Field Hospital

After the Battle of Shiloh, Federal soldiers buried the dead while medical officers faced the enormous task of caring for the 16,400 wounded. Many were crowded onto steamboats for transport to Northern cities, while others were taken to nearby homes. On the high ground surrounding the farmhouse of Noah Cantrell, medical officers of the Union Army of the Ohio set up a large field hospital under canvas, where some of the wounded received professional medical treatment. Tents, bedding, and supplies were secured from the infantry camps to accommodate some 2,500 sick and wounded. Ordinarily, regiments took care of their own wounded, but this was the first consolidated tent hospital, a forerunner of modern military field hospitals.

Tennessee · United States