. Only the latter ship could be truly described as she often was: "Floating Naval Hospital Ship 'Red Rover. 1 "

On 17 June 1862 the Federal gunboat MOUND CITY who had captured the RED ROVER, took part in the attack on the White River which resulted in the capture of the Confederate For+.s at St. Charles, Arkansas. During the action a shell from the Rebel batteries penetrated the port casemate of the MOUND CITY, killed three men in its flight; and exploded her steam drum. Eight men were scalded to death and 43 were either drowned or shot after leaping overboard. The total casualties were 135 out of a total of 175 on board the gunboat. Many of these men were admitted to the Army Hospital at Memphis, Tennessee. Thirty-seven were transferred from the hospital on 19 June 1862
to RED ROVER for transportation to hospitals in Illinois. The Mortar Fleet of the Army was present at Memphis which had surrendered on 6 June and Doctor Bixby obtained approval of his request for male nurses of that fleet to accompany the RED ROVER up river where they assisted in removal of the sick to hospitals ashore. About this same time, Sister Angela, the Superior of the Sisters of the Holy Cross, offered the services of the Sisters for the "hospital boat" and Flag Officer Charles H. Davis, Commanding the Western Flotilla, wrote to Fleet Officer A. M. Pennock to make arrangements for their coming. There is, however, no conclusive evidence that women served as nurses on the RED ROVER prior to the time that she was fitted out and commissioned as a hospital ship of the United States Navy at the end of the year.

RED ROVER departed Memphis on 24 June 1862 and stopped at Cairo the next day. Here, Fleet Captain Alexander M. Pennock telegraphed at once to the Director of the United States Army Hospital at Mound City to arrange who was ordered by Secretary Welles on 16 May 1861 to report to General George B. McClellan, United States Army, to assist in establishing a naval armament on the Mississippi River and its tributaries. He was given able assistance by Naval Constructor Samuel M. Pook. Acting in conjunction with and subordinate to the Army, Commodore John Rodgers purchased three side- wheel steamers at Cincinnati and fitted them for service, the money being
furnished by the War Department. They became the wooded steam gunboats TYLER, LEXINGTON, and CONESTOGA, nucleus of the Great Mississippi River Fleet. On 31 November 1861 Commodore Rodgers was relieved when Captain Andrew H. Foote, USN, was promoted to Flag-officer in command of the United States Naval Forces on the Mississippi River and its tributaries, still
under control of the Army. It was Flag Officer Foote who took the initial step toward an organized Navy Medical Department on western waters of the interior. While on board the Federal gunboat ESSEX 6 January 1862 he wrote to Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles: "Sirs I respectfully request
that Surgeon Andrew A. Henderson may be ordered to this Flotillas as Fleet Surgeon. In view of the service in which the Flotilla is engaged, and there being no Naval Surgeon attached to it, I consider the appointment of a Fleet Surgeon desirable alike on the ground of securing good medical
treatment and surgery and a judicious and economical expenditure of medical stores. I have the honor to be Very Respectfully Your Obedient Servant
A. H. Foote, Flag Officer."

Flag Officer Foote was succeeded by Flag Officer Charles Henry Davis, USN, on 17 June 1862. The service of the Flotilla remained more naval than land. The commanding officers were Navy officers, most of the men were sailors and much of the ordnance stores were supplied by the Navy Department. Though times of confusion and some embarrassment resulted from the mixed
nature of this service, there was no want of harmony. On 16 July 1862 the Congress approved an act that the Western Gunboat Fleet, constructed by the War Department for operations on Western waters, be transferred to the Navy Department and on 10 September the Secretary of the Navy wrote Commodore Charles Henry Davis that "1st of October next has been designated as the day for the transfer of the Western Flotilla from the War to the Navy Department ..." 1 October 1862 was also designated by the War department in its order transferring the Flotilla. At this same time the name of the Western Gunboat Flotilla was changed to the Mississippi Squadron. Acting Rear Admiral David D. Porter was appointed Commander of the Squadron, effective the date of transfer, but he did not take command until the 15th. Ships comprising the squadron transferred to the Navy included ten iron- plated gunboats? three wooden gunboats; thirteen steam tugs; eight transport
steamers, (including RED ROVER); five wooden gunboats; two ammunition steamers, and one large wharf boat of 4,000 tons used as the Naval Depot at Cairo, Illinois. So on 1 October 1862, the United States Navy acquired its first hospital ship, the USS RED ROVER, then fitting out for the winter.

With the transfer of the Western Flotilla to the Navy came the initial organization of the Navy Medical Department on Western Waters. On the morning of 25 September 1862 Navy Fleet Surgeon Edward Gilchrist reported from Cairo that a very large number of sick belonging to the Mississippi
Squadron were in Army hospitals at Mound City and Cairo; and, a very considerable number were in different and distant military hospitals throughout the West. He had recommended to Flag Officer Charles Henry Davis that all the men be collected for a medical survey upon them and all sick of the squadron. That same morning he held consultations with the Medical Director of the District and the Army Surgeon of the Mound City Hospital regarding arrangements for the accommodations of the Squadron's sick. He was offered the use of the Mound City Hotel in which all the sick of the Mississippi Squadron could be collected and come under the exclusive direction of Medical officer of the Navy. Gilchrist was convinced that such an arrangement was absolutely indispensable to the
proper care of the Navy's sick and to the "regularity and efficiency of the service." He supported this view to Dr. William Whelan, the Chief of the Bureau of Medicine and Surgery with the following statement: "Heretofore, from the nature of the case there has been every conceivable irregularity
in the medical affairs of the squadron and the service would have suffered excessively but for the cheerful and zealous assistance which the medical officers of the Army have always been ready to give us, frequently to their own great inconvenience. The plan proposed will not only relieve them of
a great amount of duty and responsibility which properly belongs to us, but is the only one, I am convinced, for the sole organization and management of the medical duty of the Squadron as to deserve your approbation." Gilchrist assured the Chief of the Bureau of Medicine and Surgery that the Army Medical Director would continue to furnish medical stores for the Squadron as in the past and that the proposal was entirely approved by Fleet Captain Alexander M. Pennock, USN, as well as Acting Rear Admiral Charles H. Davis.

On 29 September 1862 Rear Admiral Davis telegraphed the Chief of Bureau of Medicine and Surgery requesting authorization for delivery of the building for a Naval Hospital, informing him that the "senior medical officer of the Army says our sick numbering 300 must be moved from Mound
City Hospital." Approval was obtained in a few days and the Mound City Hotel was rented for the sum of 75 dollars per month for use as a Navy Hospital. This was the beginning of organization for the Navy Medical Department on Western Waters. Prior to this time there were no instructions
given to the Service for regulations of medical departments which was "half Navy and half Army", so the irregularities and confusion was not so much from ignorance as from lack of direction and written regulations for carrying out uniform procedures. Unfortunately for the Medical Service of
the Navy, many surgeons were confirmed in their irregularities by lack of uniform instructions when the transfer of the Western Flotilla from Army to Navy took place. Acting Rear Admiral Charles H. Davis immediately requested Regulations of the Service be sent for use of the Squadron along
with forms used by the Bureau of Medicine and Surgery so that all surgeons of the Mississippi Squadron could better and more efficiently serve the Navy. He was relieved by Acting Rear Admiral David D. Porter on 15 October 1862 and the latter officer immediately ordered Fleet Surgeon Gilchrist to requisition 600 iron hospital bedsteads in anticipation of the growth of the Mississippi Squadron.

