Call 911: Civil War Style

During the Civil War, too few ambulances were available at first to carry all the wounded, and many soldiers died from lack of care. In August 1862, Union Army medical director Dr. Johnathan Letterman created the first ambulance corps to address this problem. When it was first used at the Battle of Antietam, medical personnel removed all of the wounded from the field in just 24 hours, saving hundreds of lives. Alexander Hunter of the 17th Virginia Infantry, CSA, wrote that many became ill from exposure and starvation and were left on the road because the ambulances were full. The U.S. Ambulance Corps used Tripler Model ambulances extensively during the war even though they were cumbersome and very heavy; each was built to carry ten men, four lying down and six seated, and required four horses to pull it. At Fort Scott, ambulances brought Union wounded from battlefields in Kansas, Missouri, Arkansas, and the Indian Territory, where surgeons treated them at the U.S. Army General Hospital complex, including the 1840s hospital building and surrounding structures.

Fort Scott, Kansas · United States