Casualties amounted to 135 out of a complement of 175. On the 17th, Mound City exploded during an engagement with Confederate batteries at St. On 11 June, Red Rover received her first patient, a cholera victim and American Union seaman from the gunboat USS Benton named David Sans who became the first patient taken aboard the first hospital ship in American history. Her commanding officer was Captain McDaniel of the Army's Gunboat Service. On 10 June 1862, Red Rover was ready for service. to keep cinders and smoke from annoying the sick" were also included in the work.Ĭivil War service Mound City hospital service An elevator, numerous bathrooms, nine water closets, and gauze window blinds ". A steam boiler was added for laundry purposes. The cabin aft was opened for better air circulation. A galley was put below, providing separate kitchen facilities for the patients. A separate operating room was installed and equipped. Louis, Missouri, and completed at Cairo, Illinois, was undertaken by the Western Sanitary Commission with both sanitation and comfort in mind. Her conversion to a hospital boat, begun at St. Red Rover, serving first with the Union Army, then with the Union Navy, drew on both military and voluntary medical personnel. But by 1865, typhoid fever, typhus, dysentery, diarrhea, cholera, smallpox, measles, and malaria would claim more lives than gunshot. Sanitary Commission founded in June 1861. Overworked military medical personnel were assisted by voluntary societies coordinated by the U.S. Vaccination was slow sanitation and hygiene were generally poor. Rapid mobilization at the start of the Civil War had vitiated efforts to prevent the outbreak and epidemic communication of disease on both sides of the conflict. Barges, housed over or covered with canvas, were ordered for the care of contagious diseases, primarily smallpox, and were moored in shady spots along the river. However, these transports lacked necessary sanitary accommodations and medical staff, and thus were unable to prevent the spread of disease. Her role was to augment the limited Union medical facilities, to minimize the hazards to sick and wounded in fighting ships, and to facilitate delivery of medical supplies to and evacuation of personnel from forward areas.Ĭivil War care of the sick and wounded Īt the time of Red Rover 's commissioning as a hospital ship, the Union was already using steamers such as the City of Memphis as medical transports to carry casualties upriver. The Union forces repaired her, fitting her out as a summer hospital ship for the Army's Western Flotilla. When the island fell to Union forces on 7 April, the Union gunboat USS Mound City captured Red Rover. 10, near New Madrid, Missouri, she was holed by Union fire during a bombardment of that island sometime before 25 March, leading the Confederates to abandon her as a barracks ship. Serving from 15 March 1862, at Island No. The Confederacy purchased her on 7 November 1861, and initially put her to use as a barracks ship for the floating battery at New Orleans, Louisiana. Red Rover was a side-wheel steamer built in 1859 at Cape Girardeau, Missouri.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Details
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |