Massive Tent City

Massive Tent City. Sheridan Field Hospital. , In 1864, you would have been surrounded by 500 tents, the war's largest temporary hospital where more than 4,500 soldiers were treated. Union Gen. Philip Sheridan ordered the hospital that bore his name established after the Third Battle of Winchester, September 19, 1864., Primarily Union troops were treated at Sheridan Field Hospital. Patients from battles farther south in the Shenandoah Valley were sent here, processed, and then moved to northern medical facilities, often in a few hours. Shawnee Springs provided water, and staff housing and administrative buildings occupied the high ground to your left., The largest surge of patients came after the Battle of Cedar Creek, October 19, 1864, when 3,400 men were treated and evacuated between October 23 and 31. The last patient was transferred out on December 28, 1864., [Sidebar:] , 'Full of Misery' , Jane Boswell Moore, U.S. Christian Commission, left a powerful description of Sheridan Field Hospital:, "We load the ambulance with soft crackers, pickles, wine, condensed milk, tobacco (needed in the terribly offensive state of wounds) tomatoes, jelly, butter and eggs (when they can be obtained). Bay rum, soap, canned fruits, stationery, clothing, &c., and drive over a rough road, up the hill, to Sheridan's field hospital whose snowy tents loom up against the exquisite hue of the peaks of the distant Blue Ridge, tents, alas! so full of misery. Here… the gangrene tents claim our special attention… Isaac Price, of the 15th loyal [West] Va., looks dispirited, as he sits with both arms gone. Perhaps he is thinking of the wife, mother, and nine children at home, on whom as well as himself this heavy trial has fallen.... Well, reader, no doubt you are weary of so much suffering, and so also are we.", Quotation courtesy Director Jonathan Noyalas, McCormick Civil War Institute of Shenandoah University (su.edu/mcwi), [Captions:] , Winchester, then and now. The dark outlines show Civil War-era buildings, a number of which housed Confederate casualties. The darker streets existed during the war. The shaded area indicates the location of the immense Sheridan Field Hospital. More information about historic Winchester can be obtained at the Winchester-Frederick County Visitors Center. Map Assistance: Wilbur S. Johnston and Marcus Lemasters, "Thanksgiving 1864 flag raising at Sheridan Field Hospital" was made by sketch artist James E. Taylor. , Courtesy Western Reserve Historical Society