The plan was then that the soldiers were to be cared for by the regimental surgeon as long as it was possible and then they were to be sent to the departmental hospital for further care.[89] These two systems seemed to interfere with each others work and there was always jealousy existing between the director of the general hospital and the surgeons of the regiment. "There will be nothing but continued complaints of each other; the director of the hospital charging them with enormity in their drafts for the sick and they him with the same for denying such things as are necessary. In short there is a constant bickering among them which tends greatly to the injury of the sick * * * The regimental surgeons are aiming, I am persuaded, to break up the general hospital."
The two most representative departmental hospitals were, it might be said at Bethlehem and Sunbury, but there were others at Reading, Lititz and Ephrata. Bethlehem was a Moravian village and was in the midst of military affairs almost continually from 1775 to 1781; in fact it was twice the seat of a hospital. On December 3, 1776, an order was sent to the committee of the town of Bethlehem as follows:
"Gentlemen,—According to his excellency General Washington's Orders, the General Hospital of the Army is removed to Bethlehem and you will do the greatest Act of humanity by immediately providing proper buildings for their reception the largest and most capacious will be the most convenient. I doubt not, Gentlemen but you will act upon this occasion as becomes men and christians * * * "[90]
It was by the above process that the little peace loving village of Bethlehem and many others like it were thrown into confusion and dwelling houses or other buildings were turned into hospitals, the men began to play the part of nurses, to help care for the sick and dying sent from camp, and the women prepared lint and bandages. The buildings which under ordinary circumstances could accommodate about two hundred were made to accommodate five or six hundred.[91]
The housing accommodations of the regimental hospitals were even more varied, for they were housed in any thing from a capital building[92] to a log hut,[93] including private homes,[94] church,[95] barns, and court house,[96] depending upon what happened to be near the camp. A hut or group of huts were sometimes built for the purpose in or near the camp. They were built in a manner similar to the dwelling huts[97] only larger with furnishings as meagre, straw for the bed[98] tells the tale of equipment.
But the hospitals were of little value if there were not able physicians[99] and antiseptics and anaesthetics were almost unknown. Besides the lack of skill and proper medicine and instruments, for some of the instruments described are almost unconceivable, there was a lack of cleanliness in conducting the operations for that was not insisted upon then as it is today.[100] Of hospital methods Dr. Waldo wrote December 25, 1777, "But we treat them differently from what they used to be at home under the inspection of old women and Doct ——, We give them mutton and Grogg and avoid pudding, pills, and powders."[101] This perhaps was a little extreme, but it at least reflects the conditions. Thacher described the awful condition in which soldiers came to the hospital with wounds covered with putrified blood and full of magots which were destroyed by the application of tincture of myrrh.[102]
Director-General Shippen, in explaining the causes of the mortality among the soldiers attributed it to; "The want of clothing and covering necessary to keep the soldiers clean and warm, articles at that time not procurable in the country;—partly from an army being composed of raw men, unused to camp life and undisciplined; exposed to great hardships and from the sick and wounded being removed great distances in open wagons."[103]
As to the kind of disease most prevalent and the number in the hospitals because of sickness in proportion to those there because of injuries, some idea can be formed from the hospital reports sent in weekly from the departmental hospitals.
Although some of the diseases listed in the reports are unknown to us now and there is no way of knowing what the proportion the sick was of the entire army in that section. However, the returns do state the number sick during the various seasons, and show in which season of the year there was the most sickness.