U. S. A. Medical Dept. Medical and Hospital Supplies

Receipt by Act. Asst. Surg. A. McWilliams, U.S. Army

Dated May 11, 1864, Alexandria, Va.

The value of this document is that it shows, in printed detail, the supplies of Medicines, Stores, Bedding, & c., contained in Packages as supplied to the hospitals during the Civil War.  In particular this Union hospital is located at Methodist Church Hospital, Alexandria, Virginia, May 11, 1864

"Invoices and Receipts required by Paragraph 1273, Rev.  Army Regulations will be transmitted with the return (except in the case of Medical Purveyors and Storekeepers,) and not at the time of making the transfer.  Invoices and Receipts must be entered on the Property Return, and numbered in the order of priority of date."

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Materia Medica

 

 

Materia Medica,   Hospital Stores,  Surgical Instruments

 

 

Surgical Instruments cont'd,   Dressings, Etc.  Medical Books and stationery

Hospital Location and Act. Asst. Surg. McWilliams' signature

During the Civil War Years, Alexandria, a Southern city, was occupied by Union troops just one month after the attack on Fort Sumter. On January 6, 1862, the U.S. military forces took possession of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South and used the sanctuary as a hospital while the first floor served as a stable. The church was returned to the congregation in 1865 and reopened for use in October of that year after major repairs. The Federal Government paid reparations for damage to the church in 1915 in the amount of $3,680.

Citation from the Med. & Surg. History:

CASE 1645.--Private T. Carroll Co. C, 58th Massachusetts, aged 26 years, was wounded at Spottsylvania, May 12, 1864. He was conveyed to the field hospital of the 2d division of the Ninth Corps. Surgeon James Harris, 7th Rhode Island, reported a "shot wound near left shoulder; amputation a few hours after the injury, under chloroform, by Surgeon J. S. Ross, 11th New Hampshire, by the circular method, at the upper third. The humerus was found to be very much comminuted. The wound was brought together vertically by sutures." The case progressed favorably until May 26th, when the patient was transferred to Alexandria. Acting Assistant Surgeon A. McWilliams reported the admission of the patient at the general hospital at Alexandria, his progress without complications, and his transfer to Portsmouth Grove, Rhode Island. Here Surgeon L. A. Edwards, U. S. A., recorded his admission June 5, 1864, with "a large and unhealthy wound from a flap amputation at the upper third of the left arm, performed on the field on the day of injury. Stimulating applications, including bromine, were applied to the stump, and the patient slowly progressed toward recovery, and was sent to Central Park Hospital, New York, September 23, 1864, where he was' supplied with an artificial limb, and discharged and pensioned January 1, 1875. While at Central Park, a plaster cast of the shoulder and stump was made, and a copy, from which the annexed wood-cut (FIG. 513) was prepared, was contributed to the Army Medical Museum by Acting Assistant Surgeon G. F. Shrady. (See Cat. Surg. Sect., 1866, p. 546.)
 

Conesus, N.Y. Military Hospital:

 

See another list of hospital supplies which were requested to be returned to the U. S. Army Medical Department and were sold at the end of the Civil War to raise money for the Department.  Includes  photos of the type of supplies listed on both this hospital list and one from 1865 at the end of the war.