Army
Medical and Hospital Departments Budgets
There is
confusion about why some surgical sets are marked
for the Medical Department and others for the
Hospital Department. There is evidence in the
archives the two departments were usually addressed
as one entity, but also separately. There sometimes
appears to be two different budgets for the two
departments. One theory is the sets ordered and
marked by the Medical Department were intended for
field use rather than hospital use. The
Quartermaster and Purveyors would have been directly
involved in order supplies of sets and books for
hospitals and that would have not have been under
the Medical Dept. budget, but that of the
hospitals. The answer may be buried in the
budgets, thus this article. (Note where it says
'Department, not Departments', indicating one not
two different departments.)
Archival evidence
of both a separate and individual Hospital and
Medical Department
Bvt. Lieut. Col. T. A. McPARLIN, U.S. Army,
Medical Director, Army of the Potomac:
DOCTOR: I have the honor respectfully to render the
following report of the operations of
the Medical and Hospital Department
and Ambulance Service of this division from July 19
to December 31, 1864.
Very respectfully, your obedient servant,
E. J. MARSH,
Assistant Surgeon, U.S. Army, Surgeon in Chief of
Division.
HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF THE POTOMAC,
Before Petersburg, Va., December 26, 1864.
GENERAL: I have the honor to submit the following,
in continuation of
the report of
operations of the medical and hospital department of
the Army of the Potomac,
for the campaign of the year subsequent to July 31:
MARCH 29-APRIL 9, 1865.--The Appomattox (Virginia)
Campaign.
No. 6.--Report of Surg. Thomas A. McParlin, U.S.
Army,
Medical Director,
of operations January 1--June 30.
To my immediate assistants, Surg. J. A. Lidell,
inspector
of the medical and hospital department of this army,
and Asst. Surg. J. Sire Smith, attending surgeon at
headquarters, to whom I am indebted for valuable
assistance in discharge of special duties committed
to them; Asst. Surg. E. J. Marsh, U.S. Army,
surgeon-in-chief of the Second Cavalry Division,
passed to the command of General Sheridan the day
preceding the campaign. He has performed all duties
while under my direction with signal ability.
JNO. A. LIDELL,
Surg., U. S. Vols., Insp. of Medical and Hospital
Department,
Army of the Potomac.
SURGEON-GENERAL'S OFFICE,
December 17, 1860.
Hon. JOHN B. FLOYD,
Secretary of War:
SIR: In reply to a communication referred by you to
this office from the chairman of the Military
Committee of the Senate, inquiring "whether the
expenses in the military department of the
Government cannot be reduced without detriment to
the public service," I have the honor to report that
the expenditures of the medical and hospital
department of the Army
have always been regulated with a view to the utmost
economy.
It is
not believed that these expenditures can be reduced
in a single item without a sacrifice of the welfare
of the soldier and the true interests of the public
service.
I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant,
By order:
R. C. WOOD,
Surgeon. U. S. Army.
SURGEON-GENERAL'S OFFICE,
November 13, 186I.
Hon. SIMON CAMERON,
Secretary of War:
SIR: I have the honor to submit to you a report upon
the fiscal
transactions and other matters relating to the
Medical Department of the Army for the year ending
the 30th of June, 1861.
The amount of the appropriation for the medical and
hospital department remaining on the 30th of June,
1860, was---
In the hands of disbursing agents $3,787.82
In the Treasury of the United States 46,266.82
Amount appropriated per act approved 21st of June,
1860, for
the current expenses of the medical and hospital
department
for the year ending June 30, 1861 76,225.50
Amount refunded into the Treasury 26.17
Amount appropriated per act approved 2d of March,
1861, for the current expenses of the medical and
hospital department for the year ending June 30,
1862, anticipated to meet circumstances growing out
of the rebellion of the Southern States 115,000.00
Total 241,306.31
The total amount of funds available for
the service of
the medical and hospital department of the Army
during the year ending June 30, 1861, was
$241,306.31, and the expenditures of that year
amounted to $194,126.77, leaving a balance of
$6,006.62 in the hands of disbursing agents, and
$41,172.92 in the Treasury of the United States.
Of the total sum expended during the fiscal year
embraced in this report, $20,088.89 were paid on
account of the pay and other claims of private
physicians, and $174,037.88 for medical and hospital
supplies and for the pay of hospital cooks and
nurses.
The following act of Congress is published for the
information of the Army:
AN ACT making additional appropriations for the
support of the Army for the year ending thirtieth of
June, eighteen hundred and sixty-two.
