Augusta Richmond County Historical Society, Inc. 2014

Augusta Richmond County
Historical Society, Inc.
2014
Executive Committee
President
President-elect
Past President
Treasurer
Secretary
Administrator
Trav Paine
Charlie Tudor
Hamp Manning
Julia N. Jackson
Molly Montgomery
Board of Directors
2012-2015
Richard Magruder Dr. Robert R. Nesbit Catherine Wahl
2013-20162014-2017
Dr. Jim GarveyRobert Osborne
Thomas H. Robertson
Corey Rogers
Standing Committees
Historian
Journal Editor
Scholarship
Special Events
Veterans Affairs
Web Master
Dr. Lee Ann Caldwell
Dr. Russell K. Brown
Dr. Lee Ann Caldwell
Mary Gail Nesbit
C. Tom Sutherland
Edward M. Gillespie
Veterans History Project Coordinators
World War II
Korea and Vietnam
Fred Gehle
Bill Tilt and Stan Schrader
Augusta Richmond County History
Editorial Committee
Dr. Russell K. Brown, Editor
Dr. Lee Ann Caldwell
Trav Paine
Molly Montgomery
C. Tom Sutherland
The journal is issued twice a year to all members. Cost of the journal to
non-members is $6.00 plus postage. Copies are made available to all local
middle and high school libraries. Bound copies or copies of back issues
may be purchased from the Society office.
Augusta Richmond County History publishes papers dealing with local and
area history. The Editors do not assume responsibility for errors of fact or
opinion on the part of the contributors No portion of this journal may be
reproduced by any process or technique, without the consent of the editors
and publishers.
ISSN 99355119
AUGUSTA RICHMOND COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY, INC.
c/o Reese Library, Georgia Regents University
2500 Walton Way
Augusta, GA 30904-2200
(706) 737-1532
www.theARCHS.org
Members are invited to use the Society’s collections maintained in the
Special Collections Room at Reese Library, Georgia Regents University,
telephone (706) 667-4904. Normal hours of operation are Monday-Friday,
9:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
Annual Dues
Individual............................. $35.00
Family.................................. $45.00
Affiliate................................ $40.00
Corporate...........................$250.00
Supporting.........................$100.00
Benefactor........................$1000.00
1
In Memory of
Virginia E. deTreville (1916-2014)
Life Director and Past President, ARCHS
and
Sergeant First Class Leon Peoples (1947-2014)
Distinguished Service Cross
Heroes’ Overlook
2
Augusta Richmond County History
The Official Journal of the
Augusta Richmond County Historical Society, Inc.
Volume 45, No. 1
Spring 2014
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Society Notes�� 4
The Medical Experiences of the Civil War�� 5
Alfred J. Bollet, M.D.
The Jaunty State Flag . ..............................................................................22
C. Tom Sutherland
The Day Chaplin Came to Augusta ..........................................................27
Kevin Grogan and Michael Deas
3
Society Notes
For the first time in almost two decades our journal no longer carries
the name of a Life Director on its page of officers and director. Virginia
deTreville, who labored for so many years on behalf of ARCHS and its
publications, passed away last January at the advanced age of 97. She was
a mentor to your editor in his early career as local historian and author,
and he, along with hundreds of others, will miss her immensely.
Our memorial page also lists the name of Sergeant First Class Leon
Peoples, U.S. Army (retired), who earned the Distinguished Service Cross
in Vietnam in 1968 and who is honored with a plaque at our Heroes’
Overlook on Riverwalk Augusta.
This year’s Edward J. Cashin Award recipient is Curtis Osburn, a
rising senior at Georgia Regents University Summerville Campus. Curtis
says that history has interested him since he was ten years old and that
“the study of history grants me a greater insight into how the world
evolved to its present state.” Curtis plans to become a high school history
teacher.
In this issue we are indebted for assistance with illustrations to Carole
Waggoner-Angleton at Special Collections, Reese Library, ARCHS
member Tom Sutherland, and John deTreville, Raleigh, N.C.
Our cover illustration is an image of The Clinch Rifles at Augusta Arsenal
in 1861 (from Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper).
4
The Medical Experiences of the Civil War:
At Home and in the Field
Alfred Jay Bollet, M.D.
Dr. Jay Bollet presented this paper last year at the Augusta and the Civil
War Symposium. Now retired, he is a graduate of New York University and
was Chairman of the Department of Medicine at the Medical College of
Georgia. He has studied the medical history of the Civil War intensively.
Dr. Bollet is an Advisor to the Museum of Civil War Medicine in
Frederick, Md., and is on the Board of Directors of the Society of the Civil
War. He is the author of Civil War Medicine: Challenges and Triumphs
and co-author of Images of Civil War Medicine.
Introduction:
Augusta as a Medical Center
The Editors
Augusta has a long history as a medical center. The city’s first hospital
opened on Greene Street in 1818. The Medical Society of Augusta was
organized in 1822; the Medical
“Institute” of Georgia was
founded here in 1829,
authorized by an act of the
state legislature the year
before. Dr. Milton Antony,
who instructed medical
students at the new hospital,
became president of the state
medical board in 1825. He and
Drs. Ignatius P. Garvin (his
son-in-law) and Lewis D. Ford
Dr. Paul Eve, an early faculty member,
were the first three faculty
lectures
at the Medical College of Georgia.
members at the institute.
Painting by Bernard Willington,
In 1833 the institute became
Courtesy First Bank of Georgia
the Medical College, a name it
still bears almost two centuries later as one of the nine colleges of Georgia
Regents University. The Medical College building, still in existence and
used for special occasions, was erected on Telfair Street in 1834-35.
5
Members of the medical profession were prominent members of city
society. The aforementioned Dr. Ford, as well as Drs. Daniel Hook and
William E. Dearing, served terms as mayor of the municipality in the
antebellum period.
With the coming of the Civil
War in 1861, all the faculty of the
Medical College volunteered for
service in the army and academics
were suspended for the duration
of hostilities. But the city, already
a transportation hub because of
its railroad network, became a
hospital center as well. To quote
Dr. Edward J. Cashin in his The
Story of Augusta (p. 121),
The original Medical College of Georgia
building. ARCHS Collection
Augusta became a city of hospitals during the war. The old Eagle
and Phoenix Hotel on Broad Street was converted into a hospital;
there was a make-shift hospital at the Lafayette Track and a
wayside hospital on Reynolds near the South Carolina Railroad
Depot. The old City Hospital on Greene Street was used and
finally the Presbyterian and Catholic churches on Telfair and the
Medical College and Richmond Academy buildings were
commandeered.
