What happens after a battle, especially one that lasts around three days? Soldiers who survived tell others of their survival, tales of what they saw and heard, and looking for comrades that could be anywhere in town due to the mass confusion of battle. Terrible things occur though, and some of their friends or family members may be wounded or even killed.
With everything in motion around Gettysburg after the battle on July 3rd, the first thing was to rejoice about winning the battle. The next thing would be taking care and finding the wounded around the battlefield. Luckily, the citizens of town were welcoming and trying to help soldiers, both Union and Confederate, that were wounded and taking care of their needs. Prior to the Union army leaving town, over 14,000 Union soldiers along with 6000-8000 Confederate troops needed attention.
Whether if it was to give them water, food, fresh bandages for their wounds, or a place to rest were most homes, churches, and farms around the region. Along with the citizens, you had the doctors and surgeons of the Union army giving orders to their officers about establishing a general hospital in the area close to routes of transportation. One of these officers was Dr. Johnathon Letterman, who was the medical director of the Federal Army.
Dr. Jonathon Letterman established a general hospital here at the historic Wolf’s Farm east of downtown. He wanted the hospital here because of the closeness to York Road, the Gettysburg Railroad, and it was one of the higher locations around the area. This area had a good spring that provided lots of water. As the hospital was started, hundreds of tents, drainage ditches, cooking supplies, and facilities for surgeons, nurses, and surgery were installed and brought in to help wounded or mortally wounded soldiers.
This plaque below shows the location of field hospitals during the battle of Gettysburg for each Corps. Each one was moved that was North and West of the town as Confederate soldiers occupied that region. Some field hospitals are near regimental monuments that provided care and took care of injuries near Rose Woods and the Wheatfield.
On July 5th, two days after the battle of Gettysburg, Union soldiers with the Federal army moved away from town in chase of the Confederate army. However, the Union army left 100 surgeons, 6 ambulances, 4 wagons per Corps, and their goal was to move approximately 800 soldiers a day out of Gettysburg. This hospital was closed the day after Lincoln arrived into Gettysburg and gave the Gettysburg Address on November 20, 1863.