On 23 October 1862 Gilchrist wrote to Dr. Whelan, Chief of Bureau of Medicine and Surgery; "The fitting up of the Hospital and Hospital Boat; the care of a great number of sick for whom I had no proper accommodation and the labor of surveying all the sick of the Squadron in this vicinity
has brought upon me an amount of work, which has made it impossible hitherto, for one to make such regular and accurate reports to you as I could otherwise have done. Some time must still elapse before the Hospital Department of the Squadron can be regularly and properly organized. It involves a greater amount of labor, than any one not upon the spot, can readily comprehend."
Three days later Gilchrist reported he had made a bargain for heating the RED ROVER "throughout with steam by Porter's order." On 12 November 1862 he wrote to Dr. Whelans "All the sick in this vicinity, belonging to the Squadron have been surveyed." " The Naval Hospital at Mound City and
the Hospital Boat at that place are now full to overflowing, and the Ordnance Boat "Judge Torrence" is now being converted into a hospital boat for temporary service."

Dr. George H. Bixby and Doctor George Hopkins remained on the RED ROVER as did her Commanding Officer, William R. Wells, all having accepted acting appointments in the service of the United States Navy. According to the medical journal of the hospital ship she had admitted a total of 374 patients by the end of the year 1862. Of this number, 332 were discharged as hospital patients, 37 died, and 5 deserted. Whole number of sick days for patients subsisted amounted to 9,842 days. Her total expenses for the year were listed in her journal as $3,462.79.

Although crowded conditions of shore hospitals put her in service while she was fitting out for winter, RED ROVER was not commissioned in the United States Navy until 26 December 1862. She was under command of Acting Master William R. Wells, U. S. Navy, who was included in the "Crew numbering 12 Officers" and 35 men, "In all 47 souls." Persons "not shipped" on board and employed in the Medical Department of the RED ROVER soon number about 30. Four of this number were Sisters of the Order of the Holy Cross.

On Christmas Eve 1862, Sister M. Veronica (C. Moran), Sister M. Adela (M. Reilly), and Sister M. Callista (E. Pointan), cair.e on board the RED ROVER, having transferred from the Army Hospital at Mound City for duty which would see the first two mentioned Sisters tending the sick on the
hospital ship for the duration of the Civil War. On 9 February 1863 they were joined by Sister M. John of the Cross (C. McLouglin) carried on reports as Sister St. John who served as a nurse on RED ROVER until 30 September 1863. Sister M. Callista left the hospital ship on 2 March 1863 but again reported on board for duty on 28 January 1865. Female negro nurses working under direction of the Sisters on board the RED ROVER when she was commissioned 26 December 1862 were Alice Kennedy and Sarah Kinno. Those who later served were Ellen Campbell, Betsy Young, and Dennis Downs. These women may truly be said to be the pioneers or forerunners of the United States Navy Nurse Corps as they were the first female nurses carried on board a United States Navy Hospital Ship. In addition to the valiant nurses there were several laundresses employed in the Hospital Department of the ship. Referred to in official records as "sundry employees hired by the Medical Department" they were not always mustered since they "cannot strictly be said to belong to the service." Nonetheless they were carried on certain muster rolls as well as on invoices kept on board RED ROVER from 1 January 1863 to 31 March 1865 under the heading of "Amounts paid persons 'not shipped' on board U. S. N. Hospital 'Red Rover' employed in the Medical Department." Their number, including men employed, varied from the peak of approximately 40 in the busiest times to as few as 8.

RED ROVER got underway from Mound City at six o'clock the morning of 29 December 1862 and anchored at Memphis, Tennessee that afternoon, reporting to Captain Bishop, General Officer of the Port, on board the GENERAL BRAGG. Five seamen reported to her crew from the GENERAL BRAGG and the paymaster approved the purchase of 124 pounds of fresh meat at eight cents per pound
for issue on board. She passed on down river the next day and had left Helena, Arkansas at 2s00 p.m. A half hour after passing Frairs point she met USS LONGS IDE carrying General Gorman who reported the river closed at Bolivar. He had turned back and picked up along shore, a part of the crew of USS BLUE WING taken by Rebels at that place. General Gorman and Dr. Bixby decided to return to Helena for further information in regard to the blockade before risking the safety of their ships. An hour before high noon of 31 December 1862 they again started down river from Helena in the convoy of gunboats LANCASTER and TIGRESS. The convoy passed Napoleon where they found the gunboat CONESTOGA at anchor, and it was exactly midnight when RED ROVER passed Bolivar with her one 32-pounder loaded with grape and all hands at quarters. She escaped notice of Rebel guns and when the LANCASTER stopped to receive wood for her boilers at Island No. 76, Doctor
Bixby, Surgeon in Charge of RED ROVER, decided to run his ship to the Fleet without convoy. At 5 p. m. , 1 January 1863 he made the mouth of the Yazoo River where he received orders from the Senior Officer to proceed upstream. At 7:30 p.m. he reached the USS BLACKHAWK, Flagship of the Mississippi Squadron ten miles up the Yazoo River, and reported on board to Admiral David D. Porter. The next day RED ROVER returned to the mouth of the Yazoo where transports came down with troops and anchored under the Louisiana shore. In company with the flagship BLACK HAWK, she anchored at the Mouth of the White River on the 7th, remaining there on guard with the ordnance ship JUDGE TORRENCE on the 9th while the Mississippi Squadron stood up the White River. The light flotilla led by RATTLER was followed by Admiral Porter's flagship BLACKHAWK. Next came the iron-clad heavy flotilla and the transports with the gunboat LEXINGTON bringing up the rear. Admiral Porter had assigned RED ROVER and JUDGE TORRENCE the task of guarding the mouth of the White River and the coal barges, notifying any light draft gunboats and all coal or store-boats to stop at the mouth of the White River until further orders. His fleet conducted a naval bombardment, followed by the Army's assault which carried the Post of Arkansas (Fort Hindman) on 11 January 1863.

The naval bombardment had ended at 6 p.m. on the latter date and SIGNAL made her way back down the White River to transfer the wounded to RED ROVER who delivered to SIGNAL, ice and fresh beef. Gunboat NEW ERA also arrived with wounded and was given the same service as a commissary boat and transports anchored at the mouth of the White River with troops from Helena, Arkansas.

