Satterlee General Hospital was the largest Union Army hospital during the American Civil War. Operating from 1862 to 1865 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, its physicians and nurses rendered care to thousands of Union soldiers and Confederate prisoners. After its patient population spiked following the battles of Bull Run and Gettysburg, this hospital became the second-largest in the country with 34 wards and hundreds of tents containing 4,500 beds.[1]
Initially referred to as the West Philadelphia General Hospital, it was later renamed in honor of Richard Sherwood Satterlee,[2] a physician from Seneca County, New York, who was stationed with the United States Army at Fort Winnebago in Portage, Wisconsin, during the Black Hawk War, and then rose to prominence and was brevetted as a lieutenant colonel, colonel, and brigadier general during America's Civil War "for diligent care and attention in procuring proper army supplies, as Medical Purveyor, and for economy and fidelity in the disbursement of large sums of money."[3]
History
Existing and proposed land use, former Satterlee hospital site, 1869.Isaac Israel Hayes, c. 1860–1875.
Founded in 1862 by order of Surgeon-General William Alexander Hammond, the hospital was built in the sparsely developed neighborhood of West Philadelphia near the intersection of 42nd Street and Baltimore Avenue on 15-acre (6.1ha) grounds which ran north to 45th and Pine Streets. The initial 2,500-bed facility was built in just 40 days.
Nursing duties at Satterlee were performed by members of the Daughters of Charity, who began their work before the facility was finished or fully equipped. The hospital's "chapel was so small," according to historians at the Catholic Historical Research Center in Philadelphia, "that some sisters had to exit the room so others could enter and receive Holy Communion." Eating separately from, and earlier than, the military officers who also worked at the hospital, they were given just four of the officers' utensils to share.[2] Ultimately, more than 100 Daughters of Charity worked at the hospital, living in a convent on the grounds, with Sister Mary Gonzaga Grace as their superioress.[4][5][6]
The hospital's chaplain was the pastor at St. Patrick's church located at 20th and Locust Streets, Father Peter McGrane, who heard confessions and offered mass daily, and also offered assistance with baptisms and burials. "Archbishop James Wood also visited Satterlee several times to confirm many adult converts," the Catholic Historical Research Center historians wrote.[2]
In 1862, the hospital added military tents with beds to handle the influx of hundreds of soldiers wounded in the Second Battle of Bull Run.
The hospital had become a "self-contained city" by 1863. After the Battle of Gettysburg in July of that year, "the greatest number of wounded were admitted to the hospital in a single month...swelling the hospital population to more than 6,000." That August, hospital clerks recorded "the greatest number of deaths in any one month" — an average of more than one a day. Supply needs rose as well: in "just one year, patients consumed more than 800,000 pounds of bread, 16,000 pounds of butter and 334,000 quarts of milk."[2]
By 1864, the hospital was surrounded by a 14-foot tall fence and included a barber shop, carpenter shop, clothing store, dispensary, three kitchens, laundry, library, post office, reading room, and a printing office that printed Satterlee's newspaper, The Hospital Register.[8]
Gettysburg Stone marking the former site of Satterlee General Hospital.
Over the course of the hospital's operation, Satterlee's physicians and nurses treated some 50,000 sick and wounded people, losing only 260, a notable accomplishment considering the sanitary conditions and medical techniques of the day.[2][8] Sister Ann Alexis Shorb was the head nurse.[9]
Following the Confederate army's Surrender at Appomattox on April 9, 1865, the number of patients sent to Satterlee gradually began to decline, and the hospital was closed on August 3, 1865.[10][11] The buildings were eventually razed and, during the 1890s, much of the site was then redeveloped with residential housing in what is now Spruce Hill. The lower portion of the hospital grounds survive as Clark Park.
Isaac Israel Hayes was an American Arctic explorer, physician, and politician, who was appointed as the commanding officer at Satterlee General Hospital during the American Civil War, and was then elected, after the war, to the New York State Assembly.
Cornelia Hancock was a celebrated volunteer nurse, serving the injured and infirmed of the Union Army during the American Civil War. Hancock's service lasted from July 6, 1863 to May 23, 1865.
Hunter Holmes McGuire was an American soldier, physician, teacher, and orator. McGuire was a surgeon in the Confederate Army attached to Stonewall Jackson's command, and he continued serving with the Army of Northern Virginia after Jackson's death. He started several schools and hospitals which later became part of Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Virginia. McGuire was later president of the American Medical Association. His statue sits prominently on the grounds of the Virginia State Capitol. Nearby, the McGuire Veterans Administration Medical Center was named in his honor until 2023 when the Veterans Administration changed the name to Richmond VA Medical Center.
