Robert Gray
Sergeant Major
- Joined
- Jul 24, 2012
IN THE WAKE OE GRANT'S ADVANCEA WOOLEN MILL USED AS A HOSPITAL AFTER SPOTSYLVANIA, MAY, 1864
These pictures shows a mill on the banks of the Rappahannock to which wounded have been conveyed after the slaughter in the Wilderness. Grant had attempted to oust the Army of Northern Virginia from its position by a flank movement on Spotsylvania. Lee succeeded in anticipating the movement, and once again Grant hurled the long-suffering Army of the Potomac upon the unbroken gray lines of the Army of Northern Virginia. Two assaults were made on the evening of May 11th, but the position could not be carried even at a loss of five or six thousand men. The neighboring buildings were filled with the Federal and Confederate wounded. Around the mill above are the tents of a division hospital corps which have been found inadequate to care for so many wounded. They can be seen on every floor of the big structure. The hospital orderlies are hurrying about. At first tentage was not used by these field hospitals, but they were established in any existing buildings, such as churches, mills and dwelling-houses. These, naturally, were not always convenient, but the first tent hospital was not used until the battle of Shiloh, April, 1862. The value of such shelter on this occasion was so manifest that hospital tents were soon after issued and ultimately used with troops almost exclusively in campaign as well as in periods of inactivity. These division or field hospitals, as finally developed in the war, proved to be thoroughly practicable and of the greatest value to the wounded in battle, while in camp they were set up and acted as temporary receiving hospitals to which sick were sent for more extended treatment or to determine the necessity for their removal to the fixed hospitals in the rear. Large in resources, they cared for wounded by the hundreds; always in hand and mobile, they could be sent forward without undue delay to where the needs of battle demanded and wheeled vehicles could penetrate. They embodied a new idea, developed by our surgeons, which was promptly adopted by all military nations with modifications to meet the demands of their respective services.
Text edited from:THE PHOTOGRAPHIC HISTORY OF THE CIVIL WAR
Frances T. Miller - Editor in Chief - The Review of Reviews Co.
1911
Historical note:The Fredericksburg Woolen Mill, also known as Washington Woolen Mills and Woolen Factory, was constructed in 1859-1860. It was located about 200 feet west of the Rappahannock River, on the east side of the Princess Anne Street bridge over a secondary waterway of the canal at the north end of the city of Fredericksburg. It was a prominent landmark during the battles in Fredericksburg and a Union hospital during the Wilderness/Spotsylvania campaign.
Images:National Archives (NARA - 524761).
MYSTERIES & CONUNDRUMS, Exploring the Civil War-era landscape in the Fredericksburg & Spotsylvania region.