Be it enacted
by the
Senate and House of Representatives
of the
United States of America in Congress assembled, That
the following sums be, and the same are hereby,
appropriated, out of any money in the Treasury not
otherwise appropriated, for the service of the year
ending thirtieth of June, eighteen hundred and
sixty-two:
For pay
of two and three years' volunteers, fifty million
dollars.
For payments to discharged soldiers for clothing not
drawn, fifty thousand dollars.
For subsistence in kind for two and three years'
volunteers, twenty-six million six hundred and
sixty-eight thousand nine hundred and two dollars.
For transportation of the Army and its supplies,
fourteen million eight hundred and eighty-one
thousand dollars.
For the current expenses of the ordnance service,
two hundred thousand dollars.
For ordnance, ordnance stores, and supplies,
including horse equipments for all the mounted
troops, one million nine hundred and twenty-four
thousand dollars.
For purchase of arms for volunteers and regulars,
and ordnance and ordnance stores, seven million five
hundred thousand dollars.
For the
medical and hospital department, one million
dollars.
For amount required to refund to the States expenses
incurred on account of volunteers called into the
field, fifteen million dollars. Approved February
25, 1862.
By command of Major-General McClellan:
L. THOMAS,
Adjutant-General.
GENERAL
ORDERS NO 22 War Department Adjutant General's
Office Washington March 1 1862 AN ACT making
Additional Appropriations for the Support of the
Army for the Year ending June 30 1862
For the
Medical and Hospital Department one million of
dollars
SURGEON-GENERAL'S OFFICE,
Washington, D.C., October 20, 1864.
Hon. E. M. STANTON,
Secretary of War :
SIR: I have the honor to submit the following
statement of finances and general transactions of
the
Medical
Department
for the fiscal
year ending June 30, 1864:
The funds derived from all sources and available for
the expenses of for the fiscal year ending June 30,
1864, were-
Balance remaining in Treasury June 30, 1863, being
residue of the appropriation for the ensuing fiscal
year, under the act approvedFebruary 9, 1863
$8,522,423.27
In the hands of disbursing officers. 250,828.10
Deficiency appropriation act, approved March 14,
1864 3,296,000.00
Amount refunded by Subsistence Department on account
of board paid for sick soldiers in private houses
and hospitals 66,522.03
Amount refunded from appropriation for supplies,
transportation, and careof prisoners of war
97,195.44
Amount refunded by Suire, Eckstein & Co.,
Cincinnati, Ohio, being amount overpaid to them in
the settlement of their accounts in 1861-62
10,677.43
Proceeds of sales of condemned and unserviceable
property 11,327.64
Proceeds
of medical stores sold, by authority of Maj Gen.
U.S. Grant,to the inhabitants of Vicksburg and
vicinity 2,596.22
Proceeds of bedsteads sold to the Western Sanitary
Commission by Medical Store-keeper R. T. Creamer,
U.S. Army, in June, 1864. $727.50
Amount received for ice sold by Medical Store-keeper
Hennell Stevens,to Algeo & Co., Memphis, Tenn., in
December, 1863 4,020.00
Amount
received for surgical instruments sold to officers
94.00
Proceeds of various other sales 262.27
Total 12,263,988.08
Of this amount there was disbursed for
medical and hospital supplies $9,009,275.49
For pay of
private physicians 1,222,411.50
For hospital employés 437,792.09
For expenses of purveying department 260,406.61
For care of sick soldiers in private hospitals
48,806.82
For artificial limbs 34,750.00
For
contingencies of Medical Department
12,348.82
Total 11,025,791.33
_____________________
The
Congress of the
Confederate States of America
do enact, That the following appropriations be made
for the support of the provisional troops called
into service by the act aforesaid: Pay of the
troops, $658,680; forage for officers' horses and
quartermasters' animals, and cavalry horses,
$20,662; subsistence for troops, $270,000; clothing
for the troops, $200,000; camp and garrison
equipage, $18,267.72; supplies for the
Quartermaster's Department, $76,160; fuel for troops
and hospitals, $59,997;
Medical and Hospital Department, $20,000.
Pay
grades for Confederate Medical Department 1861
SEC. 18.
The pay of the officers of the general staff, except
those of the Medical Department, shall be the same
as that of officers of cavalry of the same grade.
The Surgeon-General shall receive an annual salary
of $3,000, which shall be in full of all pay and
allowances, except fuel and quarters. The monthly
pay of a surgeon, of ten years' service in that
grade, shall be $200; a surgeon of less than ten
years' service in that grade, $162; an assistant
surgeon of ten years' service in that grade, $150;
an assistant surgeon of five years' service in that
grade, $130; and an assistant surgeon of less than
five years' service, $110.
