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By Timothy A. Duskin
When General Robert E. Lee left
Gettysburg on July 4, 1863, with the Army of Northern Virginia, he was forced
to leave his soldiers who were too severely wounded to be moved and who lay too
close to the Union lines to be retrieved behind. Estimates vary, but his wagon
train of wounded which he took back to Virginia was at least fifteen miles
long. Major General George G. Meade, commander of the Army of the Potomac, was
expecting another significant battle and took most of his army’s medical
personnel and ambulances with him. This left Gettysburg, a town of less than
2,400 people, with over 20,000 wounded Union and Confederate soldiers to care
for. Every building in and around the town was a hospital to help the wounded,
including private residences. In addition to field hospitals all over the
battlefield, some of the wounded were in woods with only trees for covering and
some were in the open air on the field with none.
Once the railroad line into Gettysburg,
which had been damaged by Major General Jubal A. Early’s raiders before the
battle, was repaired on July 10, assistance was able to arrive. Help came from
charitable organizations, foremost among which were the United States Sanitary
Commission (USSC) and the United States Christian Commission (USCC), as well as
individuals from the North and South. A limited number of Union surgeons were
assigned to Gettysburg at this time and there were also some Confederate
surgeons who had been ordered by General Lee’s medical director to stay behind.
The Union wounded began being transferred to military hospitals in major cities
such as Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington. The Confederate wounded were
sent to prison camps, such as Point Lookout and others.
Some were so severely wounded that they could not be moved
from Gettysburg. A central field hospital for them was established on July 22
at the George Wolf farm a mile east of the town on the York Pike. It was 150
yards from the railroad track so that supplies and personnel could arrive there
and so that the wounded could be evacuated once they recovered enough. It was
named Camp Letterman General Hospital after Major Jonathan Letterman, the
Medical Director of the Army of the Potomac. Dr. Henry Janes, who was the
Medical Director of all hospitals around Gettysburg, placed Dr. Cyrus N.
Chamberlain in charge of Camp Letterman. It was the largest field hospital in
North American history and consisted of multiple rows of over 400 tents.
By August 7, all of the corps field hospitals had been
closed and Camp Letterman was the only field hospital remaining at Gettysburg.
It had over 4,000 patients, over one third of whom were Confederates. At this
point, most of the army surgeons were relieved and volunteers took over. The
USSC and the USCC each had a section of tents and their efforts continued to be
very prominent. As the cases which remained there were the most dire ones, Camp
Letterman had a very high mortality rate. Careful records were kept because of
the severity of these cases and records of them were sent to the Surgeon
General’s office. There was also a temporary hospital cemetery established
which had about 1,200 graves. (The Union dead there were later reinterred at
the Soldiers’ National Cemetery at Gettysburg and the Confederate dead were
removed to the South.) The Union and Confederate soldiers were not separated in
its facilities, but were housed and treated together. A friendship developed
among the soldiers of both sides there, who were all struggling for their
lives. At one point, the USCC held a banquet for all of the wounded soldiers at
Camp Letterman. This was the first instance of reunion at Gettysburg, which
would reoccur so many times after the war.
The last soldiers were not evacuated from Camp Letterman
until November 20, four and a half months after the battle and the day after
the dedication of the Soldiers’ National Cemetery. At that point the hospital
was closed and the remaining supplies were sent back to Washington. The
remaining doctors and nurses left for other battlefield hospitals.
Camp Letterman existed for four months. Yet, in spite of its
great significance, it has been largely forgotten in the annals of the Battle
of Gettysburg and the Civil War. It is also unknown to most visitors to
Gettysburg today. Daniel Skelly, who was a young boy living in Gettysburg in
1863, wrote years later in 1933 of the site of Camp Letterman, “It has always
been a wonder to me that the government, when it was acquiring the historic
fields upon which the battle was fought and other sections now included in the
reservation, did not buy these woods, one of the most historic and sacred spots
on the field.”
The War Department erected a monument at the site in 1914 to
designate Camp Letterman. Much of the site remains undeveloped today, though a
Hilton Gardens Inn and a Giant Food Store stand on a portion of it. There is
also a Camp Letterman monument on the grounds of the Hilton and there are
markers about it in the parking lot of the Giant. The latter is on the site of
the hospital tents. Camp Letterman was the previous proposed first site for a
casino in Gettysburg in 2006. It was also previously considered as a site for a
Target Store. Fortunately, the Target was later built to the east of the site.
The Camp Letterman Fund Trust is currently attempting to
obtain the surviving undeveloped portion of Camp Letterman and preserve it as
Camp Letterman Park. They plan to build a Camp Letterman Visitor’s Center &
Museum there to tell the story of Camp Letterman and a Teaching Amphitheater.
They are also planning living history recreations of the Camp Letterman
Hospital and the Wolf Farm. In addition, some monuments to medical and civilian
personnel at Gettysburg (no monuments to any of these personnel exist at
Gettysburg National Military Park) and a high-tech medical training and
research center are planned for Camp Letterman Park.
There are currently exhibits about the wounded at Gettysburg
after the battle at the Wills House, which is maintained by the Gettysburg
National Military Park. There is also a United States Christian Commission
Museum in Johnny Como’s Cupcakes & Coffee in downtown Gettysburg.
The website of the Camp Letterman Fund Trust & Preserve, a 501 (c)(3)
not-for-profit, telling more of the details of its plans, is at:
Its
mailing address is:
Robert J. Sonntag, MS
Executive Chairman
Camp Letterman Fund Trust & Preserve, Inc.
495 Ridge Road
York Springs, PA 17372
Gettysburg
Licensed Battlefield Guide Phil Lechak has an online tour of Camp Letterman at:Robert J. Sonntag, MS
Executive Chairman
Camp Letterman Fund Trust & Preserve, Inc.
495 Ridge Road
York Springs, PA 17372
For
further reading on the wounded at Gettysburg after the battle, see:
Gregory
A. Coco, A Strange and Blighted Land: Gettysburg: The Aftermath of a Battle.
1995. Gettysburg, PA: Thomas Publications.
Gerard
A. Patterson, Debris of Battle: The Wounded of Gettysburg. 1997. Mechanicsburg,
PA: Stackpole Books.
George
Sheldon, When the Smoke Cleared at Gettysburg: The Tragic Aftermath of the
Bloodiest Battle of the Civil War. 2003. Nashville: Cumberland House.
For the
field hospitals at Gettysburg, see:
Gregory
A. Coco, A Vast Sea of Misery: A History and Guide to the Union and Confederate
Field Hospitals at Gettysburg, July 1-November 20, 1863. 1988. Gettysburg, PA:
Thomas Publications.