Louise Wigfall's Recollections of a Trip on a Hospital Train During the Atlanta Campaign

By Mark, 8-26-13

Louise Wigfall was 14 years old in the spring of 1861 when the Civil War began. She was the daughter of Louis T. Wigfall, an ardent secessionist and former U.S. Senator from Texas. Louis T. Wigfall was present at Fort Sumter as an aide to General Pierre Beauregard, and later served in the Confederate Army as a Brigadier General until February 1862, when he resigned to serve as a senator in the Confederate Congress.

Louise Wigfall spent much of the war in Richmond. As the daughter of a prominent member of the Confederate government, she came in contact with many of the leading figures in the government and military and enjoyed life in Richmond’s high society. As the war progressed and the southern situation deteriorated, even those in the most prominent of social circles could not escape the war’s horrors.

In the summer of 1864, Senator Wigfall and his wife left Richmond to pay a visit to Texas, a journey that was increasingly hazardous with Union armies on the move and the Mississippi River under Federal control. With that in mind, 17 year old Louise and her 12 year old sister were left in the care of the wife of General Joseph E. Johnston, who was at that time commanding the Army of Tennessee and trying to stop General William T. Sherman’s campaign to capture Atlanta.

Mrs. Johnston had accompanied the general to Atlanta and was settled in a house in the city. Louise and her sister stayed with her until early July, when General Johnston determined that it would be safer if the girls left the city and went to Macon, Georgia.

The train trip to Macon was a real eye opener for Louise, who saw the grim realty of war for the first time. In her memoir written under her married name of Mrs. Daniel Giraud Wright and published in 1905, Louise recalled that event:

"I shall never forget the horrors of that journey from Atlanta to Macon. We left in a hospital train, filled with wounded, sick and dying soldiers, in all imaginable stages of disease and suffering. My little sister and myself and one other lady were the only other passengers on the train, except the officer put in charge of us to see us safe to our journey’s end. I never imagined what a hideous, cruel thing War was until I was brought into direct contact with these poor victims of “Man’s inhumanity to man.” For this was no modern hospital train with scientific arrangements for hygiene and the relief of the suffering. There was scant supply of the common comforts, and even decencies of life–no cushions nor air pillows for weary heads; no ice to cool the fevered thirst; no diet kitchen for broths and delicate food for these half starved sufferers; no wine or bandy to revive the failing pulse and stimulate the weakened vitality; not even medicine enough to check the ravages of disease; not anesthetics nor anodynes to ease their agonies–for the supply of medicines and anodynes was daily diminishing, and they could not be replaced, as our foes had declared them “contraband of war!”  There was not even a place in that crowded car where the sick could lie down; but, packed in as close as possible on the hard uncomfortable seats, they made that journey, as best as they might, in uncomplaining martyrdom. I reached Macon sick at heart over the suffering I had witnessed and was so powerless to avert."

Mrs. Daniel Giraud Wright (Louise Wigfall), A Southern Girl in ’61:  The War-Time Memories of a Confederate Senator’s Daughter

From: ironbrigader.com

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The United States Military Railroad

Petersburg National Battlefield
From: nps.gov

The work of the United States Military Railroad Construction Corps (U.S.M.R.R.C.C.) was instrumental in the reduction and ultimate defeat of the Confederate army defending Petersburg and Richmond, Virginia in the closing days of the American Civil War.

In the nine months of the Siege of Petersburg, 21 miles of track would be laid, 25 locomotives and more than 275 pieces of rolling stock would be used, and 2,300,000 miles would be logged on the railroad.
Photo of locomotive at Union army supply base at City Point
Locomotive "John C. Robinson" at City Point, 1864.
Library of Congress

From the waterfront at City Point just below Richmond on the James River, Gen. Ulysses S. Grant had to supply an army of more than 100,000 troops and more than 65,000 horses and mules. For so vast an army, living off the land was not an option. All food, equipment and supplies had to be shipped in from northern ports and then delivered to the battlefront eight miles from away.

Eight wharves were built to accommodate hundreds of vessels conveying war material. More than 280 buildings were constructed by the U.S.M.R.C.C. at City Point by the end of the siege. The lumber was pre-cut as per orders and then assembled once it arrived. The sleepy little village took on the appearance of a thriving, bustling port in just a few days.

As the siege progressed, Grant extended his lines around Petersburg and the United States Military Railroad (U.S.M.R.R.) followed. After every major action, with few exceptions, the railroaders received orders to investigate the terrain and chose a site suitable for a temporary rail line. In the nine months of the siege, 21 miles of track would be laid, 25 locomotives and more than 275 pieces of rolling stock would be used, and 2,300,000 miles would be logged on the railroad. The line was used to transfer thousands of troops, but the primary cargo was food, weapons, and ammunition. Wounded soldiers were eventually transported by rail to the Depot Field Hospital at City Point.

