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Lovell Hospital Pass

This pass from Lovell General Hospital, also known as Portsmouth Grove Military Hospital, allowed Mr. Maynard and a lady to leave the hospital past the guards on Tuesday August 4, 1863 to return to the hospital on the following Saturday.


Medical Care during the Civil War: Portsmouth Grove Military Hospital

Essay by Clara Lombardi, Rhode Island Historical Society Education Intern with additions by Geralyn Ducady, Director of the Newell D. Goff Center for Education and Public Programs

When considering Rhode Island’s involvement in the American Civil War, it is important to note the efforts of the Portsmouth Grove Military Hospital in support of the Union forces. Portsmouth Grove, later re-named Lovell General Hospital in honor of former surgeon general Joseph Lovell, played an important role not only in maintaining the health of the numerous soldiers who were brought to its halls but in showcasing both the role of women during the Civil War and the ways in which the War itself impacted the advancement of medicine.1Frank L. Grzyb, Rhode Island’s Civil War Hospital: Life and Death at Portsmouth Grove, 1862-1865. Jefferson, NC: McFarland. 2012

Medicine on and off the battlefield during the Civil War was not as advanced as it is today and was quite gruesome. Little was known about germs, and antiseptics were seldom used. Anesthesia was new but often unavailable. On top of this, many physicians were appointed to serve in the War through political favoritism and had little or no formal training, much less experience practicing medicine on the battlefield, where they found themselves overwhelmed and lacking supplies. As the War went on, demand for physicians increased, and the desperate need forced the acceptance of those with little training and no experience. For example, at the beginning of the War, there were 98 physicians on the government’s rolls. By the end of the War, there were 13,000. By comparison, the scientific knowledge we have today in health and medicine was non-existent. Injuries to the head might be “treated” with trephination, or the removal of sections of the skull with the thought it would relieve pressure. Wounds to limbs, arms, and legs would be “treated” through amputation, or sawing off the limb at a joint such as a knee or even the hip. Again, both of these procedures would take place without anesthesia or antiseptics and often led to the patient dying of blood loss or a bacterial infection such as gangrene. One Civil War surgeon, William Keene, noted that operations occurred on blood-stained cots from previous patients. Surgeons did not disinfect their hands or medical instruments, and they continued to use instruments after being dropped on the floor and only washed with tap water. If a surgeon had an issue threading a needle, he would moisten it with saliva and roll it between infected fingers. They dressed wounds with sheets, shirts, rags, or tablecloths that had not been disinfected. All such practices can lead to severe infections.2Frank L. Grzyb, Rhode Island’s Civil War Hospital: Life and Death at Portsmouth Grove, 1862-1865. Jefferson, NC: McFarland. 2012: 8; Ira W. Rutkow. Bleeding Blue and Gray: Civil War Surgery and the Evolution of American Medicine. New York: Random House. 2005: 1-65 Administered medicines were similarly barbaric by today’s standards. Medicines contained high levels of mercury, opium, ammonia, morphine, arsenic, lead acetate, turpentine, and silver nitrate, many of which are considered poisons today. Medicines such as opium and morphine are highly addictive, causing many veterans to remain dependent on those drugs long after the War’s end.3Frank L. Grzyb, Rhode Island’s Civil War Hospital: Life and Death at Portsmouth Grove, 1862-1865. Jefferson, NC: McFarland. 2012: 10

Williams, J. A, photographer. Lovell General Hospital, Portsmouth, Rhode Island / From Lovell General Hospital, Portsmouth Grove, R.I., U.S.A., J.A. Williams, Post Office Box 507, Newport, R.I. United States Portsmouth Rhode Island, None. Photograph. Library of Congress.

Aside from injuries of war, Civil War soldiers suffered other illnesses and ailments. Close and unventilated quarters led to a number of communicable diseases, such as chicken pox, smallpox, measles, and mumps. Many men who had never been exposed to these diseases before were crippled by them. Campsites were teeming with bedbugs, flies, and lice. Soldiers were weakened by poor nutrition due to a lack of fresh fruits and vegetables, and food became contaminated due to the lack of refrigeration or the knowledge of germs which can spread through unsanitary cooking utensils and unclean water. These conditions can cause chronic dysentery, typhoid fever, or severe diarrhea with a high fever which can lead to dehydration and even death.4Ira W. Rutkow. Bleeding Blue and Gray: Civil War Surgery and the Evolution of American Medicine. New York: Random House. 2005: 122-127 It became clear that sanitary measures needed improvement and that sick and injured soldiers needed to be sent off the battlefield to be treated at hospitals.

