Satterlee General Hospital was the largest

Union Army During the American Civil War, the Union Army, also known as the Federal Army and the Northern Army, referring to the United States Army, was the land force that fought to preserve the Union of the collective states. It proved essential to th ...

hospital during 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 ...

. Operating from 1862 to 1865 in

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

, its physicians and nurses rendered care to thousands of Union soldiers and

Confederate Confederacy or confederate may refer to: States or communities * Confederate state or confederation, a union of sovereign groups or communities * Confederate States of America, a confederation of secessionist American states that existed between 1 ...

prisoners. After its patient population spiked following the battles of Bull Run and Gettysburg, this hospital became the second-largest in the country with 34 wards and hundreds of tents containing 4,500 beds. Initially referred to as the West Philadelphia General Hospital, it was later renamed in honor of Richard Sherwood Satterlee,Daughters of Charity Nursed Wounded Civil War Soldiers at West Philadelphia hospital
" Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Catholic Historical Research Center, Archdiocese of Pennsylvania, March 24, 2011. a physician from Seneca County, New York, who was stationed with the

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the land warfare, land military branch, service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight Uniformed services of the United States, U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army o ...

Fort Winnebago Fort Winnebago was a 19th-century fortification of the United States Army located on a hill overlooking the eastern end of the portage between the Fox and Wisconsin Rivers east of present-day Portage, Wisconsin. It was the middle one of three f ...

in Portage, Wisconsin, during the

Black Hawk War The Black Hawk War was a conflict between the United States and Native Americans led by Black Hawk, a Sauk leader. The war erupted after Black Hawk and a group of Sauks, Meskwakis (Fox), and Kickapoos, known as the " British Band", cros ...

, and then rose to prominence and was

brevetted In many of the world's military establishments, a brevet ( or ) was a warrant giving a commissioned officer a higher rank title as a reward for gallantry or meritorious conduct but may not confer the authority, precedence, or pay of real rank. ...

as a lieutenant colonel, colonel, and brigadier general during America's Civil War "for diligent care and attention in procuring proper army supplies, as Medical Purveyor, and for economy and fidelity in the disbursement of large sums of money."

History

Founded in 1862 by order of Surgeon-General

William Alexander Hammond William Alexander Hammond (28 August 1828 – 5 January 1900) was an American military physician and neurologist. During the American Civil War he was the eleventh Surgeon General of the United States Army (1862–1864) and the founder of the Ar ...

, the hospital was built in the sparsely developed neighborhood of

West Philadelphia West Philadelphia, nicknamed West Philly, is a section of the city of Philadelphia. Alhough there are no officially defined boundaries, it is generally considered to reach from the western shore of the Schuylkill River, to City Avenue to the nort ...

near the intersection of 42nd Street and Baltimore Avenue on grounds which ran north to 45th and Pine Streets. The initial 2,500-bed facility was built in just 40 days. Nursing duties at Satterlee were performed by members of the Daughters of Charity, who began their work before the facility was finished or fully equipped. The hospital's "chapel was so small," according to historians at the Catholic Historical Research Center in Philadelphia, "that some sisters had to exit the room so others could enter and receive Holy Communion." Eating separately from, and earlier than, the military officers who also worked at the hospital, they were given just four of the officers' utensils to share. Ultimately, more than 100 Daughters of Charity worked at the hospital, living in a convent on the grounds, with Sister Mary Gonzaga Grace as their superioress. The facility's commanding officer was Dr.

Isaac Israel Hayes Isaac Israel Hayes (March 5, 1832 – December 17, 1881) was an American Arctic explorer, physician, and politician, who was appointed as the commanding officer at Satterlee General Hospital during the American Civil War, and was then elected, a ...

, a native of

Chester County, Pennsylvania Chester County (Pennsylvania Dutch: ''Tscheschter Kaundi''), colloquially known as Chesco, is a county in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. It is located in the Delaware Valley region of the state. As of the 2020 census, the population was 53 ...

, and graduate of the

Westtown School Westtown School is a Quaker, coeducational, college preparatory day and boarding school for students in pre-kindergarten through twelfth grade, located in West Chester, Pennsylvania, United States, 20 miles west of Philadelphia. Founded in 1799 b ...

and the

University of Pennsylvania Medical School The Perelman School of Medicine, commonly known as Penn Med, is the medical school of the University of Pennsylvania, a private research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1765, the Perelman School of Medicine is the oldest medi ...

who had achieved a measure of fame as an Arctic explorer with the Second Grinnell Expedition of 1853-55 and with his own 1860-61 expedition in search of the

Open Polar Sea The Open Polar Sea was a hypothesized ice-free ocean surrounding the North Pole. This unproved and eventually-disproved theory was once so widely believed that many exploring expeditions used it as justification for attempts to reach the North P ...

before joining the

as a surgeon. The hospital's chaplain was the pastor at St. Patrick's church located at 20th and Locust Streets, Father Peter McGrane, who heard confessions and offered mass daily, and also offered assistance with baptisms and burials. "Archbishop James Wood also visited Satterlee several times to confirm many adult converts," the Catholic Historical Research Center historians wrote. In 1862, the hospital added military tents with beds to handle the influx of hundreds of soldiers wounded in the Second Battle of Bull Run. The hospital had become a "self-contained city" by 1863. After the

Battle of Gettysburg The Battle of Gettysburg () was fought July 1–3, 1863, in and around the town of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, by Union and Confederate forces during the American Civil War. In the battle, Union Major General George Meade's Army of the Po ...

in July of that year, "the greatest number of wounded were admitted to the hospital in a single month...swelling the hospital population to more than 6,000." That August, hospital clerks recorded "the greatest number of deaths in any one month" — an average of more than one a day. Supply needs rose as well: in "just one year, patients consumed more than 800,000 pounds of bread, 16,000 pounds of butter and 334,000 quarts of milk." By 1864, the hospital was surrounded by a 14-foot tall fence and included a barber shop, carpenter shop, clothing store, dispensary, three kitchens, laundry, library, post office, reading room, and a printing office that printed Satterlee's newspaper, ''The Hospital Register.'' Gettysburgstone

Over the course of the hospital's operation, Satterlee's physicians and nurses treated some 50,000 sick and wounded people, losing only 260, a notable accomplishment considering the sanitary conditions and medical techniques of the day. Sister Ann Alexis Shorb was the head nurse. Following the Confederate army's Surrender at Appomattox on April 9, 1865, the number of patients sent to Satterlee gradually began to decline, and the hospital was closed on August 3, 1865.Satterlee Hospital
" Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Friends of Clark Park, retrieved online February 25, 2019. The buildings were eventually razed and, during the 1890s, much of the site was then redeveloped with residential housing. The lower portion of the hospital grounds survive as

Clark Park Clark Park is a municipal park in the Spruce Hill section of West Philadelphia in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Its are bordered by 43rd and 45th streets, and by Baltimore and Woodland Avenues. The park was established in 1895 on land donated to ...

References

External links

Satterlee Hospital - Friends of Clark Park

* ttps://web.archive.org/web/20010905072634/http://www.phmc.state.pa.us/bah/doh/hmp.asp?secid=18 PA Historical Marker Program
University City Historic Society

University City Architectural Tour
{{authority control Hospital buildings completed in 1862 1862 establishments in Pennsylvania Pennsylvania in the American Civil War History of Philadelphia Hospitals in Philadelphia Defunct hospitals in Pennsylvania American Civil War hospitals Closed medical facilities of the United States Army Closed installations of the United States Army 1865 disestablishments in Pennsylvania Hospitals established in 1862 Hospitals disestablished in 1865

History

See also

References

Further reading

External links