RED ROVER left the mouth of the White River on 21 January 1863 and was mooring in company with the flagship about a mile below Napoleon when she was fired into by rebels, two shots striking her and entering the hospital.

She returned the fire with musketry and moved four more miles farther to spend the night. She returned to the mouth of the Yazoo River on 23 January 1863, continuing to care for the wounded and sick of the Mississippi Squadron as it supported the Army expedition to gain control of the Yazoo River as well as the tributary rivers which were instrumental in affording movement
of supplies to the Confederate forces at Vicksburg, Mississippi. The magnitude of the Confederate defenses of Vicksburg were intended to repulse any force, naval or military or both combined, which could be brought against them. This made the Federal siege formidable, and the rebel defenses
seemed for a time to defy all attempts at their reduction. Meantime, in December 1862, Fleet Surgeon Ninian A. Pinkney had relieved Fleet Surgeon Edward Gilchrist. He made the RED ROVER his headquarters ship and from her flowed the orders, correspondence, pleas, and action of this remarkable man as he overcame the many difficulties and problems obstructing the best care
and interest of the Navy sick and wounded of the Mississippi Squadron. To the Chief of the Bureau of Medicine and Surgery went recommendations for organization and standard instructions to surgeons of the squadron. Acting in concert with Admiral Porter and Fleet Officer Alexander M. Pennock, he pressed upon the Bureau of Medicine and Surgery the need of supplying all the iron-clads with medical officers and the light-draft ships with surgeon stewards so that these fighting ships on frequent detached duty could properly care for their sick and wounded until they reached the RED ROVER or shore hospitals. No opportunity of improving the service seem to escape his attention and his immediate response was to take the advantage in each case. Typical is a letter written by the tireless man of mercy aboard the RED ROVER on 7 February 1863 which reads in part "The fourth paragraph of the Section seventeenth of Regulations, if literally construed and applied to this Hospital Ship, absolutely required that patients having injury or disability likely to entitle them to pensions, or determined by survey, must remain in the hospital until their claim for pension shall have been forwarded to the Department, acted upon, and the decision officially made
known to the Fleet Surgeon by it. I desire to be instructed whether such instruction is imperatively binding for the reason that if applied to this Squadron it must give rise to exposure to an unhealthy climate (which might be avoided), liability to overcrowding of the Hospital and overworking of
attendants, and serving unnecessary accumulation of accounts here - all of which are serious evils." Seven months later he had lost none of his zeal or concern for men of the squadron when he wrote the Chief of the Bureau of Medicine and Surgery: "I have the honor to acknowledge receipt of your
communication directing the appointment of competent Surgeon Stewards to the charge of the Medical Department of such vessels where the Medical Officers could be dispensed with.

I shall in accordance with this order carry out its provisions as far as may be found practicable. I do not think, however, that any reduction can safely be made in the Medical Department of this Squadron, as all of the vessels are placed on separate service.

From the nature of the climate, it is reasonable to suppose that Medical Officers are equally liable to attacks of sickness as other officers; and therefore would require leave of absence. There are at present several whose state of health is such as to require change of climate. Their services
cannot well be dispensed with until I can obtain medical officers to take their place.

The increased compensation to Surgeon Stewards will enable me to obtain the services of competent men, who can safely take charge of the Medical Department of the smaller vessels."

While RED ROVER watched over the sick and wounded above Vicksburg in the winter of 1862-1863, the wounded and sick accumulated along the rivers without means of providing for them. Finding that Memphis, Tennessee was the most central point as well as the most healthy place on the Mississippi River besides furnishing other advantages not obtained at any other point on the river, Admiral Porter sent Fleet Surgeon Pinkney to visit General Grant in February 1863. The Fleet Surgeon requested permission for the Navy to occupy suitable buildings at Memphis for hospital purposes and the General promptly ordered a rebel building turned over to him. As all hospitals, save for the Mound City Hotel, were in possession of the Army and those being full to overflowing, there was little possibility of accommodating the Navy sick and wounded without scattering them all over the country, removing some at the risk of their lives. Thus the Commercial Hotel of Memphis, Tennessee, was converted to hospital use by the Navy. The hotel was soon providing shelter to 248 brave and gallant men who had periled their lives in defense of the Flag. This Navy hospital was
appropriately named Hospital Pinkney in honor of the spunky Fleet Surgeon. Sister St. John, Order of the Holy Cross, left the RED ROVER at the end of September 1863 to take charge of nursing there. Hospital Pinkney largely fulfilled the earlier plea of Fleet Surgeon Edward Gilchrist that the sick of the Squadron be collected and come under the exclusive direction of medical officers of the Navy.

Firing could often be heard from the vicinity of Vicksburg as RED ROVER received the wounded and sick from the various ships of the squadron. From her station at the mouth of the Yazoo, she often ran thirty miles up the river to procure eggs, chickens, milk and such from Harrison 1 s Plantation. These fresh provisions were for the use of the hospital department. Her crew kept busy with many duties. They packed fresh beef in ice, built cattle corrals on shore for the live stock eventually destined for meat supply; buried the dead, took on board stores and provisions; and off-loaded to ships of the Squadron, medical supplies, provisions and stores.

On 16 April 1863 RED ROVER weighed anchor and proceeded down the Mississippi as far as the lower fleet of transports where she landed on the Louisiana shore just above Vicksburg at 10s 15 p.m. Now the gunboats and transports passed her by with the intention of running the blockade
past Vicksburg. They rounded the point near 11 p.m. and enemy musketry opened up. Soon Confederate heavy guns spoke out as fires were lighted on shore to illuminate the passing Squadron. The gunboats dueled the batter 4 9s and the town as they swept ahead at full speed and succeeded in breaking through the blockade. Before the Federal siege ended, some sixteen thousand shells would be thrown from mortars, gunboats, and naval batteries upon the Vicksburg and its defense. Moving from these scenes of combat, RED ROVER, overflowing with patients, arrived at Memphis on 23 April 1863. Here she transferred her most serious cases to Hospital Pinkney
preparatory to repairs in the Navy Yard. Her repairs were complete by 20 May 1863 when she received eleven men from Hospital Pinkney as crew. She arrived off the White River the next morning and Fleet Surgeon Pinkney came aboard to accompany her on down to the mouth of the Yazoo River. She continued to receive, treat and evacuate the wounded of the fleet on western waters of the interior as it destroyed everything of value along the entire Yazoo River and brought greater pressure to bear on Vicksburg in cooperation with the Army. That Confederate stronghold fell on 4 July 1863 and RED ROVER arrived at Memphis with casualties of that successful Army-Navy siege the 14th. She anchored at Vicksburg on 30 July and proceeded down river the next day to the Jefferson Davis Plantation and transferred medicine to gunboat CARONDELET thence to Grand Gulf » Mississippi, where she delivered medical supplies to gunboat LOUISVILLE. Continuing down river, RED ROVER
visited Natchez, Baton Rouge and New Orleans, then proceeded back up river by way of the various fleet rendezvous to Memphis where she tied to shore near the Navy Yard on 15 August 1863.