Stations were established along the railroad for distribution of supplies. Sidings were built at these stations so trains unloading would not interfere with other trains on the line. On average 18 trains made the trip from City Point to the front and back again each day and timetables were published to ensure a smooth operation.

The ultimate Union victory over the Confederate army of Robert E. Lee at Petersburg is due in large part to the well-organized operations of the U.S.M.R.C.C.

Image: Locomotive "John C. Robinson" at City Point, 1864

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Evacuation and Hospitalization: "Some on the Bare Ground, Some on Planks and Stretchers"

From: medicalmuseum.mil

The first battles revealed gaping holes in the capabilities of the medical commands to evacuate wounded men from the battlefield, render immediate care, and arrange long-term hospitalization. Outdated military regulations relied on regimental musicians to remove the wounded. Surgeons were required to treat only men from their assigned regiment, but even then they were soon overwhelmed by the chaos of battle. In some cases, days passed before men were removed from the battlefields. Townspeople became nurses. Their carts and wagons served as ambulances and their homes were outfitted into makeshift hospitals.

The public and military medical personnel grew outraged by these conditions. Their reactions forced significant changes in evacuation and hospital systems. Troops were organized and trained to recover and transport wounded men in ambulances. New types of ambulances were designed and built. Railcars and ships were outfitted to move the wounded from field hospitals to general hospitals. Large general hospitals holding thousands of patients and hospitals specializing in particular diseases and medical conditions were built. Surgeons planned the location of evacuation points and field hospitals before battles commenced. The procedures developed during the Civil War-rapid evacuation, assessment in the field, and transportation to a hospital far from the battle lines-are still in use by the American military.

HOSPITALIZATION
Once evacuated from the battlefield, wounded soldiers were evaluated at the field hospital. Three categories were used- the walking wounded, the wounded requiring immediate care, and the wounded beyond help. The walking wounded were given opium for pain and their wounds were cleaned and dressed. Immediate care usually involved amputation or bullet extraction. Morphine and opium were given to the fatally wounded. Once treated, the wounded were then evacuated to larger division and general hospitals.

Field hospitals were established in tents, barns, houses, or other protected locations with access to water. Hastily erected rows of tents also served this purpose. The usual means of evacuation to a field hospital were stretchers, two-wheeled ambulances, or on the shoulder of a fellow soldier.

With the influx of large numbers of sick and wounded soldiers, the cities of the eastern and southern coasts became centers for large general hospitals. New hospitals were designed and built. Others were created from existing buildings. A belief that "bad air" caused certain diseases suggested that increased airflow would reduce sickness. As a result, new hospitals maximized the ventilation of the wards.

Some hospitals specialized in the care of certain injuries or medical conditions. For example, Turner's Lane Hospital in Philadelphia became the Union Army's hospital for the care of neurological disorders. The Confederate medical command favored the construction of very large hospitals. With 8,000 beds and 250 surgeons, Chimborazo Hospital in Richmond was one of the largest.

The sanitary conditions in some wards often led to "hospital gangrene." Sergeant G.W. Gardner, age 29, Company A, 12th Illinois Cavalry, was shot through the leg with a conoidal carbine ball at Mitchell's Ford, Va., on Oct. 11, 1863. The ball, which did not strike bone, was removed, and Gardner was sent by train to Emory Hospital in Washington. Following treatments of hot water, oxygen gas, and cotton packing, gangrene of the foot set in and spread rapidly up the leg. The leg was amputated on Oct. 29. Gardner contracted diarrhea soon after the amputation and died on Dec. 5, 1863.

HAREWOOD HOSPITAL
As the war progressed, Washington became home to several hospitals. Some were new constructions while others were in renovated buildings. Harewood Hospital was located on 7th Street, NW, near the Soldiers Home. Harewood was supervised by Surgeon Reed Bontecou. It held 2,000 beds in the permanent wards. At one time 312 hospital tents holding 1,872 beds were also on the grounds.

