THE APRIL 2019 ISSUE PRESENTATION OF THE DISCUSSION GROUP AT THE CIVIL WAR REPORTER AT VOLUME NUMBER 21 ISSUE NUMBER 11 CRYSTAL LAKE, ILLINOIS WOODSTOCK, ILLINOIS

TUESDAY APRIL 9, 2019 THE

OF By U.S. AMBULANCE CORPS Trevor Steinbach WIKIPEDIA Medicine The U.S. Ambulance Corps was a unit of the In The UnionArmy during the which American Civil War By Dr. Mary Williams, R.N. D.C. was designed and initially formed as a separate unit only within the Army of the Potomac, due to the The Civil War came at a time when there were notable efforts of, Dr. Jonathan Letterman, Medical very few advancements in medicine and the Director of the Army of the Potomac, along with treatment of injuries and ailments. Dr. William Hammond, the U.S. Surgeon-General.

Although medications and the methods of Until August 1862, the lack of trained ambulance Wikipedia, treating injuries were in their infancy, weapons drivers meant that the wounded had to wait an The Battle of Shiloh (also known as the technology was advancing almost daily, as was extremely long period of time before they would Battle of Pittsburg Landing) was a battle in their ability to wreak havoc on the human body. receive medical care or even be taken off the the Western Theater of the American Civil As a result, this created many problems when it battlefield. This all changed during the Battle of War, fought April 6–7, 1862, in southwestern came to saving the lives of soldiers. Severe Antietam in September 1862 when a new system Tennessee. A Union force known as the infections were very common and hindered would allow for the wounded men to be transferred Army of the Tennessee (Major General treatment and the healing process. quickly so there could be fewer deaths. The corps Ulysses S. Grant) had moved via the also established that ambulances were part of a Tennessee River deep into the state where The overall living environment of the soldier in more centralized organization. Due to public he was encamped principally at Pittsburg camp was unsanitary, as were the field hospitals pressure, the Army created an Ambulance Corps Landing on the west bank of the Tennessee and dressing stations, disease would ran for all units and theaters of operation, through the River, which was where the Confederate rampant. When it came down to the cause of Ambulance Corps Act of March 11, 1864. Army of Mississippi (General Albert Sidney death of Civil War soldiers, illness was twice as Johnston, P. G. T. Beauregard second-in- likely to be the culprit versus an injury sustained The Confederate armies had no record of any such command) launched quite the surprise attack on the field of battle and during a campaign. service available within their armies during the war. on U.S. Gen. Grant's relatively green troops.

from its base of operations located in Corinth, of both Union and Confederate army Mississippi. Johnston was mortally wounded chaplains during the Civil War. during the fighting; Beauregard took command of the army and decided against pressing the Army Chaplains Serve attack any farther late in the evening. As Field and Staff Officers Overnight, Grant was reinforced by one of his Most military clergy during the Civil War divisions stationed further north and was also served as regimental chaplains and joined by three more divisions from the Army of accompanied the armies on campaign, the Ohio (Maj. Gen. Don Carlos Buell). although many were assigned to post and field hospitals as well. Regimental chaplains The Union forces began a most unexpected usually served as part of the headquarters or counterattack the next morning which reversed field and staff officers rather than being the Confederate gains of the previous day. FAITH ON THE FIRING LINE attached to specific companies. In the ARMY CHAPLAINS National Archives, chaplain service is On April 6, the first day of the battle, the IN THE CIVIL WAR documented in the same way as volunteer Confederates struck with the intention of By John P. Deeben soldiers, with compiled military service records driving the Union defenders away from the For National Arcives Prologue Magazine (CMSRs) located in the Records of the river and into the swamps of Owl Creek to the Adjutant General's Office (AGO), Record west. Johnston hoped to defeat Grant's army On the late afternoon of July 2, 1863, the Group (RG) 94. before the anticipated arrival of Buell and the regiments of the Second Brigade, First Division in the Second Corps of the Army of the Army of the Ohio. The War Department began compiling carded Potomac—the famed Irish Brigade—assembled service records for Union soldiers in the 1890s The Confederate battle lines became confused on Cemetery Ridge to confront the devastating to improve the verification