Florence Fleming Corley, in Confederate City: Augusta, Georgia,
1861-1865, devotes most of a chapter to the city’s medical participation
in the war. Immediately after the
First Battle of Bull Run in July
1861, she writes, Judge Ebenezer
Starnes of Augusta organized a
committee to collect funds for
medical attention to sick and
wounded soldiers and to open a
Georgia state hospital near the
battlefront in Virginia. His group,
operating statewide, became
the Georgia Relief and Hospital
St. Paul’s Episcopal Church.
Association. By October 1861,
ARCHS Collection
6
the association was operating three hospitals in Richmond. A Confederate
government inspector deemed them “the best managed, the cleanest, and
the most comfortable of all.” Even after the central government took over
management of the hospitals in 1862, the association continued to support
them with medical supplies for the balance of the war. They expanded
their activities to support Georgia soldiers wherever they served. Rev.
Dr. Joseph R. Wilson, pastor of Augusta’s First Presbyterian Church and
father of future U.S. President Thomas Woodrow Wilson, was one of the
directors of the association.
According to Dr. Corley, the city
hosted a total of eight hospitals and a
medical supply center. In addition to
the hospitals named by Dr. Cashin,
there was a Blackie Hospital, built by
the Confederate government in the
summer of 1862. Other churches and
buildings were pressed into temporary
use as the wounded flooded in from
the fighting fronts. Sick Union
prisoners of war were accommodated
at the Catholic church. One of the
buildings at the arsenal was converted
into a specialty hospital for gangrene
cases. When Richmond Academy
was taken over as a hospital in 1863,
First Presbyterian Church.
classes there were suspended. A Ladies
ARCHS Collection
Hospital and Relief Association of
Augusta, separate from the state organization, helped to set up a Wayside
Home for sick and wounded soldiers in transit. So pressing was the
need for space that by war’s end wounded soldiers were being cared
for in private homes. Confederate General Felix H. Robertson recalled
being lodged with Mrs. William Eve at her house on Broad Street while
he convalesced from a wound received at the Battle of Waynesboro in
November 1864.
These few paragraphs barely scratch the surface of Augusta’s medical
experiences up to and during the Civil War but they serve as a preamble to
the essay that follows and help explain why is it appropriate to discuss this
topic in our journal.
7
The Medical Experiences of the Civil War
Alfred Jay Bollet, M.D.
The emblem and motto of the Confederate States Medical and
Surgical Journal, “Experientia docet” (Experience teaches), is an excellent
summary of the medical history of the Civil War. Surgeons in the United
States at the beginning of the Civil War had little military experience;
during the war they made great effort to learn from their experiences. They
learned a great deal and transmitted that knowledge in the medical journals
of the time and in a huge, six-volume work, The Medical and Surgical
History of the War of the Rebellion, that was prepared and published from
the Surgeon General’s office in the 1870s and 1880s. It included case
histories, descriptions of surgical procedures, autopsy findings, reviews of
the medical literature to that time, as well as huge tabular presentations of
data from individual hospitals, summarized for the entire federal army. In
Europe that publication was considered the first important American
contribution to the medical literature. From their publications, including
individual articles and letters by surgeons and people who served as
volunteer nurses and attendants, we can learn a great deal about the
experiences and the medical thinking of the time. This article is an attempt
to summarize that information.
The Civil War occurred about a decade before knowledge of
microbiology altered thinking about the major diseases of the time and
the nature of wound infections. As a result recent appraisal of the quality
of the medical care of the war is generally disparaging, especially when
compared to medical care in later times. The huge numbers of casualties
and the terrible suffering of the wounded during the war, of course,
dominate consideration of the medical aspects of the war.
During the war physicians were distressed by their limited ability to
alleviate the suffering and minimize disability afflicting the fighting men,
many of whom were neighbors and friends from their hometowns. They
tried to learn from their experiences and improve the care they provided
during the course of the war. They prepared presentations summarizing
their experiences statistically and applied scientific principles to their
thinking and actions. During the war, they discussed their observations
and experiences at gatherings of medical staffs, and criticized each other’s
work, trying to learn from those experiences and improve results. Our
8
ability to evaluate the quality of the medical care during the war is aided
by the excellent records they kept. They recorded their observations
during the war; after the war detailed data with statistical analyses of their
experiences were published, including descriptions of surgical procedures
and post-mortem examinations. Transportation of wound and sick
soldiers, chaotic at the beginning, greatly improved during the war. A
specially trained ambulance corps was established. Large hospital boats
were created from existing river steamers and specially designed railroad
cars formed into trains for transport of wounded. New surgical procedures
were invented and the recently discovered anesthetics were almost
universally used during attempts to save lives of seriously wounded men. Huge military hospitals were established to care for the enormous numbers
of wounded, despite great difficulties finding enough food and supplies,
especially in the Richmond hospitals. Specialty hospitals were created to
maximize learning from experience, and to improve care. They learned
from experience, in keeping with the motto chosen by the Confederates,
and improved care during the war. Their efforts to control disease became
outmoded in later years, but they were modern for their time. Analyses
and comparisons to contemporary medical experiences in European wars
show that the medical professionals of the Civil War did commendably
well. Overall, in my opinion, they deserve a better reputation than they
are usually accorded
Medical Records of the War
Although Civil War physicians complained about the paper work,
good medical records were kept at each hospital; extensive and detailed,
they were reported to the Surgeon General’s offices in Washington and
Richmond. Unfortunately, Confederate records were destroyed by the
fire in Richmond in April 1865, but federal records survived and were
published after the war. The Federal reports were gathered in the offices
established in the Ford’s Theater building, taken over by the Surgeon
General’s office after the assassination of President Lincoln. Many
excellent photographs of microscopic specimens, made using light
coming in the windows of that building and included in the Medical
and Surgical History of the War of the Rebellion, were published by
the Surgeon General’s office during the 1870s and 1880s. Essays
and articles discussing the major medical problems of the war were
included, as well as extensive, tabulated monthly data from all theaters
of the war. Individual Confederate surgeons wrote summaries of their
9
experiences, and reports kept at many individual hospitals throughout
the Confederacy survived. A medical journal, imitating the Journal of
the American Medical Association, was published in Richmond in 1864
and 65; called the Confederate States Medical and Surgical Journal, it
contained articles written by physicians in all parts of the Confederacy
and they are another valuable source of information about the medical
experiences of the war. The Confederate experiences that are available
closely resemble those reported by the Union medical officers.
