Surgeon In Blue

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Surgeon In Blue Page 35

by Scott McGaugh

dismissal of, by Lincoln, 90, 134–135

  divided opinion of, 78, 79

  General Orders of, in medical department reform, 80, 84, 88, 218

  gradual emancipation views of, 55, 78, 135–136

  “indecisiveness” in pursuing Lee at Antietam, 121, 124

  at Jefferson Medical College, 12–14

  leadership style, based on loyalty, 135, 151, 272

  letter to wife, 293

  on Letterman, 73–74

  and Letterman, friendship with, 68, 135, 222, 271–272

  overestimation of enemy strength, 100

  personality of, 54–56

  presidential election loss, 222–223

  reinstated as commanding officer, 95

  resignation of army commission by, 223

  South Mountain battle, enemy intelligence discovered by, 101–102

  on state of medical department after spring campaigns, 76

  McDowell, Irvin, 42–43, 44, 49, 54

  McKinley, William, 278

  McNulty, John, 184

  McParlin, Thomas, 93, 217, 218–219

  Meade, George

  appointment as commanding officer, 173–174, 272–273

  declines to replace Hooker as commanding officer, 170

  de-prioritizing of medical department by, 174–175, 179, 196

  and Fort Meade, 23–24

  at Fredericksburg, 142

  inexperience of command, 177

  post-Civil war, 288–289

  retreat to winter camp, 207–208

  Medical and Surgical History of the War of the Rebellion, 264, 276

  medical department. See also battlefield medical reforms; military hospitals; military medical corps

  budget under Hammond, 68

  de-prioritizing of, by commanding officers, 162–163, 167–168, 171, 174–175, 179

  post-war diminishment of, 263–264, 277

  public perception of, improvement to, 215–216

  reform bill, 62

  reversion to outpost medicine after Civil War, 277

  Sanitary Commission recognized as supplement to, 121, 184, 192

  medical directors. See Guild,

  LaFayette; Hewitt, Henry;

  Irwin, Bernard; Letterman,

  Jonathan; McParlin, Thomas;

  Tripler, Charles

  Medical Recollections of the Army of the Potomac, 238–241, 249

  medical specialties, 157, 276

  Meigs, Charles, 283

  Meigs, Montgomery C., 91

  Mexican-American War, 20–21, 32

  military hospitals

  at Antietam, 106–109

  at battle of Fredericksburg, 141–142, 143–144

  Camp Letterman, built near Gettysburg, 194–195, 196

  enemy threat to, 166, 181, 184–185

  establishment of in Frederick by Letterman, 101

  general hospitals established, near battlefields, 115

  improvements to

  Irwin’s tent field hospital, on reclaimed ground, 155, 291

  Letterman’s restructuring of, 124, 130–134, 148, 197, 270–271

  patient transfer, 172, 194, 195, 271. See also ambulance system

  pavilion design, 66–67, 132–133, 274, 286

  personnel organization, 148, 149

  preventive health care, 158–159, 197, 269

  regimental affiliations eliminated in, 130–131

  ventilation of, and infection control, 66, 104, 132–133, 158, 274

  Keedysville field hospital, 109, 114–115, 116, 118

  Letterman General Hospital, 266

  makeshift field, 56–57, 106–107, 108–109, 115–116, 117, 179

  medical care in

  amputation, 118–119, 122–123, 143–144, 189, 274, 275

  suffering of patients in recovery at, 47–48, 116, 133, 145, 189, 275–276

  mobile field hospitals, 41

  outpost medicine. See outpost medicine

  patients removed from, by family members, 119–120

  poor conditions in, 65–66

  post-battle, at Gettysburg, 191

  Smoketown field hospital, 114–115, 118, 119

  specialty hospitals, 157, 276

  in the Union Army, 217–218

  military medical corps. See also

  battlefield medical reforms;

  European military medicine;

  medical department; military hospitals;

  outpost medicine

  army surgeon general appointed by Congress, 18

  and civilian doctors, 53–54, 193, 194

  combat treatment, 56

  contract doctors, 26–27, 40, 281–282

  disease as cause of wartime death and, 17, 20–21, 56–57, 79, 277–278

  doctor qualifications, 57–58, 191, 271

  inadequacies in early, 19–21, 24, 94–95

  Joseph Lovell’s pioneering standards in, 18–19

  lack of preparedness at outbreak of Civil War, 42–45, 47–48

  merit-based promotion, 57–58, 62, 67

  mobile field hospitals, 41

  outpost medicine, 18–19, 22, 40–41. See also outpost medicine

  public pressure for changes, 62–63, 75–76. See also Sanitary Commission

  screening of military doctors begins, 57–58

  shortage of doctors in, 19, 20, 24, 26, 53–54, 94–95

  and volunteer doctors, 42, 52–53, 99, 115, 122–123, 155–156, 193–194, 277

  wound treatment, 35, 71, 85–86, 144–145, 274–275

  military medical reforms. See also ambulance system; battlefield medical reforms; military hospitals; supply chain