process for pension during the fighting, and Grant's men fell back Confederate assaults on the second day of the applications. The War Department clerks had to the northeast, in the direction of Pittsburg . abstracted service data for each soldier from a Landing. A Union position on a slightly sunken variety of available sources, including muster road, nicknamed the "Hornet's Nest" and As the brigade prepared to advance, a lone rolls, payrolls, morning reports, and other was mostly defended by the divisions of Brig. figure climbed upon a large boulder to address regimental records, onto a series of cards, Gens. Benjamin Prentiss and William H. L. the troops. creating a succinct personal history that Wallace, which provided time for the remainder In one of the more famous moments of the usually identified the volunteer's rank, dates of of the Union line to stabilize under the battle—a scene so well known that it was later enlistment and discharge, presence or protection of numerous artillery batteries. recreated by Hollywood in the 1993 film absence at monthly roll calls, and any other Wallace was mortally wounded when his Gettysburg—one of the brigade chaplains, noteworthy activities. position collapsed, while several other Father William Corby, performed an impromptu Carded service records for Union chaplains regimentsa from the two divisions were rite of general absolution (the collective are filed in the series "Carded Records, eventually surrounded and had surrendered. forgiveness of sins without prior individual Volunteer Organizations: Civil War" (entry Johnston was shot in the leg and bled to death confession) for the assemblage of predominantly 519) in RG 94. Arranged by state, then by while leading an attack. Beauregard had Irish Catholic soldiers. Fortified by the blessing, arm of service, then numerically by unit and acknowledged just how tired his army was the Irish Brigade moved forward into the killing alphabetically by name, most of the records from the day's exertions and decided against zone known as the Wheatfield, adding one more are textual; only service records for border assaulting the final Union position that night. chapter to its distinguished career. states, western states and territories, and Tired but unfought and well-organized men Father Corby’s actions at Gettysburg highlight southern states that raised Union regiments from Buell's army and a division of Grant's the important religious service that military have been microfilmed and now digitized on army arrived in the evening of April 6 and chaplains provided to the common soldier during www.Fold3.com .3 Separate indexes exist for helped turn the tide the next morning, when the Civil War. Clergymen of all faiths and the records of each state. the Union commanders launched a denominations served with distinction in both In addition to Father Corby, whose service counterattack along the entire battleline. Union and Confederate armies, overseeing the moral and spiritual well-being of the troops. record is filed with the 88th New York Infantry, The Confederate forces were then forced Such care proved essential to soldiers who the series includes information about Rev. to retreat, which ended their hopes of blocking faced the constant uncertainty of violence and John Hobart, whose lengthy career as the Union advance into northern Mississippi. death on the battlefield and reinforced the chaplain of the Eighth Wisconsin Infantry from religious underpinnings of a society in which December 16, 1862, to September 5, 1865, The Battle of Shiloh was recorded with the faith played a much more immediate role in daily was briefly interrupted by a dismissal for highest number of casualties of war recorded life—the Civil War, after all, occurred in the inefficiency from July 15 to October 10, 1864. in American history until the Battle of Stones midst of one of the largest evangelical revival Interestingly, Hobart's spouse, Elvira Gibson River, which was then surpassed by the Battle movements (the Third Great Awakening) of the Hobart, also served unofficially as chaplain of of Chancellorsville during the next year and 19th century. the First Wisconsin Heavy Artillery; and soon after that, casualties would once again be regrettably, no service record exists for her topped by the three-day Battle of Gettysburg, The military service of Army chaplains, because Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton which was recorded as the highest-casualty list therefore, deserves considerable attention. The refused to muster her formally into service of the entire war. National Archives and Records Administration despite an appointment by Wisconsin holds various sources that document the service governor James T. Lewis.