RED ROVER remained st Memphis until 17 October 1863 and came to anchor off Mound City on the 19th. At 2 p.m. a board of officers came on board to hold a survey of the hospital ship and her machinery. Only three patients were on board as of the first of the month and only 21 patients were
admitted to her care for the remainder of the year while the ice ran heavy in the river and she waited for extensive repairs. She did not get on the ways of the yeard until 23 February 1864 and came off on 10 March. She left the yard on 11 April, shifting to Cairo where her commanding officer, Acting
Volunteer Lieutenant William R. Wells, reported to Fleet Captain Alexander M. Pennock, USN. Here RED ROVER received medical stores for the fleet, two boxes for Admiral Porter and sick men from steamer CLARA DOLSON. She stood down river on 12 April as the few hundred Federal troops at Fort Pillow, Tennessee, were overwhelmed by several thousand Confederates. An agreement was reached to allow the Union Army to remove their wounded and bury their dead the morning of 13 April 1864. About fifty of the wounded were placed on board PLATTE VALLEY. Those who could walk were brought down the Bluffs, supported on either side by a Rebel soldier. Other Union prisoners were sent in from Confederate camps after PLATTE VALLEY departed.

RED ROVER landed at Fort Pillow at 2 p.m., taking all the wounded (13 soldiers) for care in hospital wards. She got her gun ready for action and prepared for an expected attack from the guns of Fort Randolph as she headed back up river but she passed that Rebel fort without incident. She
arrived at Memphis the morning of 14 April, sending the wounded soldiers to the Army Hospital and sick seamen of the Squadron to Hospital Pinkney. She started back down river the next day, putting off medical stores and supplies to ships of the squadron at" such places as the mouth of the White
and Yazoo Rivers and the Jefferson Davis Plantation below Vicksburg.

RED ROVER came off the mouth of Red River on 17 April 1864 to support the fleet cooperating with the Army in the expedition up that stream. Upon reaching Springfield the gunboats found that Union land forces were falling back towards Grand Ecore, Louisiana. They were obliged to return down river as they had no infantry to dislodge the Confederate batteries which could be mounted on the river banks. On the return voyage they were constantly taken under fire by the rebels from every assailable point.

Upon reaching Grand Ecore, the gunboats found that the Red River had fallen so low, they could not pass over the rapids. It seemed that the better part of the squadron would be doomed to destruction as the Union Army prepared to evacuate that place. Lieutenant Colonel Joseph Bailey, Acting
Engineer of the Nineteenth Army Corps, proposed a plan for building a series of dams across the rocks of the falls, thus raising the level of the river. Constructed by Army-Navy men, the dam had a center opening which let the ships ride out on the crest of the water. On 9 May 1864, gunboat LEXINGTON passed into calm deep water, soon followed by the rest of the fleet. Meantime RED ROVER, stationed at the mouth of the Red River, delivered medical supplies, ice, provisions and stores to ships of the fleet as she admitted their sick and wounded to her hospital department.

On 24 May 1864 Acting Volunteer Lieutenant William R. Wells was relieved of command by Acting Ensign Charles King, USN. RED ROVER returned to Memphis on 3 June 1864. By this time the Mississippi Squadron had increased to about a hundred ships, carrying some 460 guns, with crews amounting in the aggregate to about 5,500 men. Kentucky, Tennessee and Arkansas, the upper portions of the states of Mississippi and Louisiana, and the southern portions of those states which bordered on the Ohio River on the north, had been relieved and liberated through the instrumentality of the gunboats acting by themselves, or in earnest cooperation with the Federal Armies. To patrol the great stream which is the Mississippi River from Cairo to New Orleans was a great task whereby Confederate combinations were broken and their organization severed as if by an impassable gulf. Similar patrols were conducted in the Ohio, Tennessee and Cumberland Rivers. Waters traversed by ships of the squadron were eventually divided into ten naval districts, each under the command of an experienced officer. While the ships in each district had appropriate fields of assigned duty, they were ready to support each other if emergency arose. RED ROVER was not assigned to a particular district. In addition to her service as a hospital ship to the Squadron, she acted as a medical provisions and supply ship, moving down and up river between Cairo and New Orleans, receiving the sick from ships on station and delivering to them the vital medical stores and supplies for use in their medical departments. On her return, she landed her patients to Hospital Pinkney in Memphis, Tennessee. She was in that city the Sunday morning of 22 August 1864 when the Confederate General Forrest with more than 2,000 men entered the city and occupied it about two hours before being driven out. Iron-clad gunboat ESSEX did not have steam up so RED ROVER was lashed to her port quarter, prepared to maneuver upstream should circumstance require. The gunboat CARONDELET had meanwhile arrived to reconnoiter the river below the fort as the Confederates withdrew from the city.

RED ROVER commenced her last medical supply voyage from Memphis on 24 October 1864. She delivered medical stores to ships at Helena, Arkansas, White River and Red River, thence again to the mouth of the Yazoo and back to Memphis where she arrived on 23 November 1864 to transfer the sick of the squadron to Hospital Pinkney. She received on board men from Hospital
Pinkney for duty on 5 December 1864 and started up river on the 7th. Near midnight she rounded to and stood back to Memphis to pick up documents which had been forgotten, thence up river to Island 39, past Fort Pillow and Point Pleasant and Cairo. She reached Mound City, Illinois, on 11
December 1864. This was her location to the end of her career. On the afternoon of 30 December 1864 the gig of Fleet Surgeon Ninian Pinkney came alongside RED ROVER and he embarked along with Doctor James S. Knight, Paymaster A. W. Pearson, Mr. and Mrs. Dudley and their little daughter. The gig's crew consisted of six men and the coxswain and they proceeded in the gig down the river with the intention of reaching the U. S. store ship GENERAL LYONS. They had intended to land a little above the GENERAL LYONS at the landing but got too near the bow of that ship before its hulk could be seen in the dark night. The strong current drifted the gig onto the bow of the GENERAL LYONS. Sinking amidships on the GENERAL LYONS' bow, the gig capsized, throwing all her passengers and crew into the treacherous river. All were rescued except Mr. Dudley and his daughter and two of the crew.

