On Tour - Camp Letterman, Gettysburg's Largest Hospital

well welcome to camp letterman folks rick and  i are standing off of the screen so you can see   what's left camp letterman is private ground  and you're not permitted to go back there   we asked permission occasionally from businesses  around us to go back there but we were unable to   obtain them today camp letterman is on york  street coming out of gettysburg it's across   the street from the haases restaurant the giant  supermarket and what's the name of that hotel i   forgot the hilton garden inn the hilton garden inn  are in camp letterman you're not allowed in there   and it's under contract to be purchased so we're  standing outside in a parking area where we're   perfectly legal to be and you're looking into  the fields of camp letter and some of you may   see a stone building out there which is in the  middle and this is the temporary tertiary hospital   general hospital that we're going to talk about  let's walk in and show them now we want to thank   a licensed battlefield guy phil lichak has done a  lot of work on this and he's done some some work   for us on camp letterman so we always stand on the  the shoulders of giants sure we come here to do it   and speaking of giants this is what camp letterman  looks like right this is camp letterman as it   existed in 1863 superimposed on a 2021 map here's  the giant food shopping center we are standing   about right back in here route 30 is up here  and as fran said there's the horse's restaurant   so we're at the back end of this large general  hospital that was put up this hospital was opened   on july 22nd after the fighting stopped on july  3rd so between july 3rd and july 22nd division   field hospitals are taking care of all of the  wounded and have to hold on to the ones that can't   be shipped out via train but on july 22nd this  large tent hospital is located in this position   and opened up and it's got a lot of reasons to  be out here right everything we talked about of   the hospital this place was known as wolf's woods  it was a prop a popular picnic area in gettysburg   there's two springs but more importantly i don't  know if you can get the sensation the ground   slopes towards route 30. now the permanent marker  is on route 30. i would tell you if you want to go   see it be very careful route 30 is a busy traffic  but you'll see it it's one of the stone markers   and it's out there where is it rick i can't it's  right here where the red x in the map is so you   can see your backside is right to route 30. there  you can pull off there we would just urge you to   be caught because you can go up there but this  was a very popular place for a couple of reasons   it has water it has good ventilation but  more importantly the confederates destroyed   the bridge going into town right and there's a  railroad that comes in is it on here right here   so what do you need we told you you need water  you need open ground and you need transportation   and that's kind of what's going to happen here  right at gettysburg now normally like rick said   you would go from the hummel baja farm and you'd  go to harrisburg or york or washington but there   were so many and this is more of letterman and  and also letterman lafayette is going to leave   guild is going to leave but there's going to be  confederate prisoners taken care of yeah there   for sure are you know when when the union army was  here at the end of the battle they had over 600   surgeons when the union army pulled out of here  they only left 106 surgeons behind to care for   21 000 wounded now many of those 21 000 wounded  were shipped out within a couple of days but as we   said earlier jonathan letterman felt that you you  needed to protect people from further injury and   further sickness by moving them too soon so that's  why this hospital came into being and this place   treated well over 4 000 patients over the period  of time that it that it was here it was open for   four months it closed on november 20th 1863 the  day after lincoln gave the gettysburg address   so this is an unusual thing a tent general  hospital in the civil war there might be one   at shiloh that we hear often on but we think this  is the only one out here jake do you have anything   i think there were one there were 10 hospitals  in antietam right right right smoketown hospital   but but the massive size of this uh it really  kind of dwarfs everything else that was used   and we're starting to see the beginnings of an  understanding of sterility and understanding of um   disease and an understanding of just simple  cleanliness with the way the trenches were set up   latrines were set up well i mean one of  the first things letterman came up with   he told the soldiers you're not allowed to go  to the bathroom on every tree between here and   antietam you got to go to some place they don't  it's kind of hard huh they're kind of hitting   all around it but they just haven't figured out  that there could be something they don't see they   set the tents up here to take advantage of the  westerly air flow to get the malair out of here   i think one of the things that's beginning to  happen that we see as progress is being made in   medical care in the civil war and it's true that  medical progress occurs occurs with every military   conflict but medicine is moving into a scientific  age through the civil war it's not too long after   the civil war that we begin to understand  bacteria we begin to understand clean surgery   and what you said fran is true largely because  of the school of hard knocks we figured out   you got to go to the bathroom somewhere away from  your water source otherwise people are going to   get really really sick and now this is where the  women of the town and the women come in to help   nurses some of them nurses by trade but some  of them morphing out i like to tell the nurses   that come along with us this is the victorian era  and if you talk to nurses who work in hospitals   