TRANSPORTATION OF THE WOUNDED
Staged photograph showing troops loading an ambulance. Two military physicians were largely responsible for the changes in evacuation procedures and the system of hospital care during the war. Union surgeon Jonathan Letterman, medical director for the Army of the Potomac, was instrumental in establishing regimental aid stations, field hospitals, and division level hospitals. He also authorized training for ambulance companies responsible for moving wounded men from the battlefield to the field hospital. Dr. Samuel Stout, of the Confederate medical service, established aid stations, devised mobile field and general hospitals (the origins of the MASH unit), and championed hospitals with large, open wards. He also organized effective evacuation systems for wounded Confederates. The changes instituted by Stout and Letterman-rapid evacuation, assessment in the field, and transportation to a hospital far from the battle lines-provided sick and wounded soldiers a process of care still used by the American military.

Once evaluated and cared for at the field hospital, wounded men were transported to general hospitals in trains and hospital ships. Large numbers of wounded men could be loaded on these trains and ships, given care, and transported directly to general hospitals. Hospital trains could carry hundreds of patients. Many contained kitchens and well-spaced bunks to provide better patient care. Ships transported soldiers to general hospitals and also served as floating hospitals. Later in the war, Union ships stopped at Southern ports to pick up wounded and transport them up the Atlantic coast to hospitals in Washington, Philadelphia, and New York.

 A model of the DA January The U.S. Army Hospital Steamer DA January was a side-wheel steamer that served as a floating hospital. Outfitted to allow for the best in patient care, it contained a surgical suite, baths, a kitchen, nurses quarters, hot and cold running water, and an ice water cooler. Windows circulated air through the wards, which held nearly 450 beds. During its four years of service, the DA January transported and cared for more than 23,000 wounded men. It regularly visited the cities along the Mississippi and Ohio rivers.

Image 1: The Rucker ambulance could carry men in both the sitting and lying position.

Image 2: Diagram of Harewood Hospital shows the V-shaped arrangement of the wards, the separate quarters for nurses, an ice-house and other outbuildings. 'Medical and Surgical History of the War of the Rebellion.'

Image 3: Trains were used to evacuate more than 25,000 men to hospitals in the North. This railcar used by the Army of the Cumberland featured a bunk system allowing easier access to a patient.

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Private William McCarter of the Irish Brigade Hospitalized After Fredericksburg

by Patrick Young, Esq., 1-4-2013

Private William McCarter was badly wounded during the Irish Brigade’s disastrous attack on the stone wall during the Battle of Fredericksburg in Virginia. He lay bleeding on the field for hours before nightfall made possible his still-dangerous escape to the rear.

The Northern army had a medical corps consisting of doctors and assistants, but most of the wounded were brought off the field by members of their own regiments who went back to try to collect friends. These Union soldiers would often pass by other wounded men, reserving their aid for men of their own units alone. McCarter was helped by two Irish Brigade comrades who recognized him in the dark. They put him on a horse-drawn ambulance. The ambulance was overloaded with twelve men when it took off to try to find medical care. The men were offered no first aid and two of them died before the vehicle reached the city of Fredericksburg, a short ways away.

Private McCarter says his ambulance carried twelve wounded men.

When McCarter got to Fredericksburg, Union soldiers were wandering about aimlessly in the streets. Some broke into houses and looted them. A number were getting drunk on whiskey they had stolen. McCarter was dropped off at a house that served as a make-shift hospital. More than fifty “mangled victims” of the fighting were in the one room. The men did not see a doctor until the next morning. By then, a wounded man lying near McCarter had died.

A severely overworked doctor was finally able to see McCarter. He dug the bullet out of the soldier’s shoulder, but first he had to cut away much of McCarter’s uniform to get at his wound. When McCarter had to evacuate north by foot the next day, he did so with his wounded arm naked and exposed to December’s cold. He and thousands of other wounded men walked to a rail depot where they waited hours without shelter for a train to take them north. “[T]he wounded men crouched and huddled together and…some of them died from the exposure,” he recalled.

McCarter next went to a makeshift hospital made up of a collection of tents. There was so much blood and so many severed body parts that he later described it as looking like a “village of butcher shops.”  The surgical tent left a lasting impression:

"Lying around were cases of ugly looking surgical tools, including the saw and the knife. In the back end of each tent a hole was made. Through it amputated arms or legs were thrown out upon the ground outside."

When trains finally arrived, the wounded rushed to get on. There was no order to the loading and the healthier men shoved aside the severely wounded. “It was simply every man for himself,” McCarter wrote, “I saw three men killed by falling under the car wheels as a locomotive began to move.” When McCarter was finally evacuated he was taken by a four hour train ride to Aquia Creek. Along the way, nine of McCarter’s wounded comrades died.

McCarter and hundreds of other wounded men on the train were taken off and hauled onto a steamship that was to take them to Washington. Few comforts were provided the suffering men and McCarter was forced to rest on the cold floor of the ship, when an unexpected source of comfort came to him. A woman, a Catholic nun, a Sister of Mercy comforted him, fed him and found him a warm place to sleep. This was McCarter’s first experience with these women, many of whom were immigrants like himself.

