The Physician to Soldier Pipeline · Episode 1 of 14 · 23 min
A Medical Degree Was Not a Prerequisite
In spring 1861 the U.S. Army had roughly 115 medical officers and within months needed thousands. It filled the gap through governor-issued commissions, skipped examinations and contract hires, since a medical degree was not a prerequisite. William Hammond and Jonathan Letterman built an ambulance corps that cleared the Gettysburg wounded, but Hammond's request for a school was refused.
Who's who
- William A. HammondSurgeon General from 1862; asked for an Army medical school
- Jonathan LettermanMedical director who built the Army of the Potomac's ambulance corps
- Edwin M. StantonSecretary of War who refused Hammond's school and relieved him
- Charles S. TriplerEarlier medical director who convened a board on who had been appointed
- Frederick Law OlmstedExecutive secretary of the U.S. Sanitary Commission
Where it happens
- Gettysburg, Pennsylvania+1 more episodeBattle where the ambulance corps cleared the wounded from the field
- Harrison's Landing, VirginiaWhere Letterman arrived as medical director in June 1862
- Chancellorsville, Virginia1863 battle with about 9,500 wounded evacuated
- Washington, D.C.+31 more episodesSeat of the Surgeon General and War Department
Timeline
- Spring 1861Regular Army has roughly 115 medical officers
- April 25, 1862Hammond appointed Surgeon General at age thirty-three
- August 2, 1862Order No. 147 establishes the Army of the Potomac's ambulance corps
- 1-July 3, 1863At Gettysburg, none of more than 14,000 Union wounded left on the field inside Union lines
- August 18, 1864Hammond dismissed from the Army
- June 24, 1893The Army Medical School is founded, thirty years after Stanton refused it
Still debated
Exact numbers are uncertain, including the count of medical officers in 1861, the total of Civil War medical appointments, and how many volunteer surgeons held degrees. Whether ambulance-corps privates were armed is also unresolved.