Initial Medical Experiences
Physical examinations of
recruits and draftees before
induction into the army were
usually perfunctory; for example
there is record that one physician
had enlistees run past him as a
group and then certified them all
as able. One of the reasons for
exemption from the draft was the
absence of the four front teeth
Wounded soldiers waiting for evacuation in
(upper and lower central incisors)
Virginia. 1864. Library of Congress
since they were needed to tear open
the packages of powder used to load their rifles. This reason for exemption
was abbreviated in their records as “4F” - a designation used in 20th
century wars for exemption from the draft for any medical reason.
As soon as men gathered in training camps, infectious diseases
spread. Upper respiratory infections (“colds”) and the infectious diseases
usually seen in childhood became epidemic, including measles, mumps,
chicken pox and whooping cough. The frequency and severity of these
infections led a historian of the 20th Maine Regiment, John J. Pullin, to
record that the letters home early in the war reflected “a kind of terror
and despair not found in any account of their later battles.” Confederate
General John Brown Gordon of Georgia, in his Reminiscences, wrote that,
“It was amazing to see the large numbers of country boys who never had
the measles. They ran through the whole catalogue of complaints that
boyhood and even babyhood are subjected. They had everything except
teething, nettle-rash and whooping cough. I rather think some of them
were afflicted with the latter disease.” (They were.)
10
During his initial campaign, General Robert E. Lee was distressed
by the amount of sickness afflicting his raw troops in western Virginia.
He wrote to the Secretary of War, “… the conscripts and recruits that
have joined us … are afflicted with measles, camp fever, etc., … so that
instead of being an advantage to us, they are an element of weakness, a
burden….” “Camp fever” was any febrile disease spreading in the camp;
some of it was typhoid fever.
Malaria was one of the major diseases of the war because it was
fought in southern, malarial areas. The Union forces had adequate
amounts of quinine and knew how to treat and prevent the disease,
but because of the blockade, the Confederates ran out of quinine
quickly. When they captured a Union supply train, the raiders stole
quinine whenever possible, along with morphine and the anesthetic
gases, ether and chloroform.
The severe epidemics
Typhoid fever was one of the most dangerous diseases seen during
the war; it had about a 20% fatality rate among recorded cases. Typhoid
spread rapidly early in the war because of rudimentary sanitary
practices. Because it gives immunity, in the later years of the war when
veterans were virtually all survivors of the disease, typhoid primarily
affected recruits. In prison camps, such as Andersonville, the prisoners
had almost all had typhoid before capture, and they were immune, but
many were carriers, excreting the bacteria in their feces. Guards, who
were mostly recently inducted teenagers, were not immune; many of them
developed the disease.
Typho-malarial fever was a confusing diagnostic term used by Union
physicians. The soldiers given that diagnosis were probably suffering
from true typhoid fever in the winter, when the men were in camps and
fecal contamination of the camp area was widespread. In the summer,
the diagnosis was mostly used when malaria was common, and the cases
probably were that disease, wrongly diagnosed.
Yellow fever caused severe recurrent epidemics in the prewar years,
especially in the port cities trading with Havana and other Caribbean ports
where the disease was common. Yellow fever, which caused about a 25%
fatality rate, alarmed the Union troops occupying New Orleans. Union
11
General Benjamin Butler was in charge during the occupation; his actions
caused him to be hated by the natives of that city. He enforced a strict
quarantine of ships coming from ports affected by yellow fever; the ships
were not allowed near the city until all cases of yellow fever aboard had
recovered; as a result there was no yellow fever in New Orleans during the
war. But the citizens of that city refused to give Butler any credit, saying
that God took pity on them and would not inflict both General Butler and
Yellow Fever on them at the same time.
Malnutrition
Civil War troops got a great deal of their food from stored provisions
or by foraging or denuding farms on the march. Sometimes these
resources were adequate, but hunger and frank malnutrition occurred at
times, and specific nutritional deficiency syndromes we can recognize
were seen.
Scurvy was a problem for men isolated on ships during long voyages
or in army facilities where no fresh vegetables were available during
the long winters. It was well known and expected during the Civil
War, when men were kept in bases and training camps, and measures
were taken to prevent scurvy. The Union army prepared a concoction
called “desiccated, compressed mixed vegetables” that had to be soaked
in boiling water to make it edible; the men hated it, calling the result
“desecrated vegetables.” Civilian groups had campaigns to send vegetables to army camps;
onions, which did not spoil in transit, were a favorite. Citrus fruits were
not available; when shipped from the west coast, they spoiled en route
and Florida was not yet a major producer of citrus fruits. Foraging during
campaigns was a favorite source of vegetables for the troops, who stripped
farms of produce wherever they went; this practice was most notable in
Mississippi during the campaign leading to siege of Vicksburg, and during
the March to the Sea in Georgia.
One Confederate woman, Phoebe Pember, a socially prominent
Charlestonian, served effectively as a nurse in Chimborazo Hospital
near Richmond. She recorded in her memoir that, “Poor food and great
exposure had thinned the blood and broken down the system so entirely
that secondary amputation performed in the hospital almost always
12
resulted in death, after the second year of the
war….” (Secondary amputation was a removal
of part of an extremity after the stump of the first
amputation failed to heal.)
Night blindness, another nutritional deficiency
syndrome, was shown in the twentieth century to
be due to vitamin A deficiency. The recorded
incidence of night blindness among Civil War
soldiers rose progressively during the war. Doctors
noted that it was cured by a furlough, during which
men went home and got fresh vegetables not
available in army camps, but they considered it a
form of malingering, an attempt to get a furlough.
Phoebe Pember
nursing a wounded
Confederate soldier.
U.S. Postal Service
Acute diarrhea was common in all army camps, and was usually
named for its location, such as the Virginia Quickstep or the Tennessee
trots. It had many causes; spoiled food was frequently the cause. But
chronic diarrhea was a separate, severe problem; it caused great weight
loss and many deaths, as well as the discharge of seriously weakened
men. As a result the saying arose that a man with chronic diarrhea “didn’t
have the guts to stand it,” and “it takes good guts to be a good soldier.”
