![]() Surgeon Ira Russell was placed in charge of the hospital beginning in March of 1863. One such hospital was at Benton Barracks northwest of St. Louis were also preparing for the incoming wounded from Vicksburg. The WSC brought medical supplies via riverboat to the Union lines while also trying to keep the camps as sanitary as possible to reduce the amount of disease. The Vicksburg campaign resulted in over 37,000 casualties, 4,700 of those were Union wounded or killed. Grant took his Army of the Tennessee to capture Vicksburg, Mississippi. One year later in 1863, Major General Ulysses S. ![]() Several surgeons and nurses accompanied the medical supplies in order to ensure they arrived at the hospitals in need. Despite this, the WSC sent some of its stores of medical supplies to nearby Springfield, Missouri and locations in the surrounding area where wounded soldiers convalesced. The battlefield was also roughly 250 miles away from the nearest railhead through poor, snow covered roads full of guerilla fighters. The battlefield was sparsely populated, and the infrastructure was nearly non-existent. One month after the Battle of Fort Donelson, the Battle of Pea Ridge was fought in March. Along the way, the WSC brought a small fleet of ships converted into hospital transports such as the hospital ship City of Louisiana. Upon hearing of the battle’s conclusion, the WSC began making its way to the hospitals surrounding the Fort. The battle was a Union victory, however, Grant’s forces suffered more killed and wounded than his Confederate counterparts. These donors would send a variety of goods from cash to care packages full of clothes and supplies. Instead, the WSC relied on private funding from donors primarily from New England and California. However, while the WSC was performing the same jobs as the USSC, the WSC did not receive any federal funding. Louis from various Western Theater battlefields, the WSC established another five hospitals throughout the city the Good Samaritan, the Fourth Street or Eliot Hospital, the Pacific, the Post, and the Convalescent Hospitals at Benton Barracks. This first hospital, while it was said to be the best managed hospital in the city, had a 14.5 percent mortality rate – notably higher than other general hospitals throughout the war which rarely crested 10 percent. “City General Hospital,” as it would become known, was a 500-person capacity hospital in a convenient location. was appointed as the surgeon in charge of the hospital and had a fully equipped staff at his disposal. On September 10, the commission opened its first hospital in a rented five-story building on the corner of Fifth and Chesnut Streets. Louis and quickly overwhelmed the few hospitals in the city. Just a few days after the headquarters opened, the wounded from the Battle of Wilson’s Creek were sent to St.
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