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3. Casualties Arriving at Mount Pleasant General Hospital, May 1864
In May 1864, a year before the Civil War ended, Union and Rebel troops clashed in a series of bloody battles in Virginia. Steamships loaded with the wounded traveled up the Potomac River to Washington where stretchers piled ashore for days and nights on end. By May 21, 18,000 had arrived, thousands more followed in the weeks ahead. Local volunteers greeted the wounded at the docks before ambulance wagons brought them to the 50 wartime hospitals scattered across the city.
The Mount Pleasant General Hospital received more than 5,000 of these patients in May and June 1864. The hospital opened in March 1862 near the intersection of what is now Park Road and 14th Street. Before it closed in August 1865, the hospital had treated nearly 18,400 soldiers. Over 800 died. |