“Guts” became a term synonymous with bravery and other soldierly
qualities.
Physicians learned that the only thing that successfully treated chronic
diarrhea was fresh vegetables. Dr. Joseph Woodward of the Surgeon
General’s office, recorded that “Diarrhea was considered a prominent
symptom of scurvy. [It was] … effaced by appropriate diet… The
vegetable diet … cured both the scurvy and the diarrhea.” Interestingly,
they knew that vegetables aggravated ordinary diarrhea, but cured this
form of chronic diarrhea. In retrospect, it must have been due to a B
vitamin deficiency, a form of the “sprue syndrome” seen in the 20th
century.
Malnutrition was most severe among men kept in prison camps during
the last two years of the war. Photographs of released prisoners show men
reduced to skin and bone, almost skeletal in appearance. In the prisons
men attempted to supplement their fare by catching and cooking rats and
squirrels; they recorded that the rats were acceptably tasty.
13
An effect of malnutrition on wound healing was documented late in
the war by surgeons who recorded that larger numbers of sutures were
needed after surgery to prevent wounds from reopening. Letters from
many soldiers documented the hunger and effects of malnutrition; one
Confederate recorded becoming so skinny that he had pain from his belt
buckle rubbing against his backbone. Smallpox
Smallpox outbreaks caused a 20-40% case-fatality rate, and it was
greatly feared during the war. Smallpox (”pest”) hospitals were set up
near but separate from the general hospitals to decrease the likelihood of
spread of the disease.
Vaccination was practiced, but there were no safe sources of vaccine.
Material from mild cases, especially in children, was collected and
injected into the skin of the arms of healthy soldiers. The resulting
infection was usually mild but could be very severe, even fatal, and
soldiers tried to avoid vaccination. The large knives used to introduce the
purulent material didn’t promote cooperation. When smallpox appeared,
men with no scar from a previous vaccination were vaccinated and major
outbreaks were avoided.
Venereal disease
Union General Joseph Hooker, when in command of the Army of the
Potomac, encouraged prostitutes to visit the men and some authorities
believe that was why his name became associated with their vocation.
(Others found evidence the term was used before the Civil War.) Nashville
became a major depot for Union troops and supplies, and large numbers of
prostitutes gathered there. To decrease the frequency of venereal disease
the army set up a licensing system for prostitutes; they were examined
and licensed if no overt evidence of infection was found. Those with
manifestations of syphilis or gonorrhea were hospitalized and kept out
of circulation until signs of the disease cleared. Although there was no
effective treatment, these measures cut the frequency of venereal disease
and resulting disability.
14
Anesthesia
Anesthesia was invented in the 1840s, and although not widely used
in the Crimean War (1853-55) it was almost universally used during the
Civil War, except when supplies were exhausted. Ether and chloroform
were the anesthetics used during the war, but they were in short supply in
the Confederacy. Confederate raiders stole them from Union supply trains
whenever possible. Ether was used in fixed hospitals, but chloroform was
preferred in the field hospitals because ether is explosive and surgery was
often done by candlelight or kerosene lantern.
Light anesthesia was given to avoid serious complications; death from
anesthesia was rare. It made the patient insensitive to pain, but the initial
effect of light anesthesia is an excitement phase, and writhing men had to
be held down by assistants while the surgeon worked. Because surgery
was often performed in the open to get better lighting, men passing the
scene observed the patient agitated and moaning, leading them to conclude
that the surgery was being done without anesthesia. This was rarely
the case; nevertheless, the myth that much surgery was done without
anesthesia has persisted and has been repeatedly portrayed in movies
about the Civil War. Many letters sent home by Civil War soldiers include
descriptions of a great deal of pain when wounded and post-operatively,
but reviewers of these letters have not found descriptions of pain during
the operations.
Gunshot Wounds
Extremity wounds
Confederate surgeon Julian Chisholm, in his Manual of Military
Surgery, described the effects of the minié balls, the usual type of bullets
used during of the war, on bones: “This conical projectile [causes]
frightful … devastation … splits and comminutes the bone, driving
loose spicules before it….” Although surgeons tried to remove loose
bone fragments and devitalized tissue from wounds, the severe tissue
injuries and foreign material introduced with the bullet resulted, almost
universally, in infection of wounds.
When the infection was likely to remain localized it was called
“laudable pus.” Civil War surgeons are often criticized for having called
15
pus laudable, but they were referring to the nature of the pus, and the
relatively good prognosis, as opposed to the thin, bloody pus that was
likely to spread and cause a fatal outcome. What they meant by “laudable”
was the prognosis, not the presence of the pus.
A thinner, sometimes bloody exudate from a wound was called
“pus malignum.” We know it was probably due to streptococci; it
often spread, sometimes entering the blood stream (“blood poisoning”)
causing new infection in remote areas. Such infections had a high
likelihood of a fatal outcome. One of the reasons for the large numbers
of amputations was an attempt to avoid such dangerous, spreading
infections.
Treating gunshot wounds
Wound infections were a major problem because the war took
place almost a decade before the germ theory of infectious disease was
developed. Civil War soldiers
were usually filthy; the
expression arose that
when a Civil War army was
on the march, you could
smell them coming before
you could see them. All
wounds were contaminated
and post-operative infections
were almost universal, causing
many deaths. The worst
wound infection was “hospital
gangrene;” when it appeared
in the twentieth century it was
shown to be caused by certain
strains of streptococci. The
Wounded soldiers being treated at an aid
infectious nature of hospital
station in Virginia, 1862 (colorized).
gangrene was realized during
Library of Congress
the Civil War, and affected
patients were isolated in separate facilities to minimize spread to other
patients. Some cases were kept in the same isolation unit as patients
with erysipelas, which is interesting since much later it was found that
erysipelas was also caused by streptococcal infection. 16
A Union surgeon from Buffalo,
W. Goldsmith, began treating
wounds infected with hospital
gangrene with nitric acid, a painful
procedure usually done with
anesthesia. The caustic nitric acid
killed microorganisms, minimizing
spread; this treatment decreased
the mortality rate from hospital
gangrene. It was recommended to
all Union army surgeons by the
Surgeon General and the mortality
from hospital gangrene fell sharply
late in the war.
