The Toll of War

Battlefield carnage left hundreds of men killed or mortally wounded and thousands of others with wounds or injuries requiring treatment. Dozens of private homes and other structures, including St. Thomas Church, were pressed into service as temporary hospitals. Conditions were deplorable because medicine was still somewhat primitive and in short supply, knowledge about infection was little understood, and the need for sterile conditions was unknown. Nearly twice as many soldiers died from infections as died on the battlefield. St. Thomas Episcopal Church opened in 1837, after the Hite family of Belle Grove helped raise funds for its construction, and after the Battle of Cedar Creek Union doctors performed surgery inside St. Thomas Chapel.

Middletown, Virginia · United States