Jarvis U.S. General Hospital was a

military hospital A military hospital is a hospital owned and operated by a military. They are often reserved for the use of military personnel and their dependents, but in some countries are made available to civilians as well. They may or may not be located on a ...

founded in

Baltimore Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean to ...

, in 1861, at the beginning of the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...

, for the care of wounded

Federal Federal or foederal (archaic) may refer to: Politics General *Federal monarchy, a federation of monarchies *Federation, or ''Federal state'' (federal system), a type of government characterized by both a central (federal) government and states or ...

soldiers. The hospital was built on the grounds of

Maryland Square "Maryland Square", later known as "Steuart Hall", was a mansion owned by the Steuart family from 1795 to 1861, located on the western outskirts of Baltimore, Maryland, at the present-day junction of West Baltimore and Monroe streets. In the first ...

, the former residence of the

Steuart family The Steuart family of Maryland was a prominent political family in the early History of Maryland. Of Scottish descent, the Steuarts have their origins in Perthshire, Scotland. The family grew wealthy in the early 18th century under the patronage o ...

, which had been confiscated by the Federal government at the outbreak of war.Lossing, Benson John, p.605, ''Pictorial History of the Civil War in the United States of America, Volume 3''
Retrieved Feb 6 2010 The hospital closed at the end of the war.

History

Although Maryland was a

slave state In the United States before 1865, a slave state was a state in which slavery and the internal or domestic slave trade were legal, while a free state was one in which they were not. Between 1812 and 1850, it was considered by the slave states ...

, she remained in

the Union The Union may refer to: Politics * The Union (Germany) or CDU/CSU, the partnership of the German political parties the Christian Democratic Union and the Christian Social Union * The Union (Italy), a former coalition of political parties in Ital ...

during the Civil War. However, many Marylanders were sympathetic to the Confederacy, including the Steuart family of Baltimore, who were planters and slave owners along the

Chesapeake Bay The Chesapeake Bay ( ) is the largest estuary in the United States. The Bay is located in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region and is primarily separated from the Atlantic Ocean by the Delmarva Peninsula (including the parts: the ...

. On April 16, 1861 Brigadier General George H. Steuart (1828–1903), then a captain in the US Army, resigned his commission, left Maryland and joined the Confederacy. His father, Major General George H. Steuart (1790–1867), did the same, though he was by then considered too old for active service.archive of the Maryland Historical Society
Retrieved Jan 13 2010 As a consequence of these actions, the family home at Maryland Square, on the Western outskirts of Baltimore, was confiscated by the US government. In February 1862 a

Massachusetts Massachusetts (Massachusett language, Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut assachusett writing systems, məhswatʃəwiːsət'' English: , ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is the most populous U.S. state, state in the New England ...

soldier described the property (by then known as "Camp Andrew", after Massachusetts Governor John Andrew): :"We are nicely quartered on a high hill situated on the west of Baltimore formerly owned by Gen. Stewart icnow of the Rebel Army and the property is now confiscated. There are about 36 acres in the field and a house and out buildings and it must have been a very nice place before the troops went in there." On May 25, 1862 the property was taken into the control of the medical director of the US Army, with the former Steuart mansion serving as the main administration building for the hospital.Rice, p.256 The hospital, which had a capacity of 1,500 beds, was built on relatively high ground, which at the time was on the edge of the city of Baltimore, and, according to one contemporary writer, benefited from "a salubrious air". It was named in memory of surgeon N. S. Jarvis, of the US Army, who died while medical director of the

Middle Department The Middle Department was an administrative military district created by the United States War Department early in the American Civil War to administer the troops in the Middle Atlantic states. The department was created on March 22, 1862 by the Ad ...

