Complete Record - Heirs of Hippocrates No. 1716

HENRY INGERSOLL BOWDITCH (1808-1892) A brief plea for an ambulance system for the Army of the United States. Ticknor and Fields 1863 28 pp. 23.7 cm.

For more information on this author or work, see number: 1713

During the Civil War, Bowditch did not serve in the field but devoted a great deal of his time to examining recruits for the Union forces. After the death of his son in 1862 in the Battle of Centreville, Virginia, Bowditch wrote this impassioned plea for a trained and organized ambulance corps to serve the Union Army. Despite his efforts and a letter of support from General McClellan (reprinted here), the request was never acted upon. Nevertheless, the army was not completely without ambulance service, as Bowditch notes that "Fortunately for the Army of the Potomac, as long ago as August last (1862), General McClellan established a certain ambulance system of detailed soldiers, and under the enlightened suggestions of Dr. Letterman, Medical Director of the same army, I learn that much good was accomplished by it after the Fredericksburg fight. But the facts of my son's case have proved that the arrangements of the Army of the Potomac are still imperfect, and there are other armies, in which not even this imperfect system exists" (p. 15). It was not until 1864 that Congress passed "An Act to Establish a Uniform System of Ambulances in the Armies of the United States."

Gift of John Martin, M.D.