BGuthrie Photos: MD -- Antietam Natl Battlefield -- Pry House

MD -- Antietam Natl Battlefield -- Pry House:

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Specific picture descriptions: Photos above with "i" icons next to the bracketed sequence numbers (e.g. "[1] ") are described as follows:
1. ANTIPR_121013_028.JPG: Army Headquarters Gen. George McClellan used the Pry House as the headquarters for the Union Army of the Potomac. Officers brought some of the Pry furniture out on the lawn. There eyewitnesses described a "small redan built of fence rails" with telescopes mounted, and how the commander "stood in a soldierly attitude intently watching the battle." Reporter Charles Coffin rode to "the large square mansion of Mr. Pry" where "the general was sitting in an arm chair.. his staff were about him, their horses saddled and bridled, were hitched to the trees and fences." When President Lincoln visited in October, Gen. McClellan brought him to the Pry house to see the former headquarters site. Signal Station Positioned on high ground, using flags or torches waving back and forth to "talk" to each other, both armies used this new signal technology that permitted rapid communication across the battlefield. Two of their most important signal stations were here at the Pry House (headquarters station) and on Elk Ridge (mountain station), the high ground over a mile to the east. The Manual of Signals stated that with a 12-foot staff and 4-foot flag, signals "are easily read at a distance of 8 miles." Field Hospital After the battle, the Antietam Valley was described as "one vast hospital." With more than 18,000 soldiers wounded in the two armies, over one hundred field hospitals were established in houses, barns, churches, and tents. Some operated briefly; others housed the sick and suffering for months. The Pry family home and barn were used to care for the wounded, primarily from the Union Second Corps. Gen. Joseph Hooker was brought to the house briefly after being wounded near the Cornfield before being transferred to Washington, D.C.
2. ANTIPR_121013_051.JPG: Pry Family Upheaval A knock on the door on September 16, 1862, forever changed the lives of Philip and Elizabeth Pry. For almost twenty years, the Prys prospered on this 140-acre farm along Antietam Creek while raising their family of six children. With Confederate forces gathering on the other side of the Antietam, Gen. George McClellan positioned the Union Army on this side and selected the Pry home to serve as his headquarters. Thousands of soldiers and horses descended on this farm. Fences were knocked down, crops trampled, loads of hay confiscated, livestock taken to feed the army, and the house and barn converted into field hospitals. After the battle, Phillip Pry filed numerous claims with the War Department for damages to his farm. Portions of the claims were paid, other charges were disputed and there was an investigation of overpayment. The financial burden proved too much. In 1874 the Prys sold their home and moved to Tennessee.
3. ANTIPR_121013_089.JPG: Field Hospitals: Field hospitals were located in barns, houses or tents to the rear of the fighting. Injured soldiers often received some aid on the battlefield, usually having their wounds bandaged and receiving morphine for pain. They then were taken to the field hospitals, where the majority of the surgical operations took place. The men were triaged into three categories: mortally wounded, slightly wounded, and surgical cases. The surgical cases were attended to first, then the slightly wounded. Those who were considered mortally wounded were made as comfortable as possible, but little else was done for them until the others had been assisted. After the Battle of Antietam, over one hundred sites were used as field hospitals, some only briefly but others for weeks or months. These two photographs are of the field hospital at the farm of Dr. Otho Smith, on the west bank of Antietam Creek two miles northeast of Sharpsburg and one mile west of Keedysville. Shown (right) are the Smith house and outbuildings, a thatch-roofed barn, and tents. The surgeon in the photograph (below) is Surgeon Anson Hurd of the 14th Indiana Infantry. This hospital treated both Union and Confederate wounded, up to 1,396 men at its peak. "When circumstances would permit barns were to be designated as preferable in all cases to houses, as being in that season of the year well provided with straw, better ventilated, and enabling the medical officers with more facility to attend to a greater number of wounded."
4. ANTIPR_121013_095.JPG: Wheeling Ambulance
5. ANTIPR_121013_114.JPG: "Many were deprived of an arm, leg, and eye, still surviving, impatiently awaiting their turn for medical assistance. The real horror can be better imagined than described..." -- Herald of Freedom and Torch Light, September 10-24, 1862 The Battle of Antietam severely challenged the medical departments of both sides. With over 17,000 wounded waiting for treatment, lack of timely attention was only one of the horrors faced by the afflicted. Shortages of anesthetics delayed life saving operations, long evacuation routes caused unimaginable suffering and the local population would soon fall victim to the diseases that always follow the pollution of battle. Despite these grim facts, Antietam would become a watershed in American Medicine.
6. ANTIPR_121013_123.JPG: "From Hagerstown to the Southern limits of the country wounded and dying soldiers are to be found in every neighborhood and in nearly every house. The whole region of country between Boonsboro and Sharpsburg is one vast hospital." -- Herald of Freedom and Torch Light, September 10-24, 1862
7. ANTIPR_121013_126.JPG: In the months and weeks after the Battle of Antietam, Major Jonathan Letterman, Medical Director of the Army of the Potomac, began to finalize a new organization for military medicine. His comprehensive plan is still the basis for military and civilian emergency care today. Changes were made to include: * Better organization of field hospitals * Improved medical supply chains * Organization of ambulances * Improved evacuation systems * Better hospital record keeping * Higher quality of operating surgeons * Clear divisions between medical strategic and tactical planning Many of these changes were instituted before the end of 1862 within the Army of the Potomac. In 1864 the Letterman Plan was passed into law by Congress and made the medical standard for all US forces.
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Description of Subject Matter: In 1862 the Pry house was used as the headquarters of the Army of the Potomac during the battle at the direction of General George B. McClellan, and it was also from this house that Dr. Jonathon Letterman directed the medical department. In addition to these command services, the grounds also served as a field hospital and ambulance park.

Now open in cooperation between the National Park Service and the National Museum of Civil War Medine, the exhibits of the Pry House Field Hospital Museum highlight the history and the use of the Pry House during the battle; the set up and running of the field hospital system; the surgeons, nurses and civilian caregivers who aided the wounded; the officers treated at the Pry House; the effect of the battle on the civilian populations; and the medical innovations of Dr. Jonathan Letterman. One room is a re-creation of a Civil War field hospital scene typical of those established in local homes.

Starting at the Pry House Field Hospital Museum visitors can follow the journey of the wounded through a self-guided driving tour that follows the original trek of the ambulances from the battlefield of Antietam to the general hospitals in the town of Frederick. The tour ends at the National Museum of Civil War Medicine's main location where visitors have the opportunity to learn more in-depth the efforts made to treat the thousands of casualties from this battle and others and to discover the roots of our civilian medical services today of an effective ambulance system, triage and organized first aid in the practice those who showed compassion in the conflict of the Civil War.

The above was from http://www.nps.gov/archive/anti/Pry_House.htm
Wikipedia Description: Antietam National Battlefield
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

...

Pry House Field Hospital Museum

The Pry House Field Hospital Museum is located in the house that served as Union Commander General George B. McClellan's headquarters during the battle. Exhibits focus on period medical care of the wounded, as well as information about the Pry House. The museum is sponsored by the National Museum of Civil War Medicine.
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