and say so what do you think a delirious 21  year old patient would be like they just laugh   because we know these men are no different  they're in pain they're making suggestive remarks   now this is the victorian era the only naked  man you would ever see would be your brother   when you're diapering him and your husband but  we know that some of these ghastly wounds these   women are holding men in positions that  they really weren't supposed to hold in   they were seeing things that they really shouldn't  see but yet they're here cooking meals and feeding   good nutrition like nutrition was an idea but  not the science that it's become today and i tell   people all around if you're a woman saying man  we didn't do much in the civil war you're wrong   because it is the victorian era and in the  victorian era you didn't talk about it so what do   you see when you talk about women they write about  oh i wrote a letter home i read scripture to him   we know that's totally different in the  real world and the nurses in here would say   yes and people don't change in 158 years pain is  pain but what's the victorian error folks they're   not going to write long lengthy things about it  and the other is interesting yeah the other thing   i would mention is his support at camp letterman  of the civilian organizations that were here to   help the army medical department organizations  like the u.s sanitary commission the u.s   christian commission think red cross or ymca now  a lot of the care that's being done here is a good   example of a cooperative uh project between the  military who was at this point willing to accept   their help then also the civilian organizations  and unsung heroes herman hop i'm just going to   bring in the railroad guy who is smart enough to  fix the railroads and bring supplies up and take   wounded out this is a massive thing we talk about  camp letterman as tense but it's a it's truly a   community taking care of people it's almost an  industry in and of itself now you've got some   pictures fran uh that were taken um while camp  letterman existed um so finally we have surgery   yeah and so surgery was done here but it  was often what i would call revision surgery   an amputation was done and became infected maybe  gang green had set in and unfortunately you have   to take the arm or the leg off up higher but there  wasn't the degree of surgery done here that there   would have been at the division field hospitals  this is uh more tertiary hospital with this photo   uh probable some of these are staged but this  one probably is not because you can actually see   the blood coming down off of the operating  room table which is set up outdoors with a   large group of people observing what's going on  no masks no math because why would you need a mask   there's a bucket of water there to catch  blood and probably to wipe off the instruments   and of course the surgeon's wearing an apron so  surgery was done out here but it wasn't the the   around the clock stopped like the combo right that  well that wasn't supposed to be right exactly yeah   um one thing before rick reads this one thing  that has always engaged us up here is this   this little spot right here so we again we're  standing about right here it'll be behind us   in this way yeah the soldiers national cemetery  we have the honor of doing tours in the soldiers   national cemetery the soldiers national cemetery  gettysburg was intended only for union soldiers   i contend that the first soldiers national  cemetery folks is the one here camp letterman   now at camp letterman you were buried in the  way you died at camp letterman you'll find a   guy from massachusetts between the soldiers from  north carolina virginia pennsylvania new york   here at camp letterman it didn't matter whether  you wore blue or gray in my opinion right and i   always tell people this is probably the first  soldier's national cemetery now supposedly   everybody's been taken out we have lists of  of these men that are here but it's one of   the reasons that we hope maybe someday we can hold  camp letterman here because honest to god this is   in my opinion we talked about by two years into  the civil war the soldiers have kind of given   that that up oh you're not in my division you're  not no you're hurt you're next you're next and   they're doing they're starting to do the right  thing and i got to tell you this is the right   thing yeah yeah this is the right thing so this  is one of those areas that we should keep go   ahead let me i'll read you a description of what  the camp looked like and and we'll have some more   illustrations for you fran mentioned  nursing nursing as a profession   did not really exist strongly before the american  civil war there were catholic nuns whose vocation   was nursing but many of the women who went into  nursing these wounded men were strictly volunteers   or women from the local communities one of  the most well-known nurses here is a lady by   the name of safronia buckland and she wrote a  description of what camp letterman looked like   the hospital lay in the rear of a deep wood in a  large open field a mile and a half from gettysburg   and overlooking it the single line of rail which  connected the battle town with the outer world   the hospital tents were set in rows 500 of them  seeming like great fluttering pairs of white wings   brooding peacefully over those wounded  men so to shelter them from further evil   walks were thrown up between those rows in order  that they might dry quickly after the summer rains   the ground now sodded soon to be hardened by  many feet was the only floor in the wards or   in our quarters so this is a big operation and it  covers quite a bit of ground right so luckily our   friend bill frasinino who everybody knows has  taken pictures of camp letterman can we show   well they're reproduced they were taken by one of  the civil war photographers uh that's name as well   knows about the name of the ice come on up