LIFE

History Lesson: Civil War wounded treated in Evansville area hospitals

Daniel Smith
Special to the Courier & Press
Marine Hospital, was located on the banks of the Ohio River and Ohio Street where, during the times of greatest demand for medical care, a makeshift medical camp was added to the hospital grounds in the form of makeshift tents.

During the Civil War, four hospitals served the Evansville area and took in hundreds of injured persons. 

The largest hospital of the four, Marine Hospital, was located on the banks of the Ohio River and Ohio Street where, during the times of greatest demand for medical care, a makeshift medical camp was added to the hospital grounds in the form of makeshift tents.

One such time came in April of 1862 after the Battle of Shiloh, a two-day clash near the southern border of Tennessee along the Tennessee River. The battle is known as one of the bloodiest battles of the war to that point.

In an effort to transport patients to the hospital, Hospital Steamers carried casualties from Pittsburg Landing upriver.

In an effort to transport patients to the hospital, Hospital Steamers carried casualties from Pittsburg Landing upriver. Yellow flags were flown to alert other boats and dock workers that the ships carried the wounded. 

The Fanny Bullitt, a side-wheel steamship captained by Gus Lemcke that delivered war goods and hospitals supplies to the Union Army, was also known to return upriver with seriously wounded men. 

Marine Hospital, was located on the banks of the Ohio River and Ohio Street where, during the times of greatest demand for medical care, a makeshift medical camp was added to the hospital grounds in the form of makeshift tents.

The men came with orders to find medical care for them in towns and cities expressly along the Ohio River. As many as 200 wounded soldiers could be transported in the Bullitt’s cargo hold, though there were no doctors or nurses onboard. The ship’s crew would, instead, line their cargo hold with straw to act as makeshift bedding and make the cleanup of the wounded easier.

While all hospitals in the area strived to provide care and save the lives of their patients, employees were faced with the grave reality of having to care for soldiers after death and ultimately looked to Oak Hill Cemetery. 

Marine Hospital, was located on the banks of the Ohio River and Ohio Street where, during the times of greatest demand for medical care, a makeshift medical camp was added to the hospital grounds in the form of makeshift tents.

The cemetery, located 1 1/2 miles from Downtown Evansville and opened in 1830, is the resting place to some 500 Union and 24 Confederate men. In 1903, a chapter of the Daughters of the Confederacy erected a monument in remembrance of the 24 soldiers who died for the South and a larger memorial for the Union dead was added in 1909.

History Lesson is a pictorial history of Evansville compiled by Daniel Smith, local history and digitization librarian at the Evansville Vanderburgh Public Library.

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