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Antietam Hospital ("Side view Ward I. Dr. Aitkens.")

Collection Name

About

About
Civil War Hospitals in Western Maryland

Media Items

Media Items
Media Items
ItemID
wcac313
IDEntry
2345
Creator
Unknown
Rights
Edward G. Miner Library, University of Rochester Medical Center
Date
1862
Collection Location
Edward G. Miner Library, University of Rochester.
Original size
23 x 18 cms
Coverage
Washington County, Md; 1862-1869.
Body

W.R. Mosely, Assistant Medical Inspector, visited Smoketown in November 1862. He found there were 479 patients under treatment, 232 were wounded soldiers, 247 were sick: typhoid fever, dysentery, and diarrhea the most prevalent illnesses. Eleven doctors staffed the hospital, including: B. A. Vanderkieft of the 102 New York Volunteers, Edward Donelly, of the 2 Pennsylvania Reserves, G. W. Metcalf, of the 76th New York Volunteers, Wm. B. Chambers of the 60th New York Volunteers, Wilson Peterson, John Aiken of the 71st Pennsylvania Reserves, W. S. Ely of the 108th New York Volunteers, John Baker, of the 1st Pennsylvania Reserves, Wm. Child of the 5th New Hampshire, A. G. Andrews of the 6th Wisconsin Volunteers, and B. S. Manly of the 34th New York Volunteers. Smoketown was staffed by 121 attendants, 10 ward masters, seven washers, 31 cooks, bakers and water carriers, four butchers, one ward master-in-chief, one commissary sergeant, and two stewards.
...From a letter from Mosely to J. J. Milhau, quoted by John Nelson.

The Antietam Hospital at Smoketown remained in use until May 1863, long after all of the other hospitals set up in barns and tents around Antietam had closed.

Notes

This photograph is one of a collection belonging to William Smith Ely, M.D. (1842-1911). Dr Ely enlisted as an assistant surgeon with the 108th Regiment of New York State Volunteers in 1862. He served with the army hospital at Antietam in 1862-1863. He was later attached to the U.S. General Hospital at Annapolis. The Edward G. Miner Library University of Rochester Medical Center has the Ely collection of photographs taken of the field hospital at Antietam, and the U.S. General Hospital at Annapolis circa 1863-65. This photograph is used with permission of the Edward G. Miner Library.