Service records for Confederate chaplains Jonathan Letterman (Letterman) is known as Previously, regimental surgeons performed their are located in the series "Carded Records “the Father of Battlefield Medicine”. duties for their particular regiments only. Showing Military Service, 1861–65 and He was born in 1821 in Canonsburg, Pa. His Letterman revised the procedures to provide Later" (entry 193) in the War Department father was a physician. (The family name was that surgeons perform their duties wherever Collection of Confederate Records, Record originally spelled Leatherman but changed to needed. Group 109. The War Department created Letterman.) Letterman attended Washington During the battle Letterman sent surgeons to the carded service records for Confederate College in Washington, Pa., and later attended battlefield to provide first aid in protected areas. soldiers between 1903 and 1927, using the Jefferson Medica l Scholl, from which he captured records and other personnel graduated in 1849. In 1850 he, along with 49 The Antietam battle produced 23,000 casualties. documents from private collections and others, took a three-day test to qualify and Due to Letterman’s methods within 48 hours all Southern state governments. become a Federal Surgeon. He was one of the wounded were evacuated from the battlefield nine who passed. Reflecting the incomplete nature of and placed in hospitals (which consisted of surviving Confederate records, the series Letterman’s first duty station was at Fort Meade, either buildings or tents). The wounded and includes the rather brief record of Father near Tampa, Fla., where he served in the sick were first evacuated to Keedysville, Md. Emerson [Emmeran] M. Bliemel, chaplain of Seminole Indian wars. There he became a friend where they were stabilized and from there they the 10th Tennessee Infantry, who was of Thomas Jackson. Letterman’s captain was were sent to Frederick, Md., thirty miles away. reportedly the only Catholic priest—and the named French. French’s wife was an invalid. first American chaplain in general—killed in Subsequently, Letterman was transferred to Fort Letterman provided the same procedures for all action during the war. Bliemel's record Snelling in Minnesota, and from there to other wounded s oldiers, Federal or Confederate. His includes cards drawn from two regimental duty stations in the American west. attitude was that wounded or sick Confederate rosters and a field and staff muster roll, all soldiers were no longer the enemy. Letterman returned east when the Civil war of which show his appointment as regimental chaplain on February 10, 1864. began, where he took over administration of a Due to the procedures Letterman instituted at Inexplicably, the file makes no mention of hospital. He studied the writings of Baron Antietam and other battles, he became regarded Bliemel's death at the battle of Dominique Jean Larrey, who had been a as “the Father of Battlefield Medicine”. Jonesborough, Georgia, on August 31, surgeon with Napoleon Bonaparte’s army. 1864. He was decapitated by a ricocheting Larrey’s writings introduced Letterman to the cannonball while administering last rites to concept of “triage” (which means “sort”), and Letterman also served on staff at the battle of his also mortally wounded regimental also to the concepts of ambulances and quick Gettysburg. There he set up Camp Letterman commander, Col. William Grace. amputations. (previously, the first American use to care for the sick and wounded soldiers. After of anesthetics had been in the Mexican War.) that battle he needed some rest and relaxation, The file for Rev. Paul Wald shows that he so he spent some time visiting a fellow surgeon. At the 1861 battle of First Bull Run there were was appointed hospital chaplain at the There he met that surgeon’s sister, whom he 3600 casualties, North and South. Some of the U.S.A. General Hospital in Baton Rouge, later married. wounded remained on the battlefield for as long Louisiana, on May 8, 1864, and appeared on the hospital rolls through August 1864. as two weeks. At that time ambulances were Letterman left the U.S. Army in January, 1864. He then transferred to the U.S.A. General primitive, often being two-wheeled carts with no Hospital at Natchez, Mississippi, on the springs. Letterman began to design and then In 1865 he moved to . He died in 1875 date of September 4, 1864, and remained introduced an efficient supply system and and was buried in . A few years there until March 