. In April 1864, Lt. Col. DeWitt Clinton Peters, Assistant Surgeon in charge at Jarvis Hospital, received a number of prisoners recently released from the Confederate Prisoner of War camp at Belle Isle, Virginia. He described the "great majority" of the patients as being: :"in a semi-state of nudity...laboring under such diseases as chronic diarrhoea, phthisis pulmonalis, scurvy, frost bites, general debility, caused by starvation, neglect and exposure. Many of them had partially lost their reason, forgetting even the date of their capture, and everything connected with their antecedent history. They resemble, in many respect, patients laboring under cretinism. They were filthy in the extreme, covered in vermin...nearly all were extremely emaciated; so much so that they had to be cared for even like infants." According to Surgeon General Joseph K Barnes, Union hospitals treated over a million patients during the course of the war, suffering a mortality rate of 8%.

After the war

Jarvis hospital was closed in 1865, at the war's end. In 1866, on May 15 and June 6, the buildings of Jarvis hospital were auctioned off, permitting successful bidders 10 days from the date of auction in which to remove their purchases from the grounds.Rice, p.256 General Steuart's house was restored to him after the war, but he never lived there again, choosing to live at Mount Steuart, his family estate on the Chesapeake in

Anne Arundel County Anne Arundel County (; ), also notated as AA or A.A. County, is located in the U.S. state of Maryland. As of the 2020 United States census, its population was 588,261, an increase of just under 10% since 2010. Its county seat is Annapolis, whi ...

. When he visited Baltimore, Steuart would stay instead at the Carrollton hotel.Rice, p.290 In 1867, the building was re-named Steuart Hall, and leased to the Reverend Newman Hank as a school for "young gentlemen", one of whom later recalled that, though the "long corridors, many closets and corners in unexpected places" made a fine place to explore and play, few dared enter after dark. The boys feared "the groaning of the dying, and when the stairs creaked, we knew why - they were bearing out the dead".Rice, p.290 In 1872 what was left of the land was sold off in lots as part of a development known as "Chesapeake Heights".Rice, p.290 In 1882 the property was acquired by the

Sisters of Bon Secours The Congregation of the Sisters of Bon Secours is an international Roman Catholic women's religious congregation for nursing (''gardes malades''), whose declared mission is to care for those who are sick and dying. It was founded by Josephine Pot ...

for use as a convent and in 1884 the mansion was demolished., O'Sullivan p.23

Legacy

General Steuart died in 1903, and little trace of his mansion, or Jarvis Hospital, remains today. However, in 1919 the Sisters of Bon Secours themselves opened a hospital, their first in the United States, at 2000 West Baltimore Street, on the site of the former Jarvis Hospital.History of Bon Secours Hospital, Baltimore
Retrieved Feb 7 2010 The Bon Secours Hospital continues to flourish today, and forms an important part of the modern neighbourhood, which still retains the name of Steuart Hill.Rice, p.290

References

Kynett, Harold, Havelock et al., p.143, ''Medical and Surgical Reporter, Volume 10''.
Retrieved Feb 18 2010 * Lossing, Benson John, p. 605, ''Pictorial History of the Civil War in the United States of America, Volume 3'' * Mitchell, Charles, ''Maryland Voices of the Civil War'', Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore (2007). * Rice, Laura, ''Maryland History in Prints 1743-1900'', Maryland Historical Society, Baltimore (2002)
United States Sanitary Commission, p.179, ''Narrative of Privations and Sufferings of United States Officers''
Retrieved Feb 6 2010 * O'Sullivan, Mary Cecilia, CBS, ''The Sisters of Bon Secours in the United States 1881-1981: A Century of Caring'', The Maple Press Company, York PA (1982)

Notes

External links

Lossing, Benson John, p.605, ''Pictorial History of the Civil War in the United States of America, Volume 3''
Retrieved Feb 6 2010
Bon Secours Hospital Baltimore website
Retrieved Feb 6 2010
Photograph of Bon Secours Hospital in the 1920s
Retrieved Feb 6 2010 {{Hospitals in Maryland Defunct hospitals in Maryland Hospitals established in 1861 Buildings and structures in Baltimore 1861 establishments in Maryland 1865 disestablishments in Maryland