Samuel Wylie Crawford was a United States Army surgeon and a Union general in the American Civil War.
Major Jonathan Letterman was an American surgeon credited as being the originator of the modern methods for medical organization in armies or battlefield medical management. In the United States, Letterman is known today as the "Father of Battlefield Medicine". His system of organization enabled thousands of wounded men to be recovered and treated during the American Civil War.
Mower General Hospital was one of the largest Federal military hospitals during the American Civil War. Located across from the Reading Railroad depot in the Chestnut Hill section of Philadelphia, it operated from January 1863 through May 1865, and was closed with the cessation of the war.
The 7th Wisconsin Infantry Regiment was an infantry regiment that served in the Union Army during the American Civil War. It was a component of the famous Iron Brigade in the Army of the Potomac throughout the war.
William Smith Forbes was an American physician who served as demonstrator of anatomy at Jefferson Medical College. He is known as the "Father of the Anatomical Act" in Pennsylvania.
The York U.S. Army Hospital was one of Pennsylvania's largest military hospitals during the American Civil War. It was established in York, Pennsylvania to treat wounded and sick soldiers of the Union army.
During the American Civil War, Philadelphia was an important source of troops, money, weapons, medical care, and supplies for the Union.
Joseph K. Barnes was an American physician and the 12th Surgeon General of the United States Army (1864–1882).
William Henry Forwood was a surgeon from Brandywine Hundred, Delaware, who served in the Union Army during the American Civil War and eventually as Surgeon General of the United States Army from June 8, 1902 until September 7, 1902.
The state of medical knowledge at the time of the Civil War was quite limited by 21st century standards. Doctors did not understand germs, and did little to prevent infection. It was a time before antiseptics, and a time when there was no attempt to maintain sterility during surgery. No antibiotics were available, and minor wounds could easily become infected, and hence fatal. While the typical soldier was at risk of being hit by rifle or artillery fire, he faced an even greater risk of dying from disease.
Camp Letterman was an American Civil War military hospital, which was erected near the Gettysburg Battlefield to treat more than 14,000 Union and 6,800 Confederate wounded of the Battle of Gettysburg at the beginning of July 1863.
The history of medicine in the United States encompasses a variety of approaches to health care in the United States spanning from colonial days to the present. These interpretations of medicine vary from early folk remedies that fell under various different medical systems to the increasingly standardized and professional managed care of modern biomedicine.
Margaret Hamilton was a Union nurse during the American Civil War.
Mary Gonzaga Grace, born Anne Grace, was an American religious sister, a member of the Sisters of Charity order based in Emmitsburg, Maryland. She was longtime executive at the St. Joseph's Orphan Asylum in Philadelphia, and during the American Civil War she was Superioress at the Satterlee Hospital in the same city.
Elizabeth Harris served as a United States Sanitary Commission agent, army nurse, and newspaper correspondent during the American Civil War. She was active in the Eastern Theater of the American Civil War until September 1863, when she went to Tennessee for several months before returning to the east. After the war, she was active in national reform causes.
Georgeanna Muirson Woolsey Bacon was an American author and nurse. She is most notable for her nursing activities during the American Civil War and for her personal correspondence during the conflict.
Mary Morris Husband was an American nurse during the Civil War (1861–1865). She cared for soldiers who fought at the Battles of Antietam, Chancellorsville, and Gettysburg. She cared for her seriously ill son John until he was discharged by the surgeon. After recovering from miasmatic fever, Husband returned to service. She was among the nurses who treated thousands of soldiers in Fredericksburg, Virginia following the Battles of the Wilderness and Spotsylvania Court House. She nursed at the White House Hospital in June 1864. Among other leadership positions, she was the matron of the Third Corps hospital.
Smith, Sara Trainer, ed. "Notes on Satterlee Military Hospital...from the journal kept at the hospital by a Sister of Charity." Records of the American Catholic Historical Society 8, no. 4 (December 1897): 399-449.
West, Nathaniel. History of the Satterlee U.S.A. Gen. Hospital at West Philadelphia from October 8, 1862 to October 8, 1863. The Hospital Press, 1863. (Call# IC0135)
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
