THE REPUBLICAN

April 26, 1895

 

THE HOSPITAL CORPS

 

DISTINCT ORGANIZATION FROM LINE OF THE ARMY.

 

During Peace or War Men are Constantly Drilled, in Order to Render Aid to Wounded Soldiers –

Interesting Account of This Military Branch.

 

Work of the Corps.

            No branch of the military service of the United States has a more important part to fill than the Hospital Corps, whether this part is filled in garrison during the time of peach or during active service upon the battlefield, in bivouac or on the march.

            The Hospital Corps is a distinct organization from the line of the army, consisting of men whose duties are limited entirely to sanitary work.  Its members are selected because of their conspicuous adaptability to the peculiar duties of the corps, from men serving in the line or by enlistment direct into the corps.  Those who are transferred from the line to the corps are instructed in their duties at the post they are ordered to join; those who enlist for the first time are sent to one of the two schools of instruction for the corps, located at Washington Barracks and Fort Riley, Kan., where they are fully instructed, and then sent to duty at some military station.   They must be brave and active, strong and gentle, and possessed of presence of mind and inventive faculty sufficient to meet the varying emergencies of succor to the injured.

            The non-commissioned officers are known as hospital stewards, and they wear a sergeant’s cheveron of emerald green, piped with white, and bearing an arc of one similar bar across the top, the whole enclosing a red cross.  The uniform is similar to that worn by the enlisted men of the line, except that the trousers are of dark blue cloth, bearing an emerald green stripe, piped with white, down the outer seam of each leg.  The privates wear a white brassard, bearing a red cross, on the left arm, above the elbow; the cap ornament is a white metal Geneva cross.  This Geneva cross is the sign of neutrality which, under the articles of the Geneva convention, gives some immunity to the work of the hospital corps in the field.

            The privates become non-commissioned officers by passing a satisfactory examination in pharmacy and the other duties of the corps.  The stewards are the druggists or apothecaries of the army, and they must be skilled drug clerks, for all medicines are compounded by them.  They receive in addition to their house, clothing and rations, the monthly pay of $50.  The privates receive $18 a month in addition to their clothing, lodging and food.

In Time of Peace.

            In time of peace the duties of the hospital corps consist in caring for the men in garrison who are ill in hospital, and each post has one or more stewards and two or more privates, according to the size of the command.

            In time of active hostilities the duties of the hospital corps are important and arduous, and at such times the corps is present with the troops in the proportion of 2 per cent of the aggregate strength of the command – a proportion which experience has shown to best supply the needs of the wounded.  During such times the men of the hospital corps are assisted in the care and removal of the wounded by four men from each company, termed “company bearers,” who have been instructed in the first aid to the wounded and in the transport of the disabled.  These men, under supervision of a medical officer, render first aid on the line of battle, and assist the wounded to the rear to the first dressing station, located just beyond rifle range, where the temporary dressings are replaced or readjusted.  Those cases which demand immediate operative action are designated by a colored badge, which is attached to the clothing, and as soon as these cases reach the dressing station they are attended to first.

            The wounded, having received attention at the dressing station, are then put into ambulances and removed to the rear to the field hospitals or permanent ones.  As a limited amount of material, with which to make the wounded on the line of battle comfortable until they are removed, can be carried by each hospital corps member, many makeshifts are resorted to, and he who can best make use of such, or devise them, is the best man.  If a man’s leg is broken by a bullet the proper splints are not at hand, so a rifle is used.  This is firmly bound alongside the leg, and the patient is thus carried to the dressing station with less agony.  A small stone or bullet pressed down upon a wounded artery by means of a pad of cloth, which is held in place by a bandage firmly twisted by means of a bayonet or a tent peg, is a temporary means of preventing a man from bleeding to death until he reaches the dressing station, where his case, marked with a colored badge, will receive attention at once.  Numerous other cases might be cited.  It is in the care of just such cases that the worth of a member of the hospital corps is shown.  Another important duty at the front is the careful examination of the field after an engagement to see if any wounded men remain uncared for, or to ascertain if any men supposed to be dead show signs of life.  At night these searchers are assisted by a large electric search light.

            In carrying disabled men from the front to the dressing station many makeshift litters are used, such as camp cots, window shutters, doors, ladders, etc., properly padded.  A blanket makes an excellent litter by spreading it upon the ground and rolling a rifle in each side until there remains a space of twenty inches.  An overcoat buttoned up, with the rifle run through the sleeves, makes a good litter and two rifles with the leather slings crossed are often used to carry a wounded man upon.

Constant Drills Necessary.

            Constant drills are necessary.  Visitors to Fort Thomas last summer were often alarmed to see half a dozen men lying upon the drill ground and two or three men working over each.  These visitors were relieved when told that this was the drill of the hospital corps in caring for men wounded upon the field of battle.  Large crowds would frequently gather and observe with much interest the excellent drill the men gave under the charge of the post surgeons.  At one place would be seen two men binding a rifle to a leg supposed to have been broken; another place, two men attempting to resuscitate by means of artificial respiration a man supposed to have been drowned, while others were drilling in the different ways of carrying a wounded man, either singly over the back or upon the two-handed seat made by two men; lifting a patient to place him upon a litter; carrying a loaded litter up or down stairs, and, finally, loading an ambulance or in the use of the travois, which consists of a frame having shafts, two side poles and two crossbars, upon which a litter may be rested and partly suspended.

            When in use a horse or mule is attached to the shafts and pulls the vehicle, the poles of which drag on the ground.  One pole is slightly shorter than the other, in order that in passing obstacles the shock may be received successively by each, and the motion be equally distributed.  The hospital or “red cross” ambulance, as it is termed in the army, on account of its having a red cross (the Geneva cross) painted on each side, is admirably adapted for the transport of disabled men.  It is a four-wheeled vehicle, and is drawn by two horses.  It provides transportation for eight men sitting or two recumbent on litters, or four sitting and one recumbent.  It is fitted with removable seats, which, when not used as such, are hung two against each side, thus answering the purpose of cushions.  Beneath the driver’s seat is a box for the medical and surgical chests, and under the body are two water tanks.  To the average person who may witness a drill of the hospital corps the work performed by the men may seem easy, but such is not the case.  It is no doubt the perfect way in which the duties are performed that gives this false impression, for practice has made them perfect.  In the small matter of picking up a wounded man and placing him upon a litter much practice is necessary in order that the wounded man may be given as little pain as possible.  To the injured man the slightest movement may cause excruciating pain.

            The chief aim, then, in carrying him, whether by litter, over the back, upon a seat of two hands or by ambulance, is to do so with gentleness and care, and to accomplish these results constant instructions and frequent drills are necessary.                                                                           – Cincinnati Enquirer.