The Civil War was the beginning of what is now known as Field Hospitals. World War II brought MASH units (Military and Surgical Hospitals) The Vietnam War produced Care Flights that have saved so many civilians since the 1960's. Good things can come out of horrendous things. I don't suppose we can prevent war any more than we can prevent car accidents, but "thanks" to war, Care Flights now save many, many lives!
During the Civil War, if surgeons were lucky, they would work out of homes that were confiscated for the war effort. Some occupations lasted for a few days - some for quite a long while. (See my post http://thetravelerstwo.blogspot.com/2013/05/the-graffiti-house-at-brandy-station.html )
At the Battle of Bentonville they were lucky. This home belonging to one Mr. Harper was used as a Union hospital, and the Park Service has returned the downstairs rooms to what they might have looked like during those "hospital" days.
Surgeries would generally take place downstairs, recuperation upstairs.
But there were no homes anywhere that would hold all of the wounded - whether the battle was large or small.
There were Texans in this battle at Bentonville. One was the only son of a Confederate Lt. General William J. Hardee. Willie was sixteen years old. He never got any older ...
Hardee's father directed that his wounded son be taken to Hillsborough as Willie's mother and sister were staying there with the General's niece. He died there and rests even today in the cemetery at St. Matthew's Episcopal Church. Heartbreakingly, the Union Right Wing Commander at Bentonville, O.O. Howard, had been Willie's tutor before the war. Such are the miseries of a civil war.
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