  first pavilion hospitals built, 66–67

  “The Letterman System,” 153, 218, 240–241, 273, 278–279

  preventive health care, 158–159, 197, 269

  Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States, 234

  Mine Run, 207–208

  Minie ball, 85–86

  Missouri Compromise, 8

  Mitchell, John, 283

  Monroe Doctrine, 8

  Moore, Jane, 189

  Mutter, Thomas, 283

  Napoleonic Wars, 41, 79, 153–154

  National Academy of Sciences, 228, 245, 292

  National Museum of Civil War Medicine, 279

  Navajo Indians, 34, 284–285

  New York Medical Journal, 241

  New York Times, 134, 216, 218, 221, 267

  night battle, 103–105

  night inquests, 254–255

  nutrition and dietary concerns

  farmer “profiteering” after Gettysburg, 192

  food rations. See food rations

  and health improvement, 273

  Letterman’s improvements to, 157–160

  Letterman’s restructuring of meal preparation, 80–83

  meal preparation, 81–83

  outpost medicine and, 33, 37

  supply chain restructuring supplement, 129

  and troop morale, 80, 129, 157, 270

  oil boom

  cost of shares, 229, 232

  eventual productivity in California, 246, 292

  expeditions discover oil fields, 227–229

  prospectus for investors, 229

  oil fields. See also Silliman, Benjamin, Jr.

  California’s future, assessed by Peckham, 243

  difficulties of drilling for oil, 235–236

  eventual productivity in California, 246, 292

  geological exploration and sample analysis, 242–244

  of Pennsylvania and Ohio, 227, 234, 244

  skeptics of California oil yields, 234–235, 237, 292

  Ojai Rancho, California, 227, 228, 233, 235, 237, 242, 245

  Old Needwood, 204–205

  O’Leary, Charles, 148–149

  Olmstead, Frederick Law, 51–52

  outpost medicine

  at Camp Fitzgerald, California, 40

  dietary concerns, 33, 37

  difficulties of treatment, and
relapses, 30–31

  disease as cause of wartime death and, 18–19, 25

  at Fort Defiance, Arizona, 31–33

  at Fort Meade, 21–24, 27–29

  at Fort Ripley, reposting to, 29–31

  at Fort Tejon, California, 37–38, 239

  at Fort Union, 35–37

  hospitals, 36

  major outbreaks of disease at, 24, 27, 32–33

  reversion to, after Civil War, 277

  as standard military medical practice, 18–19

  weather observations, 19, 25, 30

  Paiute Indians, 38–40, 284

  party politics, in San Francisco, 249–251, 258–259, 260

  Peckham, Stephen, 235, 237, 242–244, 292

  Peninsula Campaign, 69–71, 72, 90–91, 224, 289

  Pennsylvania Railroad Corporation, 226, 229

  Perley, Thomas, 149, 202

  Peters, John, 275–276

  Philadelphia & California Petroleum Company, 230, 233, 242, 244, 246

  physicians. See military medical corps

  Pickett’s Charge, 186

  Pinkerton, Allan, 57

  Pittsburgh Gazette, 191

  Pope, John, 90, 92, 95

  Pry House, 107–108, 110–111

  Reeder, Andrew, 200, 201

  reporting systems

  battlefield action reports, 161–162

  medical personnel, 158–159

  for nutritional improvements, 157

  Reynolds, John, 178

  Ritchie, Craig, 7

  Rosecrans, William Stark, 64, 223, 286

  San Francisco

  Chinese immigration issues, 247, 248, 251, 256–257, 258

  San Francisco (continued)