Field hospitals were set up close to battlefields and were temporary measures to address the immediate needs of recently injured soldiers. They did not tend to focus on helping those with ailments not caused by battlefield injuries. These temporary quarters could be in tents or in other buildings such as warehouses, churches, hotels, schools, or any number of public buildings. General hospitals were set up far from the battlefield and provided longer-term care for the wounded as well as the sick. However, their primary objective was to send soldiers back to the front lines quickly. The first general military hospitals for the Union were established in areas of northern Virginia and near Washington D.C. because of their proximity to the battlefield. But other general hospitals were soon set up even farther from the front lines.5Frank L. Grzyb, Rhode Island’s Civil War Hospital: Life and Death at Portsmouth Grove, 1862-1865. Jefferson, NC: McFarland. 2012: 7 One such general hospital was Portsmouth Grove Military Hospital.

As War casualties grew, the small Marine Hospital in Providence could no longer handle the influx of patients. The Portsmouth Grove Hospital was officially established on July 6, 1862, by the US Surgeon General under the leadership of Rhode Island Governor William Sprague IV to help relieve the demand. The hospital was located in the town of Portsmouth on what was known as the Portsmouth Grove Estate, a former vacation resort, because of its proximity to the ports at Newport and to a railway with a depot. The location was ideal as space was limited in the relatively large city of Newport. The nearby ports allowed for the transport of injured soldiers via the coastline, and the railway allowed for easier access to supplies. Portsmouth Grove would service not only Union Soldiers but also captured Confederates. This meant that there was a larger active military presence (such as guards for the prisoners) within the hospital.6Frank L. Grzyb, Rhode Island’s Civil War Hospital: Life and Death at Portsmouth Grove, 1862-1865. Jefferson, NC: McFarland. 2012: 14-17

The first large shipments of injured men came immediately after its establishment. Soldiers injured in the Battle of Mechanicsville, Virginia, on June 27, 1862, were evacuated and loaded onto two steamers, the Atlantic and the America, and headed for Rhode Island. 1,724 patients, including wounded Confederate prisoners, nine surgeons, and 108 nurses (male) were on the ships. With no cots on ship, not enough food and drinking water, and a ratio of one physician for every 192 patients, the situation was already dire for these men. Although Portsmouth Grove employed a large staff, the hospital lacked enough doctors, and thus patients’ medical needs were mostly met by nurses and stewards. At this time, the hospital consisted of no more than a hotel used for officers and administration and a few outbuildings that remained from the property’s use as a resort, and rows of tents for the sick. Semi-permanent structures were in the early stages of construction. Most of the hospital’s buildings would not be completed until late summer. The hospital also did not have sufficient food or adequate supplies, such as clean clothes and mattresses, for the influx of wounded soldiers.7Frank L. Grzyb, Rhode Island’s Civil War Hospital: Life and Death at Portsmouth Grove, 1862-1865. Jefferson, NC: McFarland. 2012: 19-35

After 1862, the conditions of Portsmouth Grove greatly improved as a result of the U.S. Sanitary Commission  and its leadership’s involvement in the administration of the hospital.8Frank L. Grzyb, Rhode Island’s Civil War Hospital: Life and Death at Portsmouth Grove, 1862-1865. Jefferson, NC: McFarland. 2012 One of the reasons for Portsmouth Grove’s poor conditions is that, like many of the military hospitals commissioned as a result of the Civil War, its formation was rushed. This meant that the space itself was cobbled together, with the workers largely lacking the ability to maintain the space up to any sort of health standard. The Civil War can be considered a turning point in the ways in which medicine was practiced in the U.S. After significant failures in medicine on the battlefield and at nearby field hospitals, as mentioned earlier, the Sanitary Commission set to improve medicine and medical conditions at battlefields and hospitals across the Union.9Shauna Devine. “’To Make Something Out of the Dying in This War’: The Civil War and the Rise of American Medical Science.” Journal of the Civil War Era 6, no. 2 (2016): 151; Drew Gilpin Faust, This Republic of Suffering: Death and the American Civil War. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.  2012: 126; Ira W. Rutkow. Bleeding Blue and Gray: Civil War Surgery and the Evolution of American Medicine. New York: Random House. 2005 The Commission provided a certain degree of organization and cleanliness within these spaces which were largely run by inexperienced volunteers.10Drew Gilpin. Faust, This Republic of Suffering: Death and the American Civil War. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.  2012: 126 A notable impact of the Commission was the establishment of medical inspectors and standards for the construction of hospital buildings. Medical inspectors visited hospitals to review their cleanliness, administrative organization, and building design and maintenance.11Frank L. Grzyb, Rhode Island’s Civil War Hospital: Life and Death at Portsmouth Grove, 1862-1865. Jefferson, NC: McFarland. 2012

