The main hospital on North Washington Street connected by a long narrow walkway to a building on N. It was called the Old Hallowell School Hospital and was eventually expanded to five structures. The building served as a school from 1832 until the Surgeon General designated it as a hospital after the First Battle of Bull Run in July 1861. The spread of disease in hospital wards and army camps caused two-thirds of the deaths during the Civil War. Various infections coursed through the wards, as well as contagious diseases like typhoid fever. The Civil War took place just prior to the development of germ theory by European doctors therefore, medical professionals were unaware that instruments should be sterilized and wounds should be properly cleaned. Civilians and local officials criticized the Army’s poor treatment of the wounded and called for a system that would ease the suffering of the soldiers. When the routed Union Army came running back to Alexandria, no doctors or hospitals were waiting to tend to the one thousand men who had been injured. When the Union and Confederate armies clashed on the fields near Manassas, Virginia in July 1861, the opposing sides had made few preparations to care for the wounded. Alexandria was the first Southern city to be occupied by Northern troops. This occurred just one day after its citizens had voted to have their state join the Confederacy. On May 24, 1861, Union troops crossed the Potomac River and occupied Alexandria, Virginia – from the first days of the Civil War to the last.
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