  impact of transcontinental railroad on economy of, 259–260

  Letterman as coroner of, 253–260

  Letterman General Hospital, 266

  metropolitan development of, 247–248

  party politics in, 249–251, 258–259, 260

  prosperity of, wartime, 232

  suicide incidents, 255, 256, 258

  Sanitary Commission

  anti-Finley, 68

  anti-Finley and anit-Tripler, 59–60, 61, 65

  Californian financial support of, 232

  criticism of Letterman’s medical department by, 122

  founding of, 50–51

  Hammond supporters, 62, 64, 200

  influence on medical reform, 62

  and Letterman, 77–78, 137–138

  on Letterman’s improvements, 148

  medical supplies provided by, at Antietam, 116

  on post-Antietam battle shortages, 120–121

  recommendations of, 60–61

  Rules for Preserving the Health of the Soldier, 60

  as supplementary aid to Medical Department, 121, 184, 192

  surgeon general’s office, campaign for changes to, 67

  warm clothing provided by, after Fredericksburg, 147–148

  sanitation issues

  and dysentery, 21, 79, 231–232, 255, 273

  General Orders for improvement to, 21

  hazards posed by fallen dead, 120

  housing standards established by Letterman, 158–160

  Letterman’s improvements to, 81–84, 269–270

  outhouse placement, 81, 278

  Scott, Thomas A., 226–229, 244–245, 291–292

  scurvy, 32–33, 69

  secretary of war. See Stanton, Edwin Sedgwick, John, 110, 162, 166–167

  Seven Days Battle, 72

  Sharpsburg, 105, 107

  Shiloh, 154–155

  Shorb, James DeBarth, 242, 292

  Silliman, Benjamin, Jr.

  oil samples of, quality suspected, 234–235, 237–238, 242

  oil samples, tampering of, 243–244, 245

  overestimation of oil reserves, 228–229, 230, 245

  reputation as petroleum expert, 227–229, 245

  samples of oil, tainted, 292

  swindling of mining speculators by, 245–246

  Smith, J. C., 187–188

  Smoketown field hospital, 114–115, 118, 119

  South Mountain battle, 102–105

  Southgate, Robert, 31

  Spanish-American War, 277

  specialty hospitals, 157, 276

  Sprague, Thomas, 228, 242, 245

  Spurr, Thomas Jefferson, 98, 99, 113, 118, 123

  Stanton, Edwin

  appoints investigative committee against Hammond, 200–202

  Brinton on Stanton-Hammond feud, 222

  feud with Hammond, 68–69, 95, 149, 216, 221–222, 286–287

  Lincoln appoints as secretary of war, 65

  personality of, 65, 200

  Sternberg, George, 278

  Stevens, George, 113–114, 148, 193

  Stewart, William, 168

  Stille, Charles, 120

  Stillman, J. D. B., 260

  Sumner, Edwin, 32, 109, 112, 140, 142–143

  Sunken Road, 111–112

  supply chain

  at Antietam battle, 100–102, 115–116, 117, 123

  cut off, after Gettysburg, lead to shortages, 191

  de-prioritizing of medical department by, 196

  inefficiencies, 125

  Letterman’s standing orders regarding, 127, 128

  medical requirements, 128

  preparedness of army at Fredericksburg, 138–139

  reliance on reliable rail routes, 176–177, 179, 193

  restructuring of, into tiered system, 126–129, 138, 197, 270

  supplemented by Sanitary Commission, 121, 184, 192

  trains organized for patient transfer, 117–118

  surgeon generals, army, 18–19, 24–25, 26, 40–41, 52, 59–60, 61, 67. See also Finley, Clement Alexander; Hammond, William; Lawson, Thomas; Lovell, Joseph

  Swetland, Silas, 201

  Taft, Helen “Nattie,” 265

  tar seepages, 227

  Taxpayers Union Party, 258–259, 260

  “The Letterman System,” 153, 218, 240–241, 273, 278–279

  The Medical and Surgical Reporter, 266

  Thomson, J. Edgar, 226–227, 230

  Tripler, Charles, 56, 58, 59–60, 63, 69–71, 72–73, 287–288

  troop morale, 80, 129, 157, 270

  typhoid fever, 27, 277

  Union army. See also Army of the Potomac

  defeat at Bull Run (Manassas Junction), 42–45, 46, 48, 49–50

  defeat at Manassas Junction, 48

  defeat at Second Battle of Bull Run, 91–95

  disorganization of, 43, 45, 47

  “walking wounded” of, 46–48

  Union Party, 250, 251

  United States Sanitary Commission. See Sanitary Commission

  urban warfare, first, 141

  volunteer doctors. See military medical corps

  walking wounded, 46–48

  Warren, Gouverneur K., 211–212, 218

  Washington Morning Chronicle, 160

  weaponry advances, 84–86

  Webster, Warren, 156

  “West Woods Massacre,” 110

  Whitman, Walt, 133–134

  Whitney, Josiah, 234–235, 237, 238, 244, 245, 292

  Williamson, James, 228

  Wilson, Henry, 211

  Wood, R. C., 50–51, 52

  World War I, 278–279

  World War II, 266–267

  yellow fever, 16, 20, 27

 

 

 


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