_____________________
O.R.--SERIES III--VOLUME V [S# 126]
CORRESPONDENCE, ORDERS, REPORTS, AND RETURNS OF THE
UNION AUTHORITIES FROM MAY 1, 1865, TO THE END.
For medical and hospital supplies $15,204,497.20
For pay of private physicians 1,865,821.82
For pay of hospital employés 949,462.46
For expenses of purveying depots 683.830.33
For care of sick soldiers in private hospitals
240,476.11
For artificial limbs for soldiers and seamen (a)
126,538.00
Expenses of hospitals for officers 243,876.37
Miscellaneous expenses of the Medical Department
13,996.94
Subtotal: $19,328,499.23
Balance in the Treasury June 30, 1865 1,161,181.24
Total: $20,489,680.47
SIR: I
have the honor to submit the following
statement of finances and general
transactions of the Medical Department for the
fiscal year ending June 30, 1865:
RECEIPTS.
Balance in the Treasury July 1, 1864 $914,135.10
Balance in the hands of the disbursing officers
324,061.65
Balance remaining of appropriation for artificial
limbs for soldiers and seamen, per act of July 16,
1862, chapter 182, section 6 4,265.00
Annual appropriation for the year ending June 30,
1865, by act of June 15, 1864,chapter 124, section 1
8,930,640.00
Deficiency appropriation for the current fiscal
year, by act of March 2, 1865,chapter 73, section 8
3,251,000.00
Annual appropriation for the year ending June 30,
1866, by act of March 3, 1865,chapter 81, section 1,
required for disbursement during the present fiscal
year, and placed to the credit of the Medical
Department for that purpose March 22, 1865
6,000,000.00
Amount drawn from appropriation made by joint
resolution of April 29, 1864, to cover expenditures
for medical attendance and medicine for 100-day's
volunteers 300.000.00
Amount refunded by the Subsistence Department for
board of sick and wounded soldiers in private
hospitals 64,293.40
Amount refunded for medical attendance and supplies
furnished prisoners of war 140,506.08
Amount received
for subsistence of officers in hospitals 286,281.04
Amount
disallowed in account of Ebenezer Swift, U.S. Army,
for June, 1863,and refunded from appropriation for
pay of volunteers 17,762.91
Proceeds of sales of condemned and unserviceable
hospital property 59,671.41
Proceeds of sales of ice not required for hospital
use 12,352.25
* Value of
books and surgical instruments sold to medical
officers and private physicians $8,311.30
Received
for hospital property sold to the Quartermaster's
Department 7,003.61
Received for medicines, &c., issued to refugees and
freedmen 554.73
Recovered for hospital property lost or damaged in
transportation 534.45
Recovered of Actg. Asst. Surg. J. S. Geltner, U.S.
Army, for property and moneys illegally disposed of
1,000.00
Amount received for care of patients belonging to
the U.S. Navy 283.00
Amount received from all other sources 446.20
Total credits for the year 20,323,102.13
Amount over-expended by disbursing officers
166.578.34
Total: 20,489,680.47
Upon the
termination of active military movements, immediate
measures were taken to reduce the expenses of the
Medical Department. Of the 201 general hospitals
open on January 1, 1865, 171 have been discontinued.
Three of the sea-going hospital transports have been
discharged; the fourth is now constantly engaged in
transfer of sick and wounded from Southern ports to
the general hospitals in New York Harbor. All of the
river hospital boats have been turned over to the
Quartermaster's Department, and but a single
hospital train is retained in the Southwest. The
vast amount of medicines and hospital supplies made
surplus by the reduction of the Army has been
carefully collected at prominent points and is being
disposed of at public auction, most of the articles
bringing their full value, and in some instances
their cost price.
Extensive discussion of USA Medical and Hospital
Dept. surgical sets:
Extensive
history of the Medical Department
Instrument sets specified by U.S. Army
Medical Department during the Civil War
Display of instruments normally found in a
Civil War hospital set 1861-65
Hernstein & Son, U. S. Army Hosp. Dept.
issue field surgery set
Hernstein Civil War U. S. Army Hospital
Dept. Staff Surgeon's set
Tiemann Civil War U. S. Army Hospital Dept.
Field Surgeon's set
Snowden & Brother U. S. Army Medical Dept.
field surgery set
U.S.A. Hosp. Dept. trepanning set by
Hernstein
U. S. A. Hosp. Dept. medium size ivory
surgical set, 1861
U. S. A. Hosp. Dept. 9 in. bottle,
1861-65
Regulations for the Medical Department of
the Army, 1861
Notes on
Army Medical Department 1866,
multi-topical
U.S. Army Hosp. Dept. Wood's Medicine, Vol.
I & 2
Snowden and Brother field size U.S.A. Med.
Dept military amputation set, 1861