13 Hidden, Haunted, Hotspots of Gettysburg
After the wounded were treated at “aid stations” just behind the battle lines, they were moved to field hospitals. The field hospitals were located farther back behind the main battle lines. This was where most of the amputations and surgeries took place. For the wounded, it was truly a descent into Hell on earth.
As I mentioned before, antiseptics, bacteriology, and sterile
surgical environments were in the future. At the field hospital, often the
front room to a private home (preferably with windows and southern exposure for
light) was the surgical room. A large table, (perhaps the owners’ dinner table)
or even a door taken off and laid across two barrels, would become the
operating table. A good surgeon could remove an arm or a leg in under ten
minutes.
I read recently that anesthesia was commonplace with plenty
of chloroform to go around. Since we have the following contradicting accounts,
I’d have to see some additional documentation.
From the National Medical Museum of the Civil War’s Director of Research Terry Reimer, comes an online article in which he states that, “Anesthesia was used in 95% of Civil War surgeries.” Both ether and chloroform were available, but the latter was the choice of surgeons, probably because it took only 9 minutes on the average to take effect, whereas ether took 17 minutes. When you have hundreds of suffering men lying outside your operating room, you want to get to them as quickly as possible.
From the University of Alabama Birmingham School of Medicine comes an article by Bob Shepard titled, “Anesthesia Came of Age during the Civil War.” In it he quotes a paper by Maurice S. Albin, MD, Professor at the UAB Department of Anesthesiology, who estimated that anesthesia was used approximately 125,000 times during surgeries on the wounded in both the north and south. The only problem is that he estimated that there were approximately 476,000 wounded during the war. That leaves 351,000 unlucky wounded who were operated on without anesthesia.
Civil War numbers and losses are always tricky. Then you
throw in a little logic and the Washington (and Richmond) bureaucrats.
First of all, most battles came on rather suddenly—even the
commanding generals were often surprised that an enemy attacked when they did. The
Battle of Gettysburg, for example, was an accident with the two armies
colliding and neither commander wanting to fight when and where they did. Planning
ahead by the surgical department as to when they would need an abundance of
chloroform was impossible, so they carried what they could with them.
Secondly, as the war went on, each battle became larger with
greater casualties. A Union or Confederate surgical department, just before the
Battle of Shiloh in the spring 1862, had no idea how much chloroform to carry
with them. When it turned out that in the two-day Battle of Shiloh the armies
produced more casualties than in the entire two years of war with Mexico, there
could be no planning for that.
As well, after seeing how much chloroform the surgeons felt
they would need in anticipation of the next battle, the bureaucrats in
Washington would have laughed themselves silly and sent them amounts based on the
last battle, just to save money.
Nevertheless, shortly after the fighting began, the field hospitals were set up behind the lines, preferably near a source of water and a road over which to send the recovering wounded home. The road between the Baltimore Pike and Taneytown Road was right for the Union Army, and it was along this road that a number of hospitals were set up.
Directions to Hospital Road Field Hospital site: Head out the Baltimore Pike past the entrance to the Gettysburg Military Park Museum. Turn right onto Granite Schoolhouse Lane and follow the signs to the Baladerry Inn, which is on Hospital Road.
[image error]Hospital Road
Years ago, as a young park ranger, I found through research what I thought was the farm where Brigadier General Lewis Armistead was taken after being wounded in Pickett’s Charge and where he died. (I wrote about my encounter with the family that owned it then in the first Ghosts of Gettysburg book.) I thought I had found the farm on Hospital Road owned by the Spangler family during the battle. I was met by the family as they relaxed after a hard day’s work on the porch and asked if this was the house where General Armistead died. The looks on their faces told me they weren’t interested in my research. Their glowering silence had me wondering how to leave gracefully.
Finally, the matriarch of the family spoke up. She said that
if anyone had died in the house, she didn’t want to know about it. This was my
cue to say thanks and leave. But she continued.
She said that she’d heard from the previous owner that on
certain summer nights they would hear a strange clanking coming from the yard.
Looking out the window they would see a man in a long white coat carrying a
bucket out to the area where the long-defunct well once was. He would then make
his way wearily back and appear to enter the first floor of the house.
Descending the stairs, the family would find no trace of the man who was
apparently on a decades-long assignment to bring water for the surgeons and
thirsty wounded.
The farm has since been purchased by the Gettysburg
Foundation and is apparently open to the public on select days.
A little farther on Hospital Road is the Baladerry Inn. I knew several owners of the house before it became the Baladerry. Though not marked as such, it would be surprising if the original brick part of the structure, and the now vanished barn, would not have been used by the surgeons.
[image error]Baladerry Inn
Ghosts of Gettysburg has worked with the Baladerry Inn presenting our “Haunted Crime Scenes Weekends” based on the book series that I co-authored with forensic psychologist Dr. Katherine Ramsland. A paranormal investigation done there years ago was rich in results, including the levitation of an investigator, an “impossible” photo (printed in Ghosts of Gettysburg VIII) and some frightening EVP I still haven’t been able to explain.
Other than the Baladerry Inn, I have not investigated
Hospital Road, BUT, there’s a particular house on Hospital Road that, for a
while, every time I passed it, had a “For Sale” sign in front of it.
There are other “Field Hospital” plaques along Hospital Road,
but these are all on private property. Please do not trespass on privately
owned land.
If you’re going to do an investigation in the area, stay at the Baladerry Inn. The accommodations are wonderful, the food is great, the location superb and… it is very paranormally active.
