Jefferson Barracks was formerly a military post where United States troops were stationed.  It was situated about twelve miles south of St. Louis, on the west bank of the Mississippi river. It consisted of long rows of buildings, one and two stories high, with basement kitchens and dining-rooms, and wide piazzas, extending on three sides of a large plat of ground, in the form of a parallelogram.  It was heavily shaded with fine trees, the open end of the grounds bordered the river, with a high flag-staff on the bluff.  The Union flag was always unfurled to the breeze.  The old post hospital stood two stories high, and the post chapel was situated several hundred yards back from the river.

In April, 1862, these buildings, except the post Chapel, which was still reserved for worship, were converted into a large hospital.  They were well suited for the purpose, the rooms being large, having numerous windows on both sides, opposite each other and offering excellent opportunities for exercise.

Beside the existing buildings, others were erected during the summer of 1862 and the entire complex could accommodated two thousand five hundred patients.  The new buildings are one story high, in triple rows six hundred feet long, divided into wards of three hundred feet each. There were three sets of these new hospitals, some distance apart, the entire grounds in every direction being beautifully shaded by large oak trees.  They were so arranged that each group had the central row appropriated to a dining-room, and surgeons, nurses' and stewards' quarters.  The outside rows were the sick wards. Besides these changes, a water works system was also added, with reservoir and pipes which carried the water of the Mississippi through all the buildings.

The institution was in charge of Surgeon  J. F. Randolph, U.S.A., assisted by Dr. H. R. Tilton, U.S.A., and P.C. McLane, M.D.; A. L. Allen, M.D.; T. F. Rumbold, M.D.; Hiram Latham, M.D.; S. Leslie, M.D.; and J. J. Marston, M.D.  Post Chaplain, Rev. J. F. Fish, was also stationed there for many years, and served in connection with Rev. S. Pettigrew, the Hospital Chaplain.

11,434 patients were received and treated in this hospital in a two year time period, ending April 30, 1864. The first year was eleven and a half percent of the patients died.  That increased dramatically when large numbers of wounded soldier were admitted in a dying condition.  The percentage of deaths for the previous year (1863) was nine and eight-tenths.

The Sick, dying and Wounded

All Civil War Medics were labeled Surgeons, even if they never once used a scalpel.  They did the best they could in impossible situations and their dismal record of success is proof of their over-whelming task.  More soldiers died of illness than from enemy fire.  Today we know Yellow Fever is transmitted by mosquitoes, but the physicians of that time attributed it to other causes.  A confederate physician actually shipped the clothing worn by victims of the fever to the northern cities in an attempt to spread the disease to the union towns.  Even Lincoln was scheduled to receive "infected" shirts in hopes that he too would succumb to the fever.  It has also been said that as many soldiers were claimed by dysentery as were killed by guns.  In the beginning days of the war, even plaques of measles caused battles to be postponed. 

The Dying Tree

The most common operation by the Field Hospital surgeons was Amputation performed with no attempt at sanitization.  Heaps of arms and legs were a common site at the field hospitals and the dreadful repetitive sound of the bone saws and the groans of the patients were all too familiar to the ambulance crews.  Occasionally, Opium was used as a pain killer and many of the wounded became addicted to it.  The most unfortunate soldier received no pain killers before their limb was removed because supplies were always low.  Even if the wounded and sick survived the field hospitals, as Charles G. Bacon did, they were taken to general hospitals, such as Jefferson Barracks, where gangrene and a wide range of infections were apt to take their last threads of life before their mutilated bodies were shipped back to their grieving families.