Squads and Messes

[debwallsmith]

I think I have already asked this question but I can't find the thread. Apologies. POWs were assigned to Squads and Messes using numbers, there are several letter designations: CH, CHN, DC, DD, HC, HD, HN and Hosp. I'm going to assume that "hosp" means the individual was actually being treated at the hospital. If "CH" refers to Camp Hospital, is this a different designation than "hosp" or is it just the way it was recorded? Can it be assumed that "CHN" = "Camp Hospital Nurse" and "HN" = "Hospital Nurse"? Does this indicate that prisoners were working as nurses in both the camp hospital as well as the hospital for the CSA prison employees? Finally, I have absolutely no ideas on "DC", "DD" "HC" although I could be convinced that "HC" is just a transcription error of "CH". Any thoughts? If anyone has any sources I could cite, that would be great. @Gary Morgan - ideas?

Thank you. I'm trying to keep my questions to a minimum but occasionally I simply can't find a source for this information.

 

[Gary Morgan]

@Bob Velke may be able to help with the different abbreviations better than I can.

There were absolutely prisoners serving as nurses at Andersonville. As I mention in the raiders book, there were at least eight sailors who were captured at the Second Battle of Fort Sumter who worked as nurses at the hospital in Andersonville, as documented by the diary of Frederic James. The first of these was landsman Richard Tinker, who was the ship's nurse on the Housatonic before being captured. As near as I can tell, he had no medical training prior to joining the Navy. Once Tinker was at the hospital, James mentions various sailors going out to join him. I always wondered why James didn't go out to join them and maybe save himself - James died at Andersonville on Sept. 15th. Working at the hospital had the advantage of extra food if a prisoner died or was too sick to eat. Then I read in the Regimental History of the 120th New York that a prisoner encountered Tinker on the "gangrene ward" of the hospital, so my best guess is that James was too squeamish to serve as a nurse. He ended up dying in the stockade.

I have Tinker's CMSR around here somewhere, but I don't remember any abbreviations on his Memorandum. If I can find it, I'll take a look for you.

I'm not certain IF Confederates served as nurses at Andersonville. There was a doctor named Howell who wrote to his wife about who he had assisting him. I'll see if I can find that one, too.