HistoricSiteMarkers
Civil War

Army of the Potomac Medical Department

Straban Township, Adams County, Pennsylvania

Marker Inscription

Location of the Field Hospitals During the Battle of Gettysburg

The Story

In the first days of July 1863, the fields and farmhouses south and east of Gettysburg were transformed into a vast open-air hospital as the Army of the Potomac's Medical Department fought to save thousands of wounded men. Under the reforms of medical director Jonathan Letterman, the army had built a system of forward field hospitals, ambulance corps, and triage that was tested here at an unprecedented scale. This ground in Straban Township marks where surgeons worked around the clock amid the aftermath of the war's bloodiest battle.

Why it matters

Gettysburg's field hospitals proved the value of organized battlefield medicine, and the Letterman system pioneered here became the template for military and emergency medical care that endures to this day.

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Related people

  • · Jonathan Letterman

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  • · Battle of Gettysburg

Themes & tags

Civil WarMonument

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