The Sanitary Commission, in particular, played an important role in the establishment of Portsmouth Grove, particularly one of its most notable members, Katherine Prescott Wormeley, who would serve among the leadership at Portsmouth Grove. By way of her association with the Sanitary Commission, Wormeley ensured that Portsmouth Grove adhered to a standard of cleanliness that was exceptional for the time. The Sanitary Commission further ensured that Portsmouth Grove had the tools needed to not only be maintained but to become a beacon for medicine during a period where institutions were being run with extremely limited resources.12Frank L. Grzyb, Rhode Island’s Civil War Hospital: Life and Death at Portsmouth Grove, 1862-1865. Jefferson, NC: McFarland. 2012 However, although improvements were made, health standards still did not compare to those of today.13Shauna Devine. “’To Make Something Out of the Dying in This War’: The Civil War and the Rise of American Medical Science.” Journal of the Civil War Era 6, no. 2 (2016): 152

Medical supplies still remained scarce. Nurses at Portsmouth Grove were known to tear their petticoats to use as bandages. Calls to local citizens for supplies also were necessary. Donations of clothing, food, and scraps of linen for bandages were donated. Despite these good intentions, employing used scraps for bandages in this way also contributed to infections. Worse yet, bandages were often washed and re-used rather than discarded. And the buildings were known to be drafty in winter and leaky when it rained, with little fuel for warmth and light.14Frank L. Grzyb, Rhode Island’s Civil War Hospital: Life and Death at Portsmouth Grove, 1862-1865. Jefferson, NC: McFarland. 2012: 68-71

Medicine was one of the most important ways in which women became involved in the war effort, and this can be seen within the walls of Portsmouth Grove. Many women, alongside men who were unable to fight, would become nurses, cooks, and cleaners for the rapidly expanding medical system across the United States. For Portsmouth Grove, one of its most important figures was Katherine Prescott Wormeley, who was mentioned earlier. Wormeley was born in England but immigrated to Newport, Rhode Island, at the age of 31 with her mother after the death of her father. Upon the outbreak of the Civil War, Wormeley immediately became involved with the Ladies’ Union Aid Society, where she would work to further women’s involvement in homefront efforts such as sewing shirts for Union soldiers. She then joined the U.S. Sanitary Commission’s Hospital Transport Service, helping wounded soldiers on ships while being transported away from battlefields. In August of 1862, Wormeley was asked by the U.S. Surgeon General, William A. Hammond, to accept the lady directorship at Portsmouth Grove. There, Wormeley not only helped to organize and maintain the living quarters, but she was responsible for streamlining the hospital’s day-to-day operations by implementing steam-powered laundry complexes, establishing dining charts and notations of proper diet, organizing nursing assignments, and conducting letter-writing campaigns meant to gather more resources such as food from the surrounding community. Wormeley was key in furthering female involvement in the hospital, putting numerous other women in positions of power usually held by men, such as Agnes Adams Wilbur and her mother, Mary, Sarah Dennis, and Sarah Chauncey Woolsey and her sisters. All of these women were in supervisory roles that ensured the medical safety of those within Portsmouth Grove. Nurses at Portsmouth Grove would not only provide their labor night and day, but they often helped to financially support the hospital, giving both their own financial contributions and also raising funds to keep Portsmouth Grove in operation. Their hard work and dedication saved the lives of thousands and their work enabled women further opportunities in military and medical operations. Unfortunately, Wormeley had to leave her role a year after she began due to both her own and her mother’s failing health.15Frank L. Grzyb, Rhode Island’s Civil War Hospital: Life and Death at Portsmouth Grove, 1862-1865. Jefferson, NC: McFarland. 2012: 80-89

Following the conclusion of the Civil War in April of 1865, Portsmouth Grove, now known as Lovell General Hospital, remained in operation, tending to the injured. Confederate soldiers held at Lovell were sent home. Many returned home to the South, although there were some who remained in the area. By June of 1865, between 800 and 900 injured men were receiving treatment at the Lovell. By August of the same year, the Hospital was virtually empty. With fewer than 25 men remaining, they were transferred elsewhere, and the staff of Lovell was ordered to disband. The Hospital was formally disestablished on August 25, 1865. During its time, Portsmouth Grove Military Hospital served 10,593 patients, only 308 of whom died, and it boasted an impressive 1,464 beds, making it one of the largest in the country for that time. The site of Portsmouth Grove would eventually be repurposed during World War II as a Navy training center and renamed Melville.16Frank L. Grzyb, Rhode Island’s Civil War Hospital: Life and Death at Portsmouth Grove, 1862-1865. Jefferson, NC: McFarland. 2012: 136-139 Today, it is the home of the Melville Boat and Marina District.


