Mower General Hospital was one of the largest Federal

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 ...

s 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 th ...

. Located across from the

Reading Railroad The Reading Company ( ) was a Philadelphia-headquartered railroad that provided passenger and commercial rail transport in eastern Pennsylvania and neighboring states that operated from 1924 until its 1976 acquisition by Conrail. Commonly calle ...

depot in the Chestnut Hill section of

Philadelphia 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 ...

, it operated from January 1863 through May 1865, and was closed with the cessation of the war.

History

Built in 1862, the Mower General Hospital complex was designed by architect

John McArthur, Jr. John McArthur Jr. (1823–1890) was a prominent United States, American architect based in Philadelphia. Best remembered as the architect of the landmark Philadelphia City Hall, McArthur also designed some of the city's most ambitious buildings o ...

, and named in honor of Thomas Mower, a surgeon who served with the U.S. Army's 6th Infantry during the

Blackhawk 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", crossed ...

and under U.S. Surgeon General Thomas Lawson during the

Second Seminole War The Second Seminole War, also known as the Florida War, was a conflict from 1835 to 1842 in Florida between the United States and groups collectively known as Seminoles, consisting of Native Americans in the United States, Native Americans and ...

. Constructed on between Willow Grove and Springfield Avenues, the Reading Railroad line and Stenton Avenue, the hospital complex was configured as a central compound surrounded by a ring of 47 radiating wards and other buildings, and had a 3,600-bed capacity. Its first commanding officer was Andrew Hopkins, M.D., a surgeon who later contracted and died from

typhoid fever Typhoid fever, also known as typhoid, is a disease caused by '' Salmonella'' serotype Typhi bacteria. Symptoms vary from mild to severe, and usually begin six to 30 days after exposure. Often there is a gradual onset of a high fever over several ...

. Of the roughly 20,000 patients who passed through this facility from the time of its opening on January 3, 1863 until its closure on May 31, 1865, 9,799 survived their respective treatments and were returned to duty and 878 were transferred to the

Veteran Reserve Corps The Veteran Reserve Corps (originally the Invalid Corps) was a military reserve organization created within the Union Army during the American Civil War to allow partially disabled or otherwise infirm soldiers (or former soldiers) to perform lig ...

(also known as the "Invalid Corps). Another 1,363 were discharged on surgeons' certificates of disability and an additional 3,718 were transferred to other facilities for further care while 1,508 were recorded as having deserted. Despite the grievous wounds and serious illnesses treated here, hospital physicians lost just 257 patients total by war's end. The hospital featured many amenities for the patients and staff, including plumbing to provide hot water, special medical wards that could be isolated for patients with infections, centralized storage for supplies, flush toilets, band music, etc. In addition, while many medicines provided for the treatment of soldiers were provided by regular military supply routes, hospital stewards at Mower also operated a small laboratory on the hospital's grounds in which "they prepared tinctures in quantities varying from one-half gallon to ten gallons, and also fluid extracts." These tinctures, as well as "most of the syrups,

cerate Cerate, historically simple cerate, (from Latin ''cera'' "wax") is an unctuous preparation for external application, of a consistency intermediate between that of an ointment and a plaster. It can be spread upon cloth without the use of heat, but d ...

s, ointments, wines and waters of the

Pharmacopoeia A pharmacopoeia, pharmacopeia, or pharmacopoea (from the obsolete typography ''pharmacopœia'', meaning "drug-making"), in its modern technical sense, is a book containing directions for the identification of compound medicines, and published by ...

" were produced in this 14-foot by 16-foot stone building, which was "ventilated only by an open skylight, using just "a large-sized cooking stove, and some of the more ordinary apparatus," but no percolator. Consequently, the efficacy of some of their products was questionable since the stewards did not have the "proper means for the nice regulation of heat" which would normally be used in the evaporation process. The wounded were brought directly from Southern battlefields by railroad—a journey known as "going from the seven circles of hell to heaven."

Photographic history

In 1862, Philadelphia photographer John Moran created, published, and sold a series of albumen print photographs of the hospital. Moran's photos were issued as both mounted photographs and stereographs soon after the facility was completed. Moran's exterior and interior views included photos of the special medical wards that could be isolated for patients with infections and then novel centralized storage facilities for supplies.

Location

The hospital, a major military facility, was built in 1862 on a lot of 27 acres, situated between Stenton, Germantown, Springfield, and Abington avenues in Philadelphia's Chestnut Hill.

Wyndmoor station Wyndmoor station is a SEPTA Regional Rail station at 256 East Willow Grove Avenue at Wyndmoor Street in the Chestnut Hill region of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The station can be traced as far back as 1863, with a relocation in 1877. The present ...

, Market Square Shopping Center, apartment buildings, and townhouses now occupy the site.Mower U.S. Army General Hospital
" in ''Clio''. Huntington, West Virginia: Marshall University, retrieved online February 20, 2019.

References

{{authority control Hospital buildings completed in 1862 Pennsylvania in the American Civil War Hospitals in Philadelphia American Civil War hospitals 1863 establishments in Pennsylvania Closed medical facilities of the United States Army Closed installations of the United States Army

History

Photographic history

Location

See also

References