As the Civil War drew to a close, the light draft ironclads of the Mississippi Squadron were detached for service in Mobile Bay where the Confederate Naval Forces in waters of Alabama formally surrendered on 10 May 1865. This marked the end of an organized Confederate Navy which was
dealt the final blow with the fall of the three forts at Sabine Pass (25 May 1865) and Galveston, Texas (2 June 1865). Acting Rear Admiral Samuel Phillips Lee had assumed command of the Squadron on 1 November 1864 and he was relieved in August 1865 by Commodore John W. Livingston who closed up the affairs of the Mississippi Squadron in November 1865. RED ROVER
continued to care for Navy patients throughout all this time until 17 November 1865 when her eleven remaining patients were transferred to the steamer GRAMPUS. During her career she had admitted only three less than 2,500 patients. 1,697 had been admitted during 11 June 1862-31 March 1865, 332 being from Southern States, 343 from Northern States, 231 from Western
States, 376 born in foreign countries, and the nativity of 415 not ascertained. Out of the 1,697 patients admitted during 11 June 1862 to 31 March 1865, 157 had died. An additional 780 patients were cared for by RED ROVER during the period 1 April to 17 November 1865. Her last record of those employed in her medical department is dated 30 April 1865. Sister M. Veronica and Sister Adela were still on board and it is presumed they remained to her last day of service, 17 November 1865. Dr. George H. Bixby who had contributed so much to the effectiveness of the hospital ship
was honorably discharged from the Navy on 26 September 1865. He resumed his medical practice in Boston where he engaged important research and wrote numerous treaties.

Throughout the career of RED ROVER she had an average crew of 40 men and an equal number employed in her hospital department. In addition to the women nurses, there were men to care for the sick. Some of these male nurses were convalescent sailors and soldiers detailed to duty from shore hospitals.

Stripped of her gun and iron-plate, RED ROVER was sold at public auction in Mound City, Illinois, on 29 November 1865. Her purchaser was Mr. A. M. Carpenter who paid $4,500 for the hulk of the first United States Navy Hospital Ship. Her well equipped medical spaces, cool wards, ice boxes,
diet kitchens and expert medical staff were a godsend to the Fleet. It is indeed a tribute to note the absence of severe criticism in reference to her care of the sick and wounded. Among the medical officers who served on her besides Dr. George H. Bixby and Dr. George H. Hopkins, were
Assistant Surgeon James S. Knight, Passed Assistant Surgeon Michael Bradley; Acting Assistant Surgeon J. F. Field, Assistant Surgeon J. B. Parker. Acting Assistant Surgeon William F. McNutt, and Acting Assistant Surgeon William H. Willson.

Since the passing of RED ROVER who was the first of her kind to carry women nurses, many luxurious passenger liners have been converted to hospital ships, each one an improvement over its predecessor. The USS RELIEF (AH 1) was the first ship of the United States Navy to be designed and constructed solely for hospital purposes.

RED ROVER was a wooden side-wheel steamer displacing 786 tons and drawing 8 feet of water. The dimensions of her hull are unknown. She consumed 37^ bushels of coal per hour and her maximum upstream speed was nine knots. Her average speed was five knots and her crew numbered 42 officers and men when first commissioned. The average number employed in her medical department was near that assigned as crew. She was armed with one 32-pounder gun.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. Ship's Deck Log of USS RED ROVER, 26 Dec 1862-1 Jan 1865

2. Medical Journals of RED ROVER, 10 Jun 1862-17 Nov 1865

3. Muster Rolls of RED ROVER, Aug 1863-Apr 1865

4. USS RED ROVER, Abstract of Patients, 10 Jun 1862-17 Nov 1865

5. Letters from all sources, Bureau of Medicine and Surgery,
Navy Department, 1861-1865

6. Officers Letters, Navy Department, 1861-1865

7. Letters and reports of officers of the Western Flotilla, later
transferred to Navy and redesignated Mississippi Squadron, 1861-1865

8. Ledger of "Deaths- Invoices-Receipts & C" USS RED ROVER,
10 Jun 1862-17 Nov 1865

9. Extracts from War Department (Army) Hospital muster rolls and
pay records of Nurses, Matrons and Attendants (1861-1865)

10. Official Records of the Union and Confederate Navies ,
Series I and II

11. Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies.

NAVY DEPARTMENT
OFFICE OF THE CHIEF OF NAVAL OPERATIONS
DIVISION OF NAVAL HISTORY (OP 09B9)
SHIPS' HISTORY SECTION

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USS Red Rover

From: wikipedia.org

Name: USS Red Rover
Laid down: date unknown
Launched: in 1859 at Cape Girardeau, Missouri
Acquired: 30 September 1862
Commissioned: circa 26 October 1862
Decommissioned: 17 November 1865 at Mound City, Illinois
Struck: 1865 (est.)
Homeport: Mound City, Illinois
Captured: circa 25 March 1862 by Union Navy forces
Fate: sold, 29 November 1865
General characteristics
Type: Steamer / Hospital ship
Displacement: 650 long tons (660 t)
Length: 256 ft (78 m)
Beam: Unknown
Draught: 8 ft (2.4 m)
Propulsion: Steam engine side wheel-propelled
Speed: 8 kn (9.2 mph; 15 km/h)
Complement: crew of 47
medical department 30+
Armament: 1 × 32-pounder gun

USS Red Rover (1861) was a 650-ton Confederate States of America steamer that the United States Navy captured. After refitting the vessel, the Union used it as a hospital ship during the American Civil War.

Red Rover became the U.S. Navy’s first hospital ship, serving the Mississippi Squadron until the end of the American Civil War. Her medical complement included nurses from the Catholic order Sisters of the Holy Cross, the first female nurses to serve on board a Navy ship. In addition to caring for and transporting sick and wounded men, she provided medical supplies to Navy ships along the Western Rivers.

Service under the Confederacy
Red Rover was a side-wheel steamer built in 1859 at Cape Girardeau, Missouri. The Confederacy purchased her on 7 November 1861, and initially put her to use as a barracks ship for the floating battery at New Orleans, Louisiana. Serving from 15 March 1862, at Island No. 10, near New Madrid, Missouri, she was holed by Union fire during a bombardment of that island sometime before 25 March, leading the Confederates to abandon her as a barracks ship.

Captured by the Union Army
When the island fell to Union forces on 7 April, the Union gunboat USS Mound City captured Red Rover. The Union forces repaired her, fitting her out as a summer hospital ship for the Army's Western Flotilla. Her role was to augment the limited Union medical facilities, to minimize the hazards to sick and wounded in fighting ships, and to facilitate delivery of medical supplies to and evacuation of personnel from forward areas.

Civil War Care of the Sick and Wounded

Hospital Ward on Red Rover
At the time of Red Rover's commissioning as a hospital ship, the Union was already using steamers such as the City of Memphis as medical transports to carry casualties upriver. However, these transports lacked necessary sanitary accommodations and medical staff, and thus were unable to prevent the spread of disease. Barges, housed over or covered with canvas, were ordered for the care of contagious diseases, primarily smallpox, and were moored in shady spots along the river.

Rapid mobilization at the start of the Civil War had vitiated efforts to prevent the outbreak and epidemic communication of disease on both sides of the conflict. Vaccination was slow; sanitation and hygiene were generally poor. Overworked military medical personnel were assisted by voluntary societies coordinated by the U.S. Sanitary Commission founded in June 1861. But by 1865, typhoid fever, typhus, dysentery, diarrhea, cholera, smallpox, measles, and malaria would claim more lives than gunshot.