As he soon found out, the Sisters of Mercy had volunteered to take over the care of the men on the ship. McCarter remembered that during the trip they did “everything in their power to alleviate the terrible sufferings of the cargo of our wounded, sick and dying soldiers.” Over the coming weeks he would be cared for by many Sisters of Mercy. Their ministrations would be offered to native-born and immigrant soldiers alike of all religious backgrounds.  In coming articles, we’ll look at how these immigrant religious women helped create the nursing profession in the United States and changed attitudes about women in medicine.

From: longislandwins.com

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Confederate Hospital Trains

By Alfred Jay Bollet, M.D.

The Confederate Medical Department also used trains whenever possible, although the Southern railroad lines were much less developed than those in the North. They did not build special ambulance cars for their trains; the dearth of rolling stock and manufacturing facilities precluded it. Boxcars on trains brought supplies to the troops and returned carrying wounded and sick soldiers, usually with some straw thrown on the floor, water, food, and when possible, some nursing and medical personnel to accompany them.

The railroads were most useful to the Confederates in Virginia, where good service existed from Manassas Junction south to Gordonsville, and then on to Richmond. There was good east-west service from Richmond across the mountains to the Shenandoah Valley. From Staunton, in the Valley, there was service to Tennessee at Knoxville and then on to Chattanooga, but that segment was often cut and service was irregular. After the battles fought in northern Virginia, such as First and Second Manassas, the wounded were transported quickly by rail to Gordonsville and then to hospitals in Richmond or Charlottesville.

After Antietam and Gettysburg, wounded were taken by ambulance to Winchester and then down the Valley Turnpike (which had a macadam surface) to Staunton; once there, they could be sent south to Lynchburg or east to Charlottesville, Gordonsville, and Richmond, Depot hospitals, known as "receiving and forwarding hospitals", were set up at key points, such as Gordonsville and Staunton, to provide care en route and to serve as distribution centers.

Excerpted from: Civil War Medicine: Challenges and Triumphs by Alfred Jay Bollet, M.D.

IMAGE: From Confederate States $50 bill

See more about Civil War hospital trains at www.CivilWarRx.com.

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Northern Hospital Trains

By Alfred Jay Bollet, M.D.

Before the war, no thought had been given to using trains as ambulances. However, during the war, both sides relied on the recently developed railroad system to move men and material, including their sick and wounded soldiers, whenever possible.

Later in the war, hospital cars were specifically designed for use in ambulance trains. The Sanitary Commission's official history describes these improvements:

"A very slight description of these hospital cards will give some idea of the increased comfort provided for the patients conveyed in them. The ordinary field and hospital litter or stretcher was used in loading, unloading, and carrying the patients. These simple litter-beds, with pillows, mattresses, and comforts attached, were then ingeniously and securely swung, in tiers three high, and end to end upon light stanchions, and there suspended by stout tugs of India rubber, which gave sufficient elasticity to obviate all jar to the bed and its patient.

"Thirty of these beds were thus swung along the side of each Hospital car. A number of invalid chairs and a broad couch filled the remainder of the available space. A pantry furnished with medicines, utensils, beverages, and substantial food, ready for serving to the patients hot or cold, made up the sum of creature comforts, while nurses, abundantly provided with towels, socks, blankets, sponges, etc., kept every man clear and warm, however long the trip of stormy the weather. All the usual appliances and skill of a well-regulated Hospital were at hand."

In addition to the hospital cars, these trains included cars for cooking and dining and for use as sleeping quarters for medical staff assigned to accompany the wounded. The trains were clearly identified by a bight red smokestack, engine, and tender and by the markings "U.S. HOSPITAL TRAIN" in enormous red letters, and they carried three red lanterns at night. There is no record that enemy forces ever molested any hospital train.

Excerpted from: Civil War Medicine: Challenges and Triumphs by Alfred Jay Bollet, M.D.

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Civil War Hospital Trains

After the Confederacy lost control of most of its major waterways, the Southern states relied heavily on railroads to move their wounded from field hospitals to general hospitals. Trains had never before been used as ambulances in America. The South shipped supplies in boxcars and returned them filled with sick and injured soldiers. The system was plagued with difficulties owing to shortages, raids, and the different track gauges of the various railroad companies.

The North developed specifically designed hospital cars. The trains were distinguished by a bright red smokestack, engine and tender, and carried red lanterns at night. Records indicate that the Confederates never attacked a hospital train.

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