1865. During that same promote the implementation of triage. At this later his body was exhumed and was re-buried period he also appeared present for duty on point in the war he was commanded by William in Arlington Va. Cemetery. the monthly returns for the Post and Hammond, the Chief of Surgeons. Letterman Defenses of Natchez, Mississippi, as well was with the Army of the Potomac at Harrison’s as the rolls for the District of Natchez, Landing during McClellan’s orchestrated Department of Mississippi. The final card in Peninsula Campaign, where there were the file indicated that Wald was dismissed eventually 17,000 sick and wounded soldiers. from service by a general court-martial on He asked for the transportation for the wounded April 8, 1865. and eventually received hospital ships, which evacuated the wounded in two weeks. At this ______point he also undertook the task of updating the ambulances to four-wheeled vehicles with MARCH springs, and also with a dedicated driver and PRESENTATION helper. REVIEW In July 1862 Letterman was stationed in By Jim Stanis Washington DC and later rejoined McClellan Speaker: Gordon Dammann, DDS after he had reassumed command of the AOTP March 12, 2019 after the battle of Second Bull Run. Dr. Dammann is a licensed battlefield guide at Antietam and South Mountain Battlefield Parks Letterman re-organized the medical system for JONATHAN LETTERMAN the AOTP. At Antietam before the battle he had AND THE prepared hospitals and surgeons to take care of Born: August 12, 1832, Canonsburg, PA LETTERMAN PLAN AT the wounded in the upcoming battle. He Died: May 23, 1881, Duffau, Texas, TX ANTIETAM . prepared avenues of evacuation on the Spouse: Laura Letterman battlefield. Organization founded: Siblings: Jonathan Letterman Previously, regimental surgeons performed their Education: Washington & Jefferson College, Thomas duties for their regiments only. Letterman Jefferson University revised the procedures to provide that surgeons

TO ALL MEMBERS PLEASE VISIT & THE Evacuating the Wounded MUSEUM OF CIVIL WAR MEDICINE FOLLOWERS MCHENRY COUNTY OF THE “The road was full of ambulances, CIVIL WAR artillery wagons, and horses and the McHENRY COUNTY shells were falling among them as ROUND TABLE fast as you could count… crashing CIVIL WAR through them and sending them in WEB SITE ON LINE every direction.” — ROUNDTABLE, Private Lauren Gilbert, Ambulance Driver, @ 2nd Michigan Cavalry WE CORDIALLY www.mchenrycivilwar.com As Private Gilbert’s ambulance fled the DON PURN WEB MASTER scene from another defeat at WELCOME YOU TO Bull Run on August 30, 1862, he experienced the utter chaos of battle. ANOTHER SEASON AND READ Union lines were collapsing and everyone OF CIVIL WAR THE ran for safety, including all of the medical RELATED personnel. Private Gilbert stopped to pick MCHENRY COUNTY up two wounded soldiers on his PRESENTATIONS desperate escape attempt aboard his CIVIL WAR regiment’s ambulance. TO BE PERFORMED ROUND TABLE When he arrived at the remains of a AT THE bridge over Bull Run, an officer shouted MONTHLY for him to cross the creek. “That man WOODSTOCK has got wounded in his ambulance,” NEWSPAPER he exclaimed. As the world closed in on PUBLIC LIBRARY. them, with Confederate soldiers pouring WE THANK YOU through Union lines and shells exploding all around, Private Gilbert recalled FOR ALL OF YOUR KEITH FISHER EDITOR another man shouting to the wounded in his ambulance, “Don’t be afraid boys. SUPPORT AND God will take care of us.” INTEREST IN OUR Over the course of the American Civil War, few changes in military policy were ORGANIZATION! as dramatic as the evolution of the ______systems which removed wounded soldiers from the battlefield. While studies of the conflict often focus upon the movement of troops toward the front and how they were utilized when they 2019 arrived, examinations of the movement of those injured on the battle lines have received much less attention. Yet, the improvisations and policies implemented during the conflict in regards to the MEMBERSHIP extrication of wounded from the field are incredibly relevant to our own world in DUES which mass casualty situations occur all- too frequently. The work of medical ARE officers such as Major Jonathan Letterman in the face of staggering NOW DUE! casualty figures as the war claimed ever more lives continues to transfix modern scholars. How did these officers do so much to shape an effective evacuation system in the midst of chaos and seemingly insurmountable challenges?