Conversion to Hospital Ship
Red Rover, serving first with the Union Army, then with the Union Navy, drew on both military and voluntary medical personnel. Her conversion to a hospital boat, begun at St. Louis, Missouri, and completed at Cairo, Illinois, was undertaken by the Western Sanitary Commission with both sanitation and comfort in mind. A separate operating room was installed and equipped. A galley was put below, providing separate kitchen facilities for the patients. The cabin aft was opened for better air circulation. A steam boiler was added for laundry purposes. An elevator, numerous bathrooms, nine water closets, and gauze window blinds "... to keep cinders and smoke from annoying the sick" were also included in the work.

Civil War Service
Mound City hospital service
On 10 June 1862, Red Rover was ready for service. Her commanding officer was Captain McDaniel of the Army's Gunboat Service. Assistant Surgeon George H. Bixby became Surgeon in Charge.

On 11 June, Red Rover received her first patient, a cholera victim. By the 14th, she had 55 patients. On the 17th, Mound City exploded during an engagement with Confederate batteries at St. Charles, Arkansas. Casualties amounted to 135 out of a complement of 175. Red Rover, dispatched to assist in the emergency, took on board extreme burn and wound cases at Memphis, Tennessee, and transported them to less crowded hospitals in Illinois.

Vicksburg, Mississippi, Hospital Service
From Mound City, Illinois, the hospital ship moved down-stream again and joined the Western Flotilla above Vicksburg, Mississippi. Through the summer, she treated the flotilla's sick and wounded while the Ram Fleet engaged at Vicksburg and along the Mississippi River to Helena, Arkansas. While off Helena, Red Rover caught fire, but — with assistance from the gunboat Benton — she extinguished the blaze and continued her work.

Transferred to the Union Navy’s Mississippi Operating Area
In September 1862, Red Rover — still legally under the jurisdiction of an Illinois prize court — was sent to Cairo, Illinois, to be winterized. The Navy purchased her on the 30th. The next day, the Union transferred the vessels of the Western Flotilla, with their officers and men, to the Navy Department to serve as the Mississippi Squadron under acting Rear Adm. David Dixon Porter. The Navy Medical Department of Western Waters was organized at the same time under Fleet Surg. Edward Gilchrist.

In December Red Rover, used during the fall to alleviate crowded medical facilities ashore, was ready for service on the river. On the 26th, she was commissioned under the command of Acting Master William R. Wells, USN. Her complement was 47, while her medical department, remaining under Assistant Surgeon Bixby, was initially about 30. Of that number, three were Sisters of the Order of the Holy Cross, later joined by a fourth member of their order and assisted by lay nurses' aides. These women were the forerunners of the U.S. Navy Nurse Corps. The Western Sanitation Commission, which also donated over $3,000 worth of equipment to the ship, coordinated the work of these and other volunteers.

In December 1862, Fleet Surg. Ninian A. Pinckney relieved Fleet Surg. Gilchrist. Pinckney imposed such strict standards on the department's day-to-day activities and ran them so well run from his headquarters in Red Rover that by 1865, he was able to claim "there is less ... sickness in the Fleet than in the healthiest portion of the globe."

Supporting the White River expedition
On the 29th, Red Rover headed downstream. During January 1863, she served with the expedition up the White River. While the expedition took the Port of Arkansas (Fort Hindman), she remained at the mouth of the river to receive the wounded. On her departure, she was fired on and two shots penetrated into the hospital area, but caused no casualties.

From February to the fall of Vicksburg early in July, she cared for the sick and wounded of that campaign and supplemented her medical support of Union forces by provisioning other ships of the Mississippi Squadron with ice and fresh meat. She also provided burial details and sent medical personnel ashore when and where needed.

Red Rover continued her service along the river, taking on sick and wounded and delivering medicine and supplies until the fall of 1864. In October of that year, she began her last supply run. After delivering medical stores to ships at Helena and on the White, Red, and Yazoo Rivers, she transferred patients to Hospital Pinckney at Memphis, Tennessee and headed north.

Post-war Decommissioning
Arriving at Mound City, Illinois on 11 December, she remained there, caring for Navy patients, until she was decommissioned on 17 November 1865. Having admitted over 2,400 patients during her career, she transferred her last 11 to Grampus on that date. On 29 November, she was sold at public auction to A. M. Carpenter.

Legacy
When accessioned recruits to the United States Navy arrive at Recruit Training Center, Great Lakes, Illinois, the first Branch Medical Clinic they visit is named BMC Red Rover. It is there that recruits get their first inoculations, immunizations, optometry screenings, female examinations, and dental screenings.

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The Steamboat Imperial

From: steamboattimes.com

Built: circa 1855.
Type: Sidewheel, wooden hull packet.
Size:  Unknown except for Harpers Weekly illustration.

On July 16, 1863, the steamboat IMPERIAL arrived in New Orleans from St. Louis, marking the opening of the Mississippi River in the closing stages of the Civil War, following the cessation of river traffic in 1861. She had left St. Louis on July 8, four days after the surrender of Vicksburg to General Grant.

Quote:~
The whole town was thrown into a state of pleasing excitement on Thursday last, just after the CREOLE sailed, by the sudden appearance at the levee of the large steamboat IMPERIAL, just in from St. Louis. She came down freighted with some 600 head of cattle, part of a large haul that was made at Natchez a short time ago. She had a pleasant, unmolested trip all the way down, and reported the river perfectly quiet between this and St. Louis.

The IMPERIAL is an immense, showy vessel, one of the first-class river steamers, which completely dwarfs the LAUREL HILL, EMPIRE PARISH, and others that we have been long accustomed to look upon as leviathans. But it was not her size nor fine equipments which impressed the eager multitudes who thronged to see her; it was the fact that she was the first freight boat which had ventured down the Mississippi since the fall of Vicksburg and Port Hudson; and every one who gazed upon her proud form saw in her the embodiment of reawakened commerce with the Mississippi Valley. She staid in New Orleans just long enough to receive the greetings of hundreds, and then went on to Carrollton, near the city, where she unloaded her living freight.
Credit:~ Harpers Weekly, August 8, 1863.

Credit: Artist, J.R. Hamilton. Published in Harper's Weekly (1863).
Medium: Wood engraving.
Created: 1863.

On a trip down the Missouri in 1867, she left Cow Island in September, 198 miles below Ft. Benton, with 275 passengers aboard at $130 per head. Suffering unseasonably low water, she grounded repeatedly on sandbars  (132 of them) until 2 months later and 1000 miles above St Louis, all the passengers had deserted her. She was later sold at public auction.