Terms:

Gangrene: serious bacterial infection leading to death in surrounding tissue. Its spread could affect internal organs

U.S. Sanitary Commission: a commission founded during the 19th century interested in the reform and maintenance of United States Hospitals

Homefront: the activities of the civilian population during times of war to support war efforts

Questions:

In this essay, we learned that Portsmouth Gove Hospital cared for both Union and Confederate soldiers. How do you think the workers at the hospital would have felt about that? Why do you think that?

What can this story tell us about the importance of women’s work during wartime? And why do you think roles on the homefront were usually occupied by women?

Why is the work of the U.S. Sanitary Commission important to our understanding of medicine and medical care today?


  • 1
    Frank L. Grzyb, Rhode Island’s Civil War Hospital: Life and Death at Portsmouth Grove, 1862-1865. Jefferson, NC: McFarland. 2012
  • 2
    Frank L. Grzyb, Rhode Island’s Civil War Hospital: Life and Death at Portsmouth Grove, 1862-1865. Jefferson, NC: McFarland. 2012: 8; Ira W. Rutkow. Bleeding Blue and Gray: Civil War Surgery and the Evolution of American Medicine. New York: Random House. 2005: 1-65
  • 3
    Frank L. Grzyb, Rhode Island’s Civil War Hospital: Life and Death at Portsmouth Grove, 1862-1865. Jefferson, NC: McFarland. 2012: 10
  • 4
    Ira W. Rutkow. Bleeding Blue and Gray: Civil War Surgery and the Evolution of American Medicine. New York: Random House. 2005: 122-127
  • 5
    Frank L. Grzyb, Rhode Island’s Civil War Hospital: Life and Death at Portsmouth Grove, 1862-1865. Jefferson, NC: McFarland. 2012: 7
  • 6
    Frank L. Grzyb, Rhode Island’s Civil War Hospital: Life and Death at Portsmouth Grove, 1862-1865. Jefferson, NC: McFarland. 2012: 14-17
  • 7
    Frank L. Grzyb, Rhode Island’s Civil War Hospital: Life and Death at Portsmouth Grove, 1862-1865. Jefferson, NC: McFarland. 2012: 19-35
  • 8
    Frank L. Grzyb, Rhode Island’s Civil War Hospital: Life and Death at Portsmouth Grove, 1862-1865. Jefferson, NC: McFarland. 2012
  • 9
    Shauna Devine. “’To Make Something Out of the Dying in This War’: The Civil War and the Rise of American Medical Science.” Journal of the Civil War Era 6, no. 2 (2016): 151; Drew Gilpin Faust, This Republic of Suffering: Death and the American Civil War. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.  2012: 126; Ira W. Rutkow. Bleeding Blue and Gray: Civil War Surgery and the Evolution of American Medicine. New York: Random House. 2005
  • 10
    Drew Gilpin. Faust, This Republic of Suffering: Death and the American Civil War. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.  2012: 126
  • 11
    Frank L. Grzyb, Rhode Island’s Civil War Hospital: Life and Death at Portsmouth Grove, 1862-1865. Jefferson, NC: McFarland. 2012
  • 12
    Frank L. Grzyb, Rhode Island’s Civil War Hospital: Life and Death at Portsmouth Grove, 1862-1865. Jefferson, NC: McFarland. 2012
  • 13
    Shauna Devine. “’To Make Something Out of the Dying in This War’: The Civil War and the Rise of American Medical Science.” Journal of the Civil War Era 6, no. 2 (2016): 152
  • 14
    Frank L. Grzyb, Rhode Island’s Civil War Hospital: Life and Death at Portsmouth Grove, 1862-1865. Jefferson, NC: McFarland. 2012: 68-71
  • 15
    Frank L. Grzyb, Rhode Island’s Civil War Hospital: Life and Death at Portsmouth Grove, 1862-1865. Jefferson, NC: McFarland. 2012: 80-89
  • 16
    Frank L. Grzyb, Rhode Island’s Civil War Hospital: Life and Death at Portsmouth Grove, 1862-1865. Jefferson, NC: McFarland. 2012: 136-139
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