Have we the best possible ambulance system? : Reprinted from the Christian examiner, January 1864 : and published, for gratuitous distribution, by the committee of citizens who have in charge the sending of petitions to Congress for the establishment of a thorough and uniform ambulance system in the armies of the republic.

Date:
1864
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Have we the best possible ambulance system? : Reprinted from the Christian examiner, January 1864 : and published, for gratuitous distribution, by the committee of citizens who have in charge the sending of petitions to Congress for the establishment of a thorough and uniform ambulance system in the armies of the republic. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    by the honorable Chairman of that Committee. Let us con- sider nothing- accomplished until all is well done. If any judgment can be formed of the items of Mr. Wilson's bill from the meagre telegraphic despatches given of it, it is a vast gain upon the present want of system everywhere save in the Army of the Potomac. It in fact establishes, by law, for all the armies, the present system now thoroughly acted on by the Potomac Army alone. This is an immense step in the right direction, and the Committee hail it with delight. If this bill passes, every General will thereafter be compelled to see that his men are not left for days without proper care, as has, at times, heretofore happened. ^ But if we refer to the operation of the Ambulance Depart- ment of the Army of the Potomac at the great battle of Get- tysburg, we shall find that the Ambulance Corps arrangement was wofully deficient, in some particulars, on that occasion. It brought the wounded with comparative skill from the battle- field, and then left them exposed to the rain or a July sun, and without food, twenty-four hours. Fortunately for them, that most noble offspring of this century, that culmination of modern civilization and humanity, the United States Sanitary Commission, foreseeing that something of the kind would hap- pen, had made provision for the emergency, and, after these twenty-four miserable hours, was enabled, out of the ample provision poured liberally from the hearts of the nation, to meet that emergency, and to give comfort, clothing, and food to our wounded heroes. What has happened once may hap- pen again. If the government cannot, by its own officials, provide against such an event, perhaps it might do so by allowing this Commission to take up the work. In fact, is it not true that these two great agencies are now comple- ments of one another, and must, from the necessities of the case, continue to be so during the existence of this war ? If these two powerful agencies, viz. the government acting