Post-treatment soldiers at a hospital in
Virginia, 1862. Library of Congress
Assistant Surgeon Benjamin Howard devised a method of sealing
chest wounds that were causing air to be sucked into the chest, collapsing
the lung and restricting breathing. In a letter to the Surgeon General, he
described a procedure that sealed the wound using collodion. The latter
official immediately recommended it to all the medical staff of the army. It probably saved many lives.
The overall mortality rate from gunshot wounds during the course of
the war illustrates the improvement in care with increasing experience.
The figures for wounded men who were hospitalized, and records of their
treatment, show that in the first full year of fighting (July 1, 1861-June
30, 1862) 25.6% of the wounded died; the next year (July 1, 1862 to June
30, 1863, which included the siege of Vicksburg) it was 15.3%. During
the third full year of fighting (July 1, 1863 to June 30, 1864), it was 9.6%;
that year included Gettysburg and the fighting in the Wilderness in the
east Later in the war the mortality rate among the wounded increased,
reaching 17.9% in 1864-1865, the year that included the siege of
Petersburg; the increase was probably due to the greater frequency
of malnutrition and poor wound healing among men who had been
campaigning for several years.
Amputations
The dominant criticism of Civil War surgeons, that they did
excessive numbers of amputations, deserves careful consideration. 17
Excessive numbers of amputations were performed early in the war,
leading to considerable condemnation of the doctors and a lasting
impression that too many amputations were done. In his book on surgery
during the war, Dr. Julian Chisholm of Charleston, summarized the
situation: “… amputations have often been performed when limbs could
have been saved, and the amputation knife brandished by inexperienced
surgeons, over simple flesh wounds. In the beginning of the war the
desire for operation was so great among the large number of medical
officers recently from the schools who were for the first time in a position
to indulge this extravagant propensity, that the limbs of soldiers were in
as much danger from the ardor of young surgeons as from the missiles of
the enemy.” Measures were instituted in both armies to control unnecessary
amputations. Dr. Jonathan Letterman, Medical Director of the Union
Army of the Potomac, gave the following order: “All cases of amputation
must be first designated for operation… by a majority vote of a board
of at least three surgeons to be detailed by the surgeon in charge of
the hospital ….” Several photographs of surgery being done near the
battlefield, such as after Gettysburg, have been published and labeled
simply, “amputation scene,” but they actually show the board of three
surgeons examining the patient, considering the need for amputation;
the designated surgeon can be seen standing aside, holding the knife,
while another surgeon stands at the patient’s head ready to administer the
anesthesia. This order by Letterman seems to have solved the problem
of unnecessary surgery, although some historians seem unaware of this
development. Confederate forces did not have the manpower to assign three surgeons
to be the board making the decision regarding amputation. Instead, one
surgeon, considered the one with the best judgment, was detailed to
make the decision, while another surgeon, the best technician available,
performed the procedure, if necessary.
A visiting surgeon from Canada recorded that he felt that unnecessary
amputations were rare; in fact, he felt that too few were done and that
amputations were omitted which might have prevented overwhelming
infection, saving lives.
18
Moving the Sick and Wounded
Hospital Trains and Boats
The use of hospital trains and boats was another innovation during
the Civil War. Along the Mississippi River and in the Chesapeake Bay
large passenger boats were converted into hospital ships and used to
transport wounded and sick soldiers to cities with major hospitals.
Many boats had a corps of nurses and operating suites. They each made
multiple trips, transporting large numbers of patients. Models of some of
these boats were made and became famous when exhibited at fairs later in
the century.
Ambulances
Surgeon Jonathan Letterman
set up an ambulance system, with
men and vehicles assigned to
transport the wounded. His
system worked very effectively
and became a model for municipal
ambulance systems, such as in
New York City, later in the century.
Ambulance Corps soldiers practicing
The “Letterman system” was also
removal
of the wounded from the battlefield
imitated in later wars, and during
in Virginia, 1862. Library of Congress
World War II Major General Paul
Hawley, Chief Surgeon in the European Theater, specifically credited
Letterman for developing the ambulance system he used as a model.
Hospitals
After the initial large battles
of the war, hotels and churches
were used as hospitals. Later, a
large number of hospitals were
established using individual
wooden barracks-like pavilions.
They were erected quickly in
major cities, especially, in the
east around Richmond, Washington
and Philadelphia. About 200 Union
Hospital ward scene, Washington, D.C.,
1864. Library of Congress
19
and 154 Confederate hospitals were established during the war, in addition
to many temporary field hospitals set up after major battles. The largest
near Richmond was the Chimborazo Hospital, which had 7,500 beds and
treated about 75,000 patients.
Obtaining food for the large number of patients at Chimborazo
was a major challenge during the war, and the hospital was given
several small boats that were sent up the James River to collect food
and supplies. Animals were also donated to the hospital for food,
and convalescent patients cured the hides for leather and carved horns
and bones into decorative objects for use as barter with farmers up
the river. Female nursing
The Civil War initiated female nursing
in the U.S. Several female nurses trained
by Florence Nightingale in Britain came
to the U.S and served in many hospitals,
but most nursing was done by soldiers
assigned the task; often they were
rough and unreliable. A large number of
concerned women with husbands or sons in
the army just appeared at hospitals
and started taking care of the men, some their
own relatives.
Mother Bickerdyke as she
appeared in 1898.
Library of Congress
One woman, Mary Bickerdyke, was a housekeeper in Chicago;
she was sent to bring donated supplies to General Grant’s base near
Cairo, in southern Illinois. She saw the need, and stayed to clean up
the hospital buildings, prepare food for the men and clean their
clothing. Escaped slaves (“contrabands”) were trained to help.
Subsequently Mrs. Bickerdyke accompanied the army and even
personally found and treated wounded men left on the battlefield
after some engagements, such as at Fort Donelson. She was so useful
that General Grant saw that she got whatever she requested to care
for the men; when one doctor, whom she dismissed from his ward for
drunkenness, complained about her to General Sherman, Grant’s
second in command, Sherman responded that he could not reprimand
her because “she ranks me.” [Editor’s note: Mrs. Bickerdyke was called
20
“Mother Bickerdyke” by the soldiers. In May 1865 she was allowed
to ride at the head of the XV Army Corps at the Grand Review in
Washington, D.C.]
