Civil War patient register and scrapbook

Collection

Identifier: MSS 6/012

Scope and Contents

The Collection contains a single volume, 1862-1919, originally used as a patient register for wounded U.S. Civil War soldiers recovering at Philadelphia (Pa.) area military and civilian hospitals. It was later used as a scrapbook for newspaper clippings. The patient register is in the handwriting of wartime nurse Hiram J. Noyes. The wounded are listed by hospital, but there are multiple lists for each hospital in no identifiable order. There is no index. Among the hospitals included are St. Joseph’s Hospital, Satterlee U.S. Army General Hospital, U.S. Army General Hospital in Germantown, Citizens Volunteer General Hospital, Summit House U.S. Army General (later Convalescent) Hospital at 16th and Filbert Streets, Mower U.S. Army General Hospital. Each soldier’s name and regiment are noted in the register. Occasionally deaths are recorded. Entries of note include lists of wounded from the battle of Gettysburg. These wounded were discovered on the battlefield a number of days after the battle’s end. There is also a list of wounded at U.S. General Hospital in Germantown who signed a temperance pledge. In addition to the lists of wounded, the register contains lists of donors, both individual and corporate, who contributed to the hospitals and often what they donated. The volume also contains the names and addresses of military personnel and civilians involved in the care and relief of wounded soldiers.

The scrapbook contains newspaper clippings unrelated to medicine or the U.S. Civil War. The compiler of the scrapbook is unknown. The scrapbook obscures some of the patient register’s information regarding donors but none regarding the wounded soldiers.