Hammond General Hospital

Hammond General Hospital. "The great cause of mortality in armies". , You are standing on the site of Hammond General Hospital, opened at Point Lookout, Maryland, in August 1862. It is named for Surgeon General William A. Hammond, who transformed the antiquated Army Medical Bureau into a professional organization. He improved the treatment of sick and wounded soldiers, slowed the spread of contagious diseases, and changed hospitals from "the great cause of mortality in armies" to places of healing and recovery. Under Hammond's new system, sick and wounded soldiers were better cared for and the mortality rate was lower than for any previous army., Based on Hammond's design, the hospital could accommodate 1,400 men and was constructed on pilings. It included 16 wings radiating out from an open central area like the spokes of a giant wheel. This layout improved ventilation, which Hammond considered beneficial to the patients. One wing contained the hospital offices, and the others were wards. A covered circular walkway connected the wings at the center. Four buildings stood in the hub: the chapel, half-diet kitchen, library and reading, and baggage room. The "pest house," dead house, and isolation wards were placed away from the hospital. To flood the hospital in the event of fire, an elevated 20,000-gallon water tank occupied the center of the hub., After the Battle of Gettysburg in 1863, a prisoner-of-war camp was built on the same peninsula. The hospital began taking in Confederate soldiers as well as Union soldiers and became overcrowded. The hospital officially closed its doors in August 1865, and all the structures were soon sold, demolished, or auctioned., [Caption:] , Before the Civil War, Point Lookout was a popular resort with one hundred cottages that the hospital replaced, and a hotel, wharf, and lighthouse that survived. The nation's largest Confederate prisoner-of-war camp, Camp Hoffman, held more than 52,000 Confederate prisoners over its lifespan, in addition to 300 civilian blockade runners and Southern sympathizers. Thousands of enslaved people fleeing bondage, before Maryland officially abolished slavery in November 1864, found food and shelter at a contraband camp outside the prison compound. Many of these men enlisted in the U.S. Colored Troops, and some where assigned to guard duty here at Camp Hoffman.