Many articles after the war mentioned maltreatment of female nurses,
especially failure to give them proper private domiciliary facilities. But
diagrams of many Civil War hospitals are available and show a separate
building for “female nurses,” and autobiographies describe how useful,
effective and valued many nurses were. Overall evaluation
Walt Whitman, who served as a volunteer nurse in several Civil
War hospitals, summed up his opinion of the medical care during
the war in his Memoranda During the War: “I must bear my most
emphatic testimony to the zeal, manliness and professional spirit and
capacity, generally prevailing among the surgeons… in the hospitals
and in the army…. I never ceased to find the best young men, and the
hardest and most disinterested workers among these surgeons …. They
are full of genius, too. I have seen many hundreds of them, and this is my
testimony.”
Given the state of medical knowledge of the time, I think the
medical staffs of both sides deserve general commendation; they did
well in caring for the wounded and sick soldiers of the war, and added
to medical knowledge that European medical personnel recorded they
found useful in their later wars. Evaluation of the medical care of
the Civil War should take into account the relative lack of military
experience in this country, and the unprecedented numbers of sick
and injured men. The records they left give us a great deal of
information about their experiences and their innovations and other
efforts to limit the suffering and mortality of the war. Unfortunately, the
usual reputation of the medical personnel of the war does not match the
quality or take into account the huge quantity of their efforts during the
war. Much later, Will Rogers summed up the situation when he said,
“It ain’t what we don’t know about history that’s the problem; it’s what
we know that ain’t so.”
21
“…the jaunty state flag…”
C. Tom Sutherland
Tom Sutherland is a frequent contributor to this journal. He needs no
introduction to this audience.
Georgia seceded from the Union on January 19, 1861, and joined
the Confederate States on February 4, 1861.1 Thus Georgia was an
independent republic for a couple of weeks and its flag was a red star on
a white field. The historic nature of this flag is also demonstrated by the
flag’s inclusion in the series of Augusta’s flags flown on Riverwalk and in
various histories of Georgia’s flags.
You don’t have to live very long in Augusta to become familiar with
the image of the Clinch Rifles review at the Arsenal. It is a woodcut from
Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper and is a familiar iconic image from
Augusta’s history. The original Arsenal buildings shown in the picture are
still standing on the Summerville campus of Georgia Regents University.
The Clinch Rifles at Augusta Arsenal in 1861
(from Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper collection). ARCHS Collection
22
The buildings were first erected on a site near the Savannah River but were
dismantled and rebuilt in their current location by1829.2
The flag in the woodcut is no
longer flying over the Arsenal
grounds but is displayed in the
Augusta Museum of History.
Governor Joe Brown brought the
flag with him on the train from
the state capital at Milledgeville
in January 1861, when he came to
town to muster the Augusta militia
Republic of Georgia flag flown at the arsenal.
and demand the surrender of the
Augusta Museum of History
U.S. Arsenal, which he considered
a foreign installation on Georgia soil since the state had seceded from
the union of the United States. On January 24, 1861, Capt Arnold Elzey
with 80 men surrendered the Arsenal to Gov. Brown and 800 militiamen
without incident.3
The symbolism of the single star is of a lone state. We see it in the
Texas state flag, and in the Bonnie Blue flag. A secessionist gathering at
the Augusta City Hall on December 24th had recommended immediate
secession from the Union and raised a red star on a white field flag with
the motto “Georgia – Equality in or Independence out of the Union.” 4
The whereabouts or survival of this flag is unknown. The representation
of a state by a star is also used in the Unites States flag, where the stripes
represent the original thirteen colonies and there is a star for each state.
Stars are assigned to the states in the order of their ratification of the
Constitution or joining of the Union.
The Augusta Chronicle has contemporary reports of the surrender
of the Arsenal and a later summary by Pleasant A. Stovall, which was
reprinted several times. A prominent feature of these accounts was the
raising of the “jaunty state flag” with a red star signifying the state’s
sovereignty.5
After flying over the Arsenal, the red star flag evidently passed into
the possession of Major J.V.H. Allen, who had raised the flag as a second
lieutenant of the Oglethorpe Infantry in 1861 and was later mayor of
Augusta. In another Chronicle article, in 1903, Mayor-elect R.E. Allen
23
was displaying the flag in his office during a reunion. He stated that he
had inherited the flag from his father, J.V.H. Allen.6 I did not find another
mention of the flag for more than thirty years.
According to the Chronicle, the plans for the Confederate
Memorial Day celebration of 1935 included a parade led by five
“old flags of the Confederacy.” These “venerable banners” were in the
custody of the United Daughters of the Confederacy. First were the
colors of the cavalry of Cobb’s Legion (now in the Augusta Museum
of History). Mayor Richard E. Allen, Jr. was to carry the single star flag
raised by his grandfather over the Arsenal upon its capture. The third
flag was made by the women of Augusta for General M. A. Stovall.
Dr. W. D. Jenkins, former mayor, was to carry the fourth flag which had
been presented to Company C of the Eighth Georgia Cavalry and had been
made by Mrs. N. K. Butler. The fifth flag, also made by Augusta women,
was of the First Georgia Battalion of Infantry.7
A decade later at City Council on October 1, 1945, the Chronicle
reports that R.E. Allen, Jr. “…offered an historic Confederate flag and
newspapers carrying stories of the flag, to the city. Allen was asked
to contribute the relics to the Augusta Museum which, it was said, is
equipped to preserve them.” 8
The flag is mentioned two more times by the newspaper. One article
in 1947 noted that Mr. A. Brian Merry displayed the flag at a meeting of
the Richmond County Historical Society.9 Finally, in 1956 the Augusta
Chronicle pictured Richmond County Historical Society President Mary
Carter Winter and Mrs. Spencer L. Hart holding the flag. The society was
then moving into the brick kitchen building at Appleby Library.10
Records at the Augusta Museum of History for the red star flag credit
the United Daughters of the Confederacy as the donor in 1941 and Mrs. N.
K. Butler as the maker. Mrs. N. K. Butler, “who possesses artistic talent to
a high degree,” is mentioned in some fifty articles in the Chronicle from
1874 to 1935, mostly about activities of the Ladies Memorial Association
and the United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC). She is also named
in articles about the ladies of the YMCA and the Masonic Fair. Capt. N.