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Army Hospital Ships

By Patrick Long, Updated 7-2-16

During the American Civil War, the United States Sanitary Commission (USSC) set up a system of hospital ships for wounded and sick soldiers – though the USSC was a private agency, it cooperated closely with the U.S. Army.  At the request of the Army, the USSC created the Hospital Transport Service, acquiring 16 medium and large boats and converting them into hospital ships.  At least one of the ships outfitted by the USSC was later transferred to the Navy.

The Army converted a passenger line into a kind of floating Ambulance, named Relief, and used it for a short period during the Spanish-American War (20 April-12 August 1898).  In 1902, the Navy acquired the ship and operated it as USS Relief.

During World War II, the Army decided it was their responsibility to transport their wounded, and so wanted to arrange evacuation with her own ships. The very first Army Hospital Ship to sail on its maiden trip was USAHS Acadia, followed by USAHS Shamrock and USAHS Seminole.

Most of the Army hospital ships of WWII were former passenger liners or troopships which were disarmed, repainted, and renovated for hospital use – six of them were Liberty ships that were converted for hospital use.  Some had… complicated… operational lives prior to becoming a Hospital Ship for the Army.  Listed by date of commission as Army Hospital Ship:

3 May 43 - USAHS Acadia - former East coast passenger ship Acadia, converted into a hospital ship with a capacity for 787 patients.

8 May 43 - USAHS Seminole - former East coast passenger ship converted into a hospital ship with a capacity for 454 patients.

3 Aug 43 - USAHS Shamrock - formerly USAT Agwileon (originally passenger steamship Havana) converted into a hospital ship with a capacity for 543 patients. [this was the second career as Hospital Ship with previous service during WWI as AH-3 USS Comfort]

11 Sep 43 - USAHS Algonquin - former East coast passenger ship Algonquin converted into a hospital ship with a capacity for 454 patients.

29 Nov 43 - USAHS Thistle, former East coast passenger ship Munargo (commissioned by the Navy as AP-20 USS Munargo, decommissioned by the Navy and acquired by the Army in 1943), converted into a hospital ship with a capacity for 455 patients.

29 Nov 43 - USAHS Château Thierry - formerly USAT Château Thierry (1921) transferred to the Navy (1941) and commissioned as AP-31 USS Château Thierry, returned to the Army and converted into a hospital ship with a capacity for 484 patients.

3 Jan 44 - USAHS Ernest Hinds - former East coast passenger ship Kent, commissioned as USAT Ernest Hinds (1941), transferred to the Navy and commissioned as AP-28 USS Kent (1941), decommissioned (1942) and returned to ATS, renamed USAT Ernest Hinds, converted into a hospital ship with a capacity for 288 patients.

3 Feb 44 - USAHS Dogwood – former Liberty Ship George W. Carver, converted into a hospital ship with a capacity for 592 patients.

18 Feb 44 - USAHS Larkspur – originally German commercial steamer Breslau – seized in WWI, transferred to the Navy and renamed Bridgeport (1917) and designated as a Repair Ship, commissioned as ID #3009 USS Bridgeport (ID #3009), designated AD-10  in 1920, decommissioned 1924, turned over to the US Army in 1942 and converted into a hospital ship with a capacity for 594 patients.

22 Feb 44 - USAHS St. Mihiel - former troopship USAT St. Mihiel converted into a hospital ship with a capacity for 504 patients.

23 Feb 44 - USAHS Wisteria – former Liberty Ship William Osler, converted into a hospital ship with a capacity for 588 patients.

24 Feb 44 - USAHS John L. Clem, former East coast passenger ship Irwin, converted into a hospital ship with a capacity for 286 patients.

24 Feb 44 - USAHS Marigold - former transoceanic passenger ship President Fillmore, converted into a hospital ship with a capacity for 758 patients.

24 Feb 44 - USAHS St. Olaf - former Liberty ship converted into a hospital ship with a capacity for 586 patients.

2 Mar 44 - USAHS Emily H. M. Weder – former transoceanic passenger ship-President Buchanan, converted into a hospital ship with a capacity for 738 patients.

20 Apr 44 - USAHS Jarrett M. Huddleston - former Liberty ship Samuel F. B. Morse, converted into a hospital ship with a capacity for 582 patients.

20 Apr 44 - USAHS John J. Meany - former Liberty ship Zebulon B. Vance, converted into a hospital ship with a capacity for 582 patients.

20 Apr 44 - USAHS Blanche F. Sigman - former Liberty ship Stanford White, converted into a hospital ship with a capacity for 590 patients.

16 May 44 - USAHS Charles A. Stafford – originally East coast passenger ship Siboney, acquired by the U.S. Navy and commissioned in 1918 as ID 2999 USS Siboney, decommissioned 1919, acquired by the U.S. Army (1941) and commissioned as USAT Siboney, renamed and converted into a hospital ship with a capacity for 706 patients.

19 Sep 44 - USAHS Louis A. Milne – former cargo ship Lewis Luckenbach, converted into a hospital ship with a capacity for 952 patients.

11 Dec 44 - USAHS Ernestine Koranda – former cargo ship Dorothy Luckenbach, converted into a hospital ship with a capacity for 722 patients.

13 Feb 45 - USAHS Aleda E. Lutz - former transoceanic passenger ship Colombie, converted into a hospital ship with a capacity for 778 patients.

13 Feb 45 - USAHS Frances Y. Slanger - former transoceanic passenger ship Saturnia, converted into a hospital ship with a capacity for 1,628 patients.

13 Feb 45 - USAHS Republic –originally transoceanic passenger liner Republic, commissioned by the U.S. Navy as USS President Grant (ID# 3014) in 1917, commissioned by the  Army Transportation Service (ATS) as USAT Republic in 1920, decommissioned 1921, reacquired by ATS in 1931 and recommissioned USAT Republic, acquired by the Navy and commissioned USS Republic (AP-33) in 1941, decommissioned in 1945 and transferred to ATS and converted into Hospital Ship with patient capacity for 1,242 patients.

USAHS John Clem, the smallest of the hospital ships, carried only one surgical team, while Acadia, with a capacity for 788 patients, carried 3. Shamrock, Thistle, Algonquin, Château Thierry, and Emily Weder carried 2 surgical teams each.

In addition to its own ships, in WWII there were occasions in which the Army chartered civilian ships as hospital ships - for example SS Mactan was used for the evacuation of Manila.  Another example is the pair of Dutch vessels, Maetsuycker and Tasman, that though they were operationally controlled by the U.S. Army, they were certified as hospital ships by the Netherlands, maintained Dutch registry and flag.

From: thebalance.com

Image: Men of the Quartermaster's Department building transport steamers on the Tennessee River at Chattanooga, 1864.

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CSS St. Philip

From: navsource.org

In the Civil War, there was steamship "Star of the West" which was used by the Confederate States Navy as "CSS Saint Philip", serving as a naval station and hospital ship.