here  guys we need some help so you have a this is a i need b this is b come on up my friend your c and then here hook you hook your  hook yourself oh you go here like this   everybody move down one cool so we're  going to stand back folks these are the   four pictures of camp letterman blown up for you  and licensed battlefield guides and people like   like the national museum of civil war medicine  we are forever taping these photos together   now these photos in all actuality we're not going  to spin the camera should be behind the camera   looking that way but take a look we have four  photos that are spun together i don't know rick   doesn't make sense to me these photos were  taken probably in september after the um   uh hospital opened in july um and basically from  a stage where it's my understanding there was a in   essence a uso show up on that stage yeah yeah so  um and um actually as it's always fun with civil   war photos if you look into the background you  can see things like the courthouse and different   structures on the battlefield and when you work  at a hospital and you have a good friend who's a   civil war person named greg dulac who understands  photos and you show these to greg and you say hey   greg can you put camp letterman together the way  it's supposed to be yeah this is all those photos   put together folks you're seeing camp letterman  uh as it's supposed to be one of the interesting   things rick lower the picture it's photo one  photo two a two b and c there's only three views   and that's what greg said when he started  to put them together i want you to notice   here the tent flaps open with the little old uh  nurse standing here and here's the group of men   and that's the two that went together and you  can see the camp is sloped down you can see the   drainage ditches right here but when you look  at those four photos folks it's three photos   2a 2b now what greg did he put everything  together he adjusted the height he fixed the   light on it to see but you're seeing camp  letterman there's a couple of things we can see we   can also we can now see that there's three beds in  each section right right here one two three beds   two sections so each each tent has uh 24 people  in it we also can see in this photo there's an   outside ward and rick and i figure that's somebody  that may have consumption or for some reason that   they are outside but folks this is camp letterman  in all its glory yeah a really a panoramic view   of the camp taken from more down closer to  route 30 but it gives you an idea of the the   size and breadth of the hospital now as i  mentioned this hospital closes on november 20 1863   by then virtually all of the soldiers have either  died or gotten well enough to be transported to   buildings that are going to serve as  rehab hospitals so the letterman plan   and we followed it from the wounding on the  battlefield to the division field hospital   to the general hospital so fran let's pick up  with our four soldiers maybe three three who were   injured at the wheat field on july 2nd with  140th 48th pennsylvania and their ultimate   outcome now we know forester is buried over  there he's not here right he's buried at the   humble building he's he's beside general let's  talk about let's talk about this guy this is our   wounded in the liver okay yeah so this is mr green  now green um he's wounded july 2nd in the liver   rick we've kind of said he'd have bled to death  he's not doing that he is going to be discharged   um from camp letterman on july 16th but he  will die in baltimore on july 15th and it says   july 1 august 15th august 15th and from his  pension record it says complications of the wound   so this is kind of a unique thing right he's  wounded on july 2nd he's going to live for   what six weeks yeah so the complications of that  wound probably relate to infections that's what i   would think right he's got a he's got a seeping  wound in his abdomen with no antibiotics and we   know that blood does a lot of things and one of  the things it does is supports bacterial growth   when you read about these soldiers dying even  ten days two weeks and certainly out at six   to eight weeks after their injury you know they  didn't bleed to death from an injury to a major   artery or to their brain or to their heart almost  assuredly fran infection is what caused those   now once in a while an infection can lead to  major bleeding and i think that happened for   one of our ones now the other thing with this guy  his wife sarah he's going to leave five children   um he has a two-year-old a four-year-old a  six-year-old an eight-year-old when he dies   so even though we talk about soldiers you got to  remember there's an extended it's like dropping a   pebble into the water so there's five children now  whose father has lived for a while and has passed   away here um let's do let's save james bill's for  last this is the other guy this is the hip wound   go ahead yeah jack baird shot in the hip um he  dies here at camp letterman on august 3rd so   almost a month and a day from when he was injured  and again i would just suggest that most likely   that from an infection process the pelvis  is full of all sorts of things like the uh   the large intestine the rectum that can certainly  lead to infection and i would imagine that that's   what happened to him and probably one of the  best things one of his comrades a guy named t.w   morton said the loss of jack was a personal  loss to every man in the company now we tried   to find his grave in belfast it's somewhere up  there but we were not able to find it this is   the one that kind of bothers us most this is um  james beals this is our 18 year old who had a uh   an army it should be a survivable wound now rick  he's going to die he's going to die on august   8th what happens to him well i would imagine  what happened was one of two things he either   got infected and gained green and that killed  him from what we call sepsis or blood