![]() ![]() During the fall of 1862, General Joseph Hooker was wounded at the Battle of Antietam and admitted to the hospital. President Lincoln frequently visited the hospital to see the sick and wounded soldiers, and a room was reserved for his overnight stays. Tents were placed on the ground for the convalescent patients. Overcrowding was inevitable during the war. During this period, a portion of the hospital’s farm was converted into a cavalry depot and an encampment for a marine company. ![]() Soldiers stayed at the hospital until their wounds healed and they learned to use their artificial limbs. CIVIL WAR HOSPITAL FIELS FREEElizabeths Hospital to fit the prostheses free of charge. Amputees from neighboring hospitals were transferred to St. Jewett) was set up to fit amputees with artificial limbs. In 1862, an artificial limb manufacturing shop (patented by B.W. The West Lodge for African American men was converted into a 60-bed general and quarantine hospital for the sailors of the Potomac and Chesapeake fleets. On October 10, 1861, in the early days of the Civil War, the United States Congress authorized temporary use of the unfinished east wing as a 250-bed general hospital for the sick and wounded soldiers of the Union Army. Center Building at St Elizabeths c 1852 – 1877 Courtesy of St. These wings became three distinct hospitals, each headed by a different physician. It was built in three phases– west wing, east wing and the center building last. He was responsible for the building and administration of the hospital. Nichols, M.D., was appointed as the first Superintendent of the hospital. In 1852, on the recommendation of Dorothea Dix, Charles H. Thomas Walter, Architect of the Capitol Building (1851-1865), drafted the architectural plans for Center Building. Elizabeths was built as a 250-bed hospital. Located on a hill in southeast Washington, D.C., overlooking the Anacostia and Potomac rivers, it offers a panoramic view of the city. Dorothea Dix, its founder and the leading mental health reformer of the 19 th century, wrote the law that articulated the hospital’s mission “to provide the most humane care and enlightened curative treatment of the insane of the Army, Navy and the District of Columbia.” It was established through the Civil and Diplomatic Appropriation Act of 1852, and admitted its first patients in 1855. Elizabeths Hospital in Washington, D.C., originally was known as the Government Hospital for the Insane. Elizabeths Hospital in the Civil War Posted on: November 25th, 2020 Museum members support scholarship like this. ![]()
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