Awards, Citations and Campaign Ribbons: Civil War Medal

Sidewheel Steamer:
Built in 1852 as the brigantine=rigged sidewheel steamer SS San Juan by Jeremiah Simonson, Greenpoint, N. Y. for $250,000
Renamed SS Star of the West, date unknown, operated passenger service between New York and California
Chartered by the Federal Government in January and April 1861 to carry reinforcements to Fort Sumter at Charleston, S.C. and to carry troops from Texas to New York
Captured by the Confederate Army steamer CSS General Rusk, 17 April 1861, off Indianola, TX.
Renamed CSS St. Philip employed by the Confederate Navy as a receiving ship at New Orleans
Sunk by Confederate forces to obstruct the channel of the Tallahatchie River, March 1863
Specifications:
Displacement 1,172 t.
Length 228' 4"
Beam 32' 8"
Depth of Hold 24' 6"
Draft unknown
Speed 11.5 kts
Complement unknown
Armament
two 68-pdrs
four 32-pdrs
Propulsion
two vertical beam steam engines

Contributed By Tommy Trampp

Image: Engraving of SS Star of the West underway with Fort Sumter Charleston S. C. in the background, circa 1860.

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Paddlewheelers And Hospital Ships

From: minecreek.info

When Robert Fulton designed the first working steamboat in 1807, he probably didn't realize that his invention would lead to one of the most interesting innovations of the Civil War. Steamboats revolutionized river travel during the 1800s: for the first time, people were able to travel up and down America's mighty waterways under motorized power, rather than relying on muscle or the wind. Steamboats became the fastest and most efficient way to transport people and goods up and down the United States rivers. St. Louis, Missouri, a major port on the Mississippi River, had more than 3,000 steamboat arrivals in 1850 alone.

When the Civil War erupted, control of the country's rivers became more important than ever. Both the Confederate and Union armies had flotillas of boats they used as floating barracks, supply ships, and gunboats for fighting against artillery units.

Contrabands to Freedom
For many runaway slaves in the South, the best chance for freedom was to get on board a Union boat like Red Rover as it steamed up or down the Mississippi River. These slaves were called "contraband," and many ships hired them to serve as cabin boys, carpenters, laborers, cooks, stewards, crewman, and nurses. Working on board Red Rover had many advantages, one being the pay: the ship's records show that several chambermaids were paid$20 a month for their work. In comparison, the base pay for infantrymen in the Union army was only $13 a month.

Confederate Paddlewheelers
The Confederate paddlewheeler Red Rover was on the Mississippi River near St. Louis when it was captured by a Union gunboat. The Confederates tried to sink Red Rover to put it out of use, but the Union was able to dredge it and repair it for service. And although the Union was desperate for more gunboats to patrol the Mississippi and its tributaries, it decided to try something new with the Red Rover, the army refitted Red Rover as a floating hospital.

Transporting wounded soldiers by boat was nothing new for either army, but it was usually a pretty terrible experience for soldiers who were already paddlewheelers—pros and cons:

One reason paddlewheelers became so prevalent during the 1800s was that they were ideally suited to river travel: most paddleboats had a draft of no more than 6 or 7 feet, and some had as few as 4 feet, which meant they were able to steam up and down the wide, shallow rivers of the American West much better than any deep-hulled boats. The problem with them, however, was that their flat hulls were very difficult to maneuver if the weather or water got rough, since steering a paddlewheeler was very much like steering a giant box.

In bad shape: the boats were loud, dirty, and rarely had the supplies or personnel necessary to treat illness or injury. Transport ships usually picked up wounded soldiers at the port closest to the battle, brought them to the nearest friendly hospital, and dropped them off. Not a lot of medicine was being practiced on these ships, and the conditions were difficult.

Neither the Union nor Confederacy had ever created a complete hospital aboard a steamship before, and Red Rover was refitted with innovations never before found on a ship, all designed to help the sick and wounded. It had separate operating and amputation rooms, and the windows were covered with gauze to keep cinders and smoke from the smokestacks away from the know your slang patients. Rooms at the back of the ship had open walls to allow for better air circulation, and patients who had contagious diseases were put in these, as well as on several separate floating barges attached to the back of the ship. This helped keep the spread of very contagious diseases, such as measles and typhus, from infecting everyone on board. Red Rover also carried enough medical and food supplies for two hundred patients and the entire crew for up to three months—everything the hospital staff needed was on board, making the ship completely self-sufficient if it needed to be.

And while Red Rover was remarkable as the first complete floating hospital, what was more amazing was her crew: it consisted not only of the first women serving in the U.S. armed forces, but also the first African-American women hired by either side.

Red Rover's reputation as a hospital with conveniences, comfortable accommodations, and very caring medical staff grew quickly; so quickly, in fact, that fleet commander Charles Henry Davis had to issue an order to limit the number of patients being sent to the ship—it seemed like every sick or injured soldier wanted to be cared for on Red Rover. The order apparently didn't work all the time, since the ship's log shows that many patients came on without papers, or simply under the verbal approval of particular doctors or high-ranking officials.

Red Rover transported and cared for soldiers throughout the war, shuttling from port to port on the Mississippi River. Most of its hospital duties came to an end after the Battle of Vicksburg in 1863, which gave the Union control over most of the waterways and marked the end of most of the river action on the western front. For the rest of the war, Red Rover was primarily used to transport supplies.

Civil War Facts & Trivia

*The women who served as nurses on Red Rover are credited with officially being the first women to serve on board a naval vessel. In most accounts, the nuns who served on Red Rover are given the credit for being the first U.S. naval nurses, even though the ship's records show that the contraband women were hired outright after being welcomed on board, making them the first paid women naval employees.

*From the end of the Civil War to 1908, women were not allowed to serve in the navy.

*The majority of Red Rovers crew was African-American: at one point, black sailors and crew outnumbered white crew by two to one. It wasn't until 1865 that white crewmen outnumbered black crewmen.

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Columbus DaVega and The Floating Hospital

From: waring.library.musc.edu

One of the few South Carolina physicians with battlefield experience was MCSSC alumnus, Dr. Columbus DaVega, who was born in Charleston on December 23, 1830. After graduating from the Medical College of the State of South Carolina in 1852, he traveled to Europe where he was recruited to serve as a field surgeon with the Russian Army in the Crimean War (1853-1856). At the end of that war, he returned to Charleston and entered private practice.

During the Civil War, DaVega designed and served as surgeon on a hospital attached to a floating battery built to attack Fort Sumter from the water. The hospital was a one-story wooden structure outfitted with ten beds and medical supplies to treat soldiers wounded aboard the battery. In 1863, when Federal troops began their bombardment of Charleston, Dr. DaVega left for Columbia where he continued his medical practice. He died in Charleston on July 14, 1882 and is buried in the Jewish Cemetery on Coming Street.

Image 1: Columbus DaVega, M.D., n.d.

Image 2: The Floating Battery at Charleston, S.C.

Image 3: Interior of the Hospital

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