poisoning   or the infection may have weakened the artery in  the amputation stump any hemorrhage or blood to   death and that's extremely difficult to control  uh and would lead to a quick death from bleeding   even at that late correct and that's exactly what  his medical record says it says died of death   secondary hemorrhage that began on august 7th yeah  so the day before that and we've talked about this   this upper arm area why is death so terrible  up there what's happening to this tissue now   well at this point um the tissue uh the the  soft tissue the muscles the the lining of the   muscles is getting infected the bone end may  be infected and as this starts to go into the   muscles it weakens and and the tissue sloughs and  once that brachial artery um the main artery the   main artery in the upper arm that's been tied off  at the time of the amputation once the infection   gets into that if it blows open again which it can  do you can't as a surgeon you can't control that   like you could on july 2nd when he had his right  so on july 2nd it's like clamping a rubber hose   yeah and if it's on august 7th it's like clamping  pasta i mean it just it's not going work it's not   gonna work and and we'll tell you from from our  work uh we get to this point with major trauma   today it's a it's a gut-wrenching terrible feeling  and you can almost feel the surgical staff on the   seventh one it won't stop bleeding yeah we can't  stop it and in the in fact and it's going up into   his chest which would be unheard of now uh mr  bills he is buried in camp letterman section   4 grade 14. he is between a soldier it's a  north carolina north carolinian bills from   pennsylvania and a soldier from wisconsin and  he is buried in the soldiers national cemetery   he's re-buried up in the uh nationals rosie um  grave 85 but if you go to look for him his graves   mislabeled it's in 142nd pa he's in 148. now the  sad point of this is he's 18 and i'm not sure   his mother would even have the funds to bring him  home so he rests with us but if you go to look for   him he's there but he's not you won't find him in  14842nd which is cool that just seems uh um almost   unfair that he gave his life but yet his his  headstone doesn't have the right uh the right uh   um etchings on it yeah so folks we're going to  end i'm going to turn it over to my friend rick   listen on behalf of the national museum civil war  medicine thank you for having us here today to let   a couple of uh retired medical professionals talk  to you a little bit but there's one closing thing   that rick needs to do and then we're going to  step away and i would again heartfelt thanks to   the staff from the national civil war from  the national museum of civil war medicine   located in frederick fran and i have been there  a number of times we would urge everybody who's   got any interest at all in this please visit the  museum and even consider supporting the museum   like all museums now it's everybody's struggling  a little bit but these people tell this story the   best that i've ever seen in in my uh uh travels  and a special interest in this let me play one   thing it was me so when i was trying to get that  funnel done i needed close-up pictures for my guy   so i'm the one that triggered the alarm when i  went in with my phone to get close-up pictures   of the phone you told me not to you think  they're labeled we met them i stuck my phone   in there because the guy was on there they goes  get me one from the top and i think it's when   i went to the top of this yeah we met the staff  everybody's very nice they were very nice but this   voice from god came over please get out of the  you're not allowed in the display but it was but   as we close i just want to read something  that that brings us to full circle i hope   and it's again emphasizing what the medical staff  in this type of a setting did for these men and   it's about the story of the hospitals the story of  the hospitals is symbolic it is the end of battle   and the end of war it is not a confederate story  or a union story there is no north or south hidden   in the meaning of the hospitals it is a story of  americans coping against almost insurmountable   odds for the common good it is the story of  hundreds and thousands of acts of individual   kindness of bravery and courage of charity and  love and faithfulness and patriotism and with that   we'll close and thanks so much for coming on tour  with us to gettysburg to talk about medical care   thanks so much for watching everyone i hope  you enjoyed this playlist of videos for our   latest installation of our on tour series  uh here at gettysburg with rick and fran   i know i had a good time being out here  uh with them just some incredible insight   and you know i i hope you all learned and  enjoyed the program you can go back and watch   it as many times as you want of course  or check out some of our other on tour   uh playlists that we have on our channel as always  you can subscribe in the lower right hand corner   of your screen become a member of the museum if  you want to help support programming like this   and a huge thank you to rick and fran for coming  out and doing this for us we can't thank them   enough for that they did a great job so thanks so  much for tuning in and we'll catch you next time

Channel: National Museum of Civil War Medicine

Views: 657

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: National Museum of Civil War Medicine, Civil War History, American Civil War, Civil War, US History, American History, United States History, Medical History, Military Medicine, Medicine, Military History, CivilWarMed, NMCWM, Civil War medicine, battle of gettysburg, camp letterman, Camp Letterman, Rick Schroeder, Fran Feyock, gettysburg, battlefield medicine, civil war hospital, johnathan letterman, letterman system, civil war photography, medical supplies, tent hospital

Id: nvtGZiYiQwQ

Length: 24min 10sec (1450 seconds)

Published: Fri Aug 27 2021