Samuel Preston Moore, CS Surgeon General, was also searching and would create the first example of a general hospital using this new design at Chimborazo (Green, 2004). He was making recommendations to improve ventilation before taking office and once officially in office it became one of his pet projects. William Hammond was looking even before he became US Surgeon General. The USSC asked “that General Hospitals should be erected, whenever needed, upon plans recognized as best by universal European experience” (Stille, 1866, p. They formed a commission to review possible plans, make recommendations, and to offer an approved design for that ideal hospital plan. Now with a more pressing need the US Sanitary Commission was on the hunt. Jefferson Davis, as US Secretary of War, had sent Major Delafield, Major Mordecai, and Capt McClellan to the Crimea as observers, including hospital inspections, in 1855-56. Searching for the ideal design was not a new concept and pre-dates the Civil War. Most important, the buildings must be of an ideal design for a hospital and approved as such before the construction began. If several could be located in a major city such as Richmond, Lynchburg, Washington City, or Philadelphia, their combined resources would greatly increase efficiency. They wanted them to be located in urban areas where resources such as man-power, material supplies, plentiful drinking water, and transportation were readily available. It was desirable that the structures be of a permanent construction, not tents. An important goal was better patient outcomes so that the wounded would survive and return to active duty. These hospitals needed to be of an effective and efficient design. As the war progressed the number of wounded increased and necessitated continuous expansion. Early in the war contagious diseases claimed thousands of victims. The demand for military hospitals was great. The North and the South did not wish to have a parallel outcome and repeat history.ĭesign for a Pavilion Hospital from Florence Nightingale’s Notes on Hospitals, 1959, p. Everyone was aware of what had happened to the British Army in the Crimean War during the previous decade because of a similar situation. Patients died due to incorrect building choices, poor designs, and lack of planning. They were convenient and inexpensive, but not efficient or effective, and often had poor patient outcomes. They were still temporary, but now measured in months or even years, instead of days or weeks. These were more permanent structures but were not intended for hospital use. The Rotunda of the US Capitol, an empty tobacco warehouse in Lynchburg or Richmond, the 3 rd floor of the newly constructed US Patent Office, or Alexandria’s Mansion House Hotel are examples. Space for the wounded or ill, in the form of an existing building, was often seized when necessary. Following the early response of these hospitals a more general, longer term hospital distant to the battlefield was a necessity. Well-known examples include the Pry House/Barn/Mill of Antietam, the post-battle hospital of Smoketown at Antietam, the Lutheran Seminary of Gettysburg, and the post-battle Camp Letterman Hospital outside Gettysburg. These temporary hospitals would always be needed to meet the sudden demands of the battles and the post-battle influx of wounded, and were pressed into service for a few weeks. There were early examples of temporary hospitals near a battlefield using the available space where and when needed. The American Civil War created a huge demand for hospitals that neither the North nor the South could meet early in the War. Originally published in 2018 in the Surgeon’s Call, Volume 23, No.1 Museum members support scholarship like this. The Pavilion-Style Hospital of the American Civil War and Florence Nightingale Posted on: July 8th, 2019
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