A report to the Surgeon General on the transport of sick and wounded by pack animals / by George A. Otis.

  • Otis, George A. (George Alexander), 1830-1881.
Date:
1877
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A report to the Surgeon General on the transport of sick and wounded by pack animals / by George A. Otis. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    18/48 (page 8)
    FIG. 7.—British Crimean mule-litter. was found to possess some good and some objectionable features.1 In addition to these essays in invention, cacolets and litters were submitted to the Quartermaster's Department, that purported to be constructed simply in accord- ance with drawings in General Delafleld's report.2 August 20, 1861, Messrs. Lutz and Bridget, harness-makers, furnished twenty such sets with pack-saddles and harness. These drawings, which are copied, of a reduced size, in Figs. 7 and 8, though prepared by so distinguished an artist as Professor Weir, do not accurately represent the mechanical details of either the French or British Crimean litters and cacolets, and the ambulance equipments, made in imitation of them, did not prove to be of utility. Early in the war, however, probably as early as May, 1861, the Quartermaster's Department had purchased a number of cacolets and mule-litters of the patterns used in the French army, and, in July, 1861, engaged Tiffany & Co., ot New York, to construct others, and employed a French agent to give instruction in the use of these cacolets and litters, and pur- chased animals specially adapted for their trans- port. The Quartermaster General has remarked that these horses and mules were gradually appro- priated as draft animals, and that the litters and cacolets were, for the most part, condemned as unserviceable. The French litters and cacolets were what is known as the old pattern, such as the French used in Algeria and the Crimea. They are figured in my surgical report in Circular 6, S. G. O., 1865, at page 82. Surgeon-General Long- more correctly observes (op. tit,, p. 291), that uthe same drawings may also be seen in Chapter XX of M. Legouest's Traite de Chirurgie d'Armee, Paris, 1863, pp. 968-9. I ventured to copy the drawings because they well represented the iden- 1 The Board consisted of Medical Inspector J. M. Cutler, U. S. A., Surgeon O. A. Judson, U. S. V., and Assistant Surgeon C. A. McCall, TJ. S. A. The report is unaccompanied by a description or drawing of the conveyance, but states that it was simple in construction, with unusual capacity for providing for the comfortable carriage of two wounded men. Some modifications were suggested, such as strengthening the attachments of the litters by substituting chains for straps: of supplying means for rendering their framework rigid so that they might be used temporarily as stretchers; of arranging that they might be detached from the saddle ; of having rings and hooks for attaching necessary articles to the pack-saddle, and particularly a vessel for water. The Board was unwilling to decisively approve of the conveyance until these alterations had been effected, and a trial in actual service had been successfully made. 2DELAFIELD (It.) (Report on the Art of War in Europe, 4to, Washington, 18fi0, p. 73) makes the following observations on mule-litters and caco- lets: The requisites for an ambulance should be such as to adapt it to the battle-field, among the dead, wounded, and dying; in plowed fields, on hill-tops, mountain slopes, in siege batteries and trenches, and a variety of places inaccessible to wheel carriages, of which woods, thick brush, and rocky ground are frequently the localities most obstinately defended, and where most soldiers are left for the care of the surgeons. These difficulties were felt in a great degree by all the armies allied against Russia in the siege of Sebastopol, and the consequence was that the English, French, and Sardinian armies adopted finally, in part or altogether, pack-mules, carrying litters or chairs. The careful and sure-footed mule can wind its way over any road or trail, among the dead, dying, and wounded, on any battle-field, as well as in the trench and siege battery. It required but suitable arrangements to support the wounded from the mule's or horse's back to attain the desired object, and this the allied armies finally accomplished and put in practice. The merit of the plan renders it worthy our consideration, particularly so in our Rocky Mountain and other distant expeditions. Further on he remarks: * * I witnessed the transport of one hundred and ninety-six sick and wounded French soldiers, with their arms, accoutrements, and knap- sacks, on the route from the Tchernaya to Kamiesch Bay, on these litters and chairs. Fifty-two of them were on twenty-six mules in the horizontal litters, and one hundred and forty-four seated in chairs on seventy-two other mules. A driver was provided for every two mules or four wounded men. The appearances, with such an examination as I gave the whole equipment, were so favorable as to recommed it for trial in our service. To make the system better understood, I annex two additional figures (FIGS. 7 and 8) showing the animal, the equipment, and position of the soldier, for which compilation and drawing I am indebted to Professor WEIR. FIG. 8.—British Crimean caeolet. [After Weir ft