K. Butler was a Civil War veteran, frequently mentioned as leading the
Cavalry Survivors in Augusta’s Memorial Day parades. Mr.& Mrs. N. K.
Butler celebrated their sixtieth anniversary November 24, 1918.
24
Mrs. Mary Carter Winter and Mrs. Spencer L. Hart of RCHS
display the Jaunty State Flag, July 1956. ARCHS Collection
At the 1932 dedication of the Jefferson Davis Bridge, “a flag denoting
the Seal of Georgia made by Mrs. N. K. Butler” was displayed. In addition
to flags, Mrs. Butler made a souvenir badge of Augusta for Jefferson Davis
and a banner “painted from nature” for sale at a Richmond fair, proceeds
to go for the Soldiers’ Home.
The Museum records for the red star flag are confusing and may
reflect information about two or more flags. The record correctly states
that the flag represents the seceded state of Georgia, that it was brought
to Augusta by Governor Brown, and was flown over the surrendered
Arsenal. But the record also says the flag was donated to the Museum in
1941 by the UDC, was made by Mrs. N. K. Butler, and had belonged to
the Richmond Hussars. This last information is problematic. From articles
in the Chronicle it is clear that sometime after the initial flag raising in
1861, Major J.V.H. Allen took control of the flag. He passed it on to his
son, Mayor R.E. Allen, and grandson, Mayor R.E. Allen, Jr. Thus the flag
belonged to three generations of the Allen family until at least 1945, when
Mayor R.E. Allen, Jr. offered it to the City.
25
The Chronicle sometimes referred to the flag as an historic
Confederate flag. That was not completely accurate; the red star was a
Georgia flag because the Confederacy did not yet exist. However, the
red star flag could not have been donated in 1941 because the Allens had
it until at least 1945. Mrs. Butler made a flag for Co. C, Eighth Georgia
Cavalry, in which her husband served, and may well have made others.
However, because Gov. Brown brought the red star flag with him from
Milledgeville, it would not have been made by Mrs. Butler. The reference
to the Richmond Hussars suggests to me that the records for two or
more flags have become mixed over the years. The UDC may well have
donated a flag of the Richmond Hussars, and it or another may have been
made Mrs. Butler, but that information does not fit with the known history
of the red star flag.
However the Museum came into possession of the “jaunty” flag of
the independent republic of Georgia, it is one of the great artifacts in the
collection. It had a central role in a significant event in our history and is
available here, in Augusta, for viewing.
Notes
1. Edward J. Cashin, Story of Augusta (Richmond County Board of Education, 1980), 116.
2. Ibid., 81.
3. Charles Colcock Jones and Salem Dutcher, Memorial History of Augusta (Augusta,
Ga., 1890), 177-79.
4. Florence Fleming Corley, Confederate City; Augusta, Georgia, 1860-1865 (Columbia:
University of South Carolina Press, 1960; reprint, Spartanburg, S.C.: Reprint Co., 1995).
32.
5. “One Thousand Strong,” Augusta Chronicle, August 4, 1884.
6. “An historic flag property of Mr. Allen,” Augusta Chronicle, November 10,1903.
7. “Old Flags of Confederacy Will Be Carried Again in Memorial Day Procession,”
Augusta Chronicle, April 21, 1935.
8. “Shorter School hours favored by City Council,” Augusta Chronicle, October 2, 1945.
9. “History Neglected, N.C. Savant Avers,” Augusta Chronicle, March 27, 1947.
10. “Richmond County Historical Society members spruce up ‘new’ headquarters,
constructed around 1835 and still sturdy,” Augusta Chronicle, July 1, 1956.
26
The Day Chaplin Came to Augusta
Kevin Grogan and Michael Deas
Kevin Grogan is executive director and chief curator of the Morris
Museum of Art. Michael Deas is president of a promotion company that
brings entertainment to the CSRA.. They are both former members of the
Imperial Theater’s board of directors. An earlier version of this article
appeared in the Augusta Chronicle on April 17, 2008. Our readers can
find contemporary accounts of Chaplin’s visit in the Chronicle for April 16
and 17, 1918.
Considered by many
the greatest comedian of
all time, Charles Spencer
Chaplin, Jr., was born on
April 16, 1889, in London.
The second child of music
hall entertainers Charles
and Hannah Chaplin, he
made his first appearance
on stage at age 5. His
father’s alcoholism and
mother’s mental instability
led Chaplin to forge a
close relationship with his
older brother, Sidney, in
order to survive.
Theirs was a Dickensian
childhood. They spent time
in a workhouse in south
London before moving
Charlie Chaplin, ca. 1920
to the Central London
www.wikipedia.com
District School for paupers.
However, both of them proved to have considerable natural stage talent,
and they gravitated to the music hall while still very young. These early
years of desperate poverty were a great influence on Chaplin’s characters
as he matured as an actor, writer and director. Major themes in his films
often revisited the scenes of this childhood deprivation.
27
Chaplin first came to the United States with the Fred Karno music hall
troupe in 1910. Karno, a pioneer of what came to be known as slapstick
comedy, usually is credited with the invention of the pie-in-the-face gag.
Chaplin went back to England in 1912, but after five months there, he
returned to the States for a second tour.
In late 1913, film producer Mack Sennett hired him for his studio,
the Keystone Film Co. Chaplin’s first film appearance in Making A
Living, a one-reel comedy released in 1914, was a success. But it was
his next film, Kid Auto Races At Venice (1914), that changed his career.
It marked the first time he was seen on-screen dressed as the “Little
Tramp” character for which he became famous – wearing baggy pants
that he borrowed from comic film star Fatty Arbuckle; oversized shoes
that belonged to comedian Ford Sterling ; a tiny jacket lent by Keystone
Kop Charles Avery; and a bowler hat that belonged to Arbuckle’s
father-in-law. He trimmed a false mustache – borrowed from Mack
Swain, the leader of the Keystone Kops comedy team – and he trimmed
it down to toothbrush size. In 1914 alone, Chaplin made 35 one-reel
comedies, establishing this character as one of the most popular figures in
the history of motion pictures.
