![]() The Confederate medical regulations suggest a regiment should be supplied with two four-wheeled ambulances, ten two-wheeled ambulances, and four two-wheeled transport carts. On February 26, 1861, the Confederate States of America Provisional Congress authorized the medical department of the Confederate army to provide for one Surgeon General, four surgeons, and six assistant surgeons and by May, Congress assigned six additional surgeons and fourteen assistant surgeons to the regular army. įigure 3: Ambulance wagon on the Battlefield at Bull Run, 1861. Courtesy of the Library of Congress Typically, each regiment would care only for their own soldiers, and it was reported during the battle some regimental hospitals refused to receive wounded men from other regiments. ![]() Each regiment had one surgeon, two assistant surgeons, medical supplies, and one ambulance. Not until the Ambulance Corps Act of 1864 did an official Ambulance Corps exist. For the Union, the standard practice was that each regiment was issued a small hospital tent but no assigned hospital corps, nor ambulance corps. Medical Care Prior to secession, the Regular Army of the United States had 1,117 commissioned officers, 11,907 enlisted, and the medical department was composed of “one Surgeon General, thirty Surgeons and eighty-four Assistant Surgeons.” At the beginning of the war, neither the Union nor Confederate armies had an official military hospital, nor did they have an evacuation plan for the wounded. Furthermore, the Union Surgeon General’s office, directed by Colonel Thomas Lawson, a veteran of the War of 1812, remarked that during the first year of the war the medical care was, “insufficient and defective.” Jonathan Letterman, Medical Director of the Army of the Potomac in1862, stated, when discussing ambulance care at First Manassas, “Neither the proper kind nor the number of ambulances was in the army at that time.” įigure 2: Battle of Bull Run, Kurz & Allison. Courtesy of the Library of Congress He establishes the ambulance depots in the rear…” At First Manassas, the data indicates these rules were not implemented, and civilian battle spectators hampered ambulance aid to the wounded. July 21, 1861. Harper’s Weekly, August 10, 1861Īrmy Regulations According to the 1861 Army regulations, under the heading of Sieges, section 778 states, “The Quartermaster-General establishes the hospitals, and organizes the means for transporting the wounded to them ” and under the heading of Battles, section 716 states, “Before the action, the Quartermaster of the division makes all the necessary arrangements for the transportation of the wounded. These circumstances combined to cause the unnecessary death of soldiers at Manassas.įigure 1: Battle of Bull Run. Along with both governments’ misconception of actual war, many soldiers and members of the general public followed suit, having romantic notions of battle and glory. The intent of this paper is to demonstrate how after forty-nine years of relative peace, both armies misunderstood the realities of a major battle, thus resulting in a lax view of Army Regulations, especially in staffing and supplying the medical corps and providing the necessary tools to save lives. The Union Army had 35,000 soldiers: 1,011 wounded, 481 killed, and 1,216 missing while the Confederates had 29,188 soldiers with 1,582 wounded, 387 killed, and 13 missing. Manassas was the first major battle on American soil since the War of 1812. Introduction This study examines the unnecessary deaths at the First Battle of Manassas, July 21, 1861, initiated by unprepared armies and hordes of spectators congesting the fields and roadways. Originally published in 2020 in the Surgeon’s Call, Volume 25, No.1 Museum members support scholarship like this. First Battle of Manassas: Unwarranted Deaths of Savable Men Posted on: January 4th, 2021
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