Sep 27, 2018 - Sale 2486

Sale 2486 - Lot 256

Unsold
Estimate: $ 600 - $ 900
(CIVIL WAR--CONFEDERATE.) Stout, Samuel H. Letter detailing the civilian assistance needed by the Confederate hospital system. 4 manuscript pages, 11 3/4 x 7 1/2 inches, on 2 loose sheets; worn with short separations at folds and several tape repairs at edges, with later manuscript description at head of first page. Np, circa 1862-63
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Additional Details

Samuel Hollingsworth Stout (1822-1903) was a Nashville native who served as a surgeon in the Confederate Army of Tennessee early in the war and later commanded 60 Confederate hospitals. This letter was written later in the war, after Stout's February 1864 creation of the Reserve Surgical Corps to provide timely relief at battlefields. In this letter, written to the relief headquarters in Atlanta, he outlines the ways the Tennessee Soldier's Relief Society could be of most use to the hospitals at the front. He begins by stressing that they should not send any medical personnel without the ability to "endure hardship, and strength to undergo fatiguing labors. No idlers, curiosity seekers and trophy hunters should be permitted to go to the front." He suggests that the relief society should be in direct communication with Dudley D. Saunders, head of the Reserve surgeons. He adds that "supplies to be carried to the battlefield should mainly consist of cooked food and provisions uncooked which can be prepared on the field, stimulants, coffee, bandages, and old linen & cotton rags for dressing, shirts, drawers &c." He suggests that the Atlanta headquarters be prepared to forward additional supplies promptly to the battlefield when needed. He assures the committee that the army's regular medical corps "is now so organized that it is believed they can supply promptly surgical assistance to all needing it, provided that the physical labor necessary to secure good nursing is furnished and a constant supply of food is kept up." He also suggests "that you open a depot for the supply of destitute and disabled soldiers in this city," offering the Georgia Relief Association as a model. He concludes with the suggestion that free uniforms might be supplied at a discount to lower-level regimental officers, who were often very poorly paid. with--a group of 7 letters relating to the provenance dated 1958 and 1959.