In 1918, the year after the United States entered World War I, Chaplin
made a major contribution, at great personal sacrifice, to the war effort as
a spokesman for Liberty bonds, in a lengthy national tour that included
stops in Charlotte, N.C., Columbia, S.C., Augusta and Macon. Before
arriving in Augusta, the comedian had just completed a visit to Charlotte
and Columbia. When Chaplin arrived in Columbia, thousands of people
crowded the streets to see him pass from the Jefferson Hotel to the
Columbia Theatre. He was preceded by a military band from Camp
Jackson.
After his noon arrival by train in Augusta, he went directly to the
Albion Hotel in the 700 block of Broad Street. (Destroyed by fire three
years after Chaplin’s visit to Augusta, the Albion was rebuilt and renamed
the Richmond Hotel. Today, it is known as the Richmond Summit.)
From the Albion, he crossed Broad Street to Augusta’s Wells Theatre
(now known as the Imperial), taking the stage at 2:30 p.m. Chaplin
announced to the overflow crowd he had not come to be funny, but that
he was there to sell Liberty bonds. “If he didn’t mean to be funny, he was
in spite of himself,” according to the Augusta Chronicle. “In some of
28
his stunts, especially as he was directing the band, he almost made the
audience believe they were at the movie, paying their nickel.” Those in
the large and expectant audience who planned to purchase bonds were
asked to bring checks with them that were made payable to Chaplin who
endorsed the checks with a flourish on stage. In due course, the cashed
checks were returned to the bond purchasers, autographed, which made
great souvenirs.
At 4 p.m., Chaplin
left the Wells and made
an appearance at the base
hospital [Camp Hancock]
to visit soldiers recovering
from injuries. He gave a
10-minute talk to ward
masters and enlisted men
before being escorted by
members of the Bohemian
Club through the wards,
distributing cigarettes.
After his visit with
the convalescing soldiers
and the appearance at
the Wells, he was the
guest of honor at a birthday
Charlie Chaplin at a Liberty Bond rally in New York, dinner, hosted by Judge
a few weeks before coming to Augusta.
Henry Hammond at the
National Archives
Augusta Country Club.
th
The day of his Augusta visit was Chaplin’s 29 birthday. At the end of
an exhausting day, he returned briefly to the Albion Hotel before departing
with his entourage for Union Station and a 9:15 p.m. train to Macon.
His visit there was followed by an even more successful appearance
in Atlanta where, according to the Chronicle, “the takings ran just to
$502,350,” an extraordinary sum. In today’s dollars that figure would be
more than $5.7 million.
The day the Little Tramp came to town – a special day in Augusta’s
history – was April 16, 1918, almost one hundred years ago.
29
Augusta and the Civil War Symposium Series
Friday, November 7, 2014
Augusta Museum of History
•6:30 p.m.: Dr. Edward J. Cashin
Memorial Woodrow Wilson
Lecture: “Marching Through the
Heart of Georgia,” presented by
Dr. Anne Sarah Rubin, University
of Maryland-Baltimore. Reception to follow. The Friday
night event is open to the public
free of charge.
Saturday, November 8, 2014
Augusta Museum of History
•9:00 a.m.: Registration (Cost $30.00)
•9:30-10:30: “Gen. William H.T.
Walker of Augusta in the Atlanta
Campaign of 1864,” presented by
Dr. Russell K. Brown.
•10:30–10:45 a.m.: Break
•10:45–11:45 a.m.: “Ella Gertrude
Clanton Thomas,” presented by
Dr. Carolyn Curry.
•11:45 a.m.–1:15 p.m.: Lunch
•1:15–2:30 p.m.: Eighth Regimental
Band, “Songs of the Civil War.”
30
The Civil War Round Table of Augusta
Join this diverse group of people who are passionate about history. You may find history can
actually be exciting! We get pretty excited at our meetings so much good solid information
is presented by outstanding speakers!
The meetings are on the third (3rd) Monday of the month at The Snelling Center at The
Goodwill Center, 3165 Washington Rd at Furys Ferry Rd., just across from Warren Baptist
Church. Dinner begins promptly at 6:00pm. Please, please be there by 6:00pm to place
your order. Each will order from the nice, broad menu and be responsible for all costs
incurred. If you do not plan to eat, please be there no later than 6:45pm.
2014 Program Schedule
June 16 “The CSS Hunley” presented by South Carolina Lt. Gov. Glenn McConnell of Charleston,
SC, a leader in the national effort to restore the world’s first submarine used in battle.
July 21 National Park Service historian Jim Ogden of Chickamauga and Chattanooga National
Military Park, presenting on “The Battle of Atlanta, July 22nd 1864.”
August 18 Kim Poovey of Beaufort presents “Veils of the Civil War,” a look at women spies and period
mourning practices. (Annual Business Meeting).
September 8* (second Monday) Gary W. Gallagher, John L. Nau III Professor of History at the University of Virginia, is the
author or editor of many books of Civil War history.
October 20 “Reflections on a City at War” from Bill Kirby, columnist for The Augusta Chronicle.
November 17
Tad Brown, President of Watson-Brown Foundation, will present on the Tom Watson
Brown Book Award, presented by The Society of Civil War Historians.
31
Publications of the
Augusta Richmond County Historical Society, Inc.
Augusta: A Pictorial History
Dr. Helen Callahan.........................................Hardback.…...................... $45.00
Confederate City: Augusta, Georgia, 1860-1865
Dr. Florence Fleming Corley..........................Hardback…....................... $35.00
Historical Markers and Monuments of Richmond County, Georgia
Marguerite Flint Fogleman.............................Paperback............................ $9.95
Reminiscences of Augusta Marines
Edited by A. Ray Rowland.............................Hardback........................... $15.00
Journal of Lt. Col. Archibald Campbell
Edited by Colin Campbell..............................Paperback.......................... $15.00
Memories: The Academy of Richmond County, 1783-1983
Alethia E. Nowell...........................................Hardback........................... $25.00
Trustees of the Town: The Story of Richmond Academy Trustees
Alethia E. Nowell..........................................Hardback........................... $20.00
From Greenhouses to Green Jackets (Expanded Edition)
Compiled and Edited by
Dr. Russell K. Brown......................................Paperback.......................... $20.00
From Balloons to Blue Angels
Dr. Edward J. Cashin .....................................Hardback........................... $25.00
Paperback.......................... $18.00
War Stories: Augusta Area Veterans Remember World War II
DVD.................................. $20.00
Check our website for additional titles and ordering information:
www.theARCHS.org
Or call us at (706) 737-1532.
32

Download Report