The U.S. Ambulance Corps was a unit of the Union Army during the American Civil War. The Ambulance Corps was initially formed as a unit only within the Army of the Potomac, due to the effort of several Army officials, notably Dr. Jonathan Letterman, medical director of the Army of the Potomac, and William Hammond, the U.S. Surgeon-General. Until August 1862, the lack of trained ambulance drivers meant that the wounded had to wait a long time to receive medical care. This changed during the Battle of Antietam in September 1862 when his new system allowed the wounded men to be transferred quickly and prevent fewer deaths.
History
Early in the Civil War, no organized system of battlefield evacuation existed. Each regiment was responsible for transporting the wounded back to a local field hospital, creating a muddled system where wounded men could suffer on the battlefield for over a week. There was also no overall plan or doctrine for the evacuation of casualties to a general hospital. Ambulance drivers were generally either soldiers taken from other duties or civilian wagon drivers pulled from the streets of Washington DC. Tasking soldiers to this role reduced the fighting strength of their unit, and often they would not return to their unit until after the fighting had subsided. Civilian drivers in particular were reportedly insubordinate, drunk or appropriated space inside the ambulances for non-medical use.
With respect to the inidividual vehicles, the Army initially needed to round up commercial wagons to serve as ambulances. Consequently, many ambulances fled without retrieving any casualties during the First Battle of Bull Run, leaving many wounded soldiers to fend for themselves. It subsequently took several days for the Union Army to organize a wagon train with staff to identify and remove the casualties.
Various proposals for the creation of a formal ambulance corps were made in the first years of the Civil War. Charles Stuart Tripler, medical director of the Army of the Potomac, requested that an ambulance corps be created in the fall of 1861 but his recommendation was not acted on, leaving the situation unchanged through the early part of 1862. In Missouri, surgeon John H. Brinton reported that the lack of adequate evacuation capability had caused the abandonment of the wounded, with many subsequently captured. He was able to organize regimental ambulance trains each under the command of a non-commissioned officer. The United States Sanitary Commission lobbied heavily for the creation of an ambulance regiment and backed the appointment of William A. Hammond as Surgeon General. Hammond was in favor of an ambulance corps, but this was opposed by General-in-chief Henry Halleck, who worried it would lead to a larger train that would slow down the army.
When Letterman became medical director of the Army of the Potomac, he worked to create an integrated medical capability based on a coordinated system of casualty evacuation to divisional field hospitals and the organization of medical logistics, including medicine supply tables. On August 2, 1862, under the instruction of Jonathan Letterman, General George B. McClellan issued General Orders 147 and created the United States Army’s first full-time, dedicated Ambulance Corps. These orders determined the structure, training and role of the service; and were a blueprint for the creation of subsequent Ambulance Corps later in the war.
His plan placed all ambulances for each army corps under the control of its medical director. Captains commanded the corps-level ambulance organization, first lieutenants commanded at the division level, second lieutenants led at the brigade level, and sergeants at the regimental level. Letterman's use of non-physician officers to command ambulance units represented a significant shift in Army Medical Department policy, as it allowed physicians to focus on patient care.
Each infantry regiment was assigned a pair of two-horse ambulances, a four-horse ambulance, and a medical supply wagon. Cavalry regiments were assigned two ambulances while each artillery battery was assigned one. Each ambulance could carry two stretchers and was assigned three privates, one a driver and the other two stretcher bearers trained specifically in their duty. Each supply wagon was assigned a private as a driver. Two additional supply wagons were assigned to each division, and each army corps was assigned an additional two ambulances. Only patients and medical personnel were allowed to utilize these wagons, preventing them from being commandeered for other purposes.