Medical purveyors

Women throughout the North worked with surgeons and assistant surgeons, medical purveyors, and hospital stewards in contributing to Civil War pharmacy. But their activities were not one-sided. Women of the Confederacy viewed the aid and comfort of their men with the same urgency as their Union counterparts. 

These incidents should not tarnish the reputation of the many women who provided aU kinds of relief and assistance during the most devastating conflict in American history. Although the majority of pharmaceutical work was accomplished through medical purveyors and hospital stewards, the women s contributions should not be forgotten. It was through the U.S. Sanitary Commission that thousands of women contributed personnel and materiel that directly as-... 

Having examined civilian pharaiacy during the Civil War, our attentions are now directed to the military aspects of providing medicines to soldiers and sailors of the largest military machine North America had ever seen. We begin with the U.S. Army. The administration of military dmg supply and distribution was the responsibility of medical purveyors. Hospital stewards provided pharmacy care in hospital, camp, and field. In order to understand pharmacy in the Civil War an appreciation of the roles played by these two positions is crucial. 

Such irregularities naturally led to some stewards who were clearly unfit for the position. Sometimes the volunteer units gave evidence of wholly incompetent stewards. George E. Cooper, medical purveyor of a depot with supplies enough for 30,000 men, wrote plaintively to his superior ... 

RANK AND STATUS OF MEDICAL PURVEYORS AND HOSPITAL STEWARDS... 

A major problem was—predictably enough—with stimulants or alcohol. F. H. Patton, acting medical purveyor at Harpers Ferry, complained of a discrepancy of 48 bottles of whiskey and stated, the frequent losses of stimulants during transportation demands investi-... 

These sums, coming as they did out of a limited Confederate war chest, speak to the central role of the medical purveyors in the South s military economy. The entire nation itself could coUapse under an inefficient administration of the Purveyor s Department, or worse, un-... 

FIGURE 8.1. Surgeon J. Julian Chisolm ran a Confederate laboratory at Columbia, South Carolina, and was one of the South s most important medical purveyors. Photo courtesy of the National Library of Medicine, History of Medicine Division. 

Sir.—1 am entirely out of medicine and made a requisition yesterday on the Quartermaster for a supply. When he was about to purchase it some one came up and said he was a Medical Purveyor and that the Government would not pay for medicines bought by a Qr. Master [sic] when there was a Purveyor near. Is there a Purveyor in Savannah If there is, why does he keep it a secret from us I made a requisition on the Purveyor on the 19th Jan. on the Purveyor of this department in Charleston and did not have it filled until the 9th of March, and then there was not one-third of the articles required. If the government has prohibited Q. Masters from purchasing please inform me that I may try... 

The supply of medl. [sic] Hspl. [sic] Stores in the Confederacy is very limited. Medical Purveyors fully appreciate the importance of not wastfully using these supplies, and are strictly governed by order and regulations from higher authority as well as by the imperative necessity of economizing and justly apportioning the cause. 

Another great embarrassment under which the Medical Purveyor s Office labors results from the extreme scarcity of proper vessels in which to transmit medical supplies, such as jars, vials glass stoppered bottles, for lack of which, articles called for are sometimes withheld, although on hand at the Purveying Depot. Medical Officers are, therefore, directed to turn over to the Medical Purveyor such empty vials, bottles, jars, jugs, etc. in their possession for which they may have no use. 

Various complaints have been made to this office against the Medical Purveyors, which upon investigation have proved groundless and frivolous in their character. All officers in this army are responsible for any dereliction of duty and there is always a way to punish the delinquent. 

The harmonious cooperation of Medical Officers with the Medical Purveyor in his efforts to meet the arduous duties resting upon him wiU greatly increase the efficiency of his Department and of our whole Corps.3 ... 

The plants just mentioned, the blackberry, chinquapin, (Casta-nea) and dogwood to be used as astringents, the gentians, pipsissewa, Sabbatia, etc., as bitter tonics, can easily be obtained by our soldiers while in camp, and they will be found to fulfill aU the indications required in most cases of fever, dysentery, diarrhea, catarrhs, etc. In the formation of demulcent drinks, as substitutes for flaxseed and gum-arabic, the roots and leaves of the sassafras, and the leaves of the Bene (Sesamum) will suffice. The Podophyllum (wild jalap [i.e., mayapple]) will supply the purgative therefore, with the possession of opium and calomel, the surgeon in the field can himself obtain almost everything desired, and with comparatively little aid from the Medical Purveyors. Our chief desiderata now are the preparations of potash, viz nitrate chlorate and bicarbonate, and sup. carb. of soda. We may procure soda from our Salsola kali [saltwort]." 9... 

For a principal supply depot such as Richmond none of the quantities appear sufficient to supply a large army, except perhaps the supplies of lobelia and logwood. The shortage problem was mirrored elsewhere. Medical purveyor William H. Prioleau experienced steadily declining acquisitions of quinine sulfate on June 30, 1862, he reported 1,127 ounces on hand in September 1863 he had 1,114 ounces and by March 1865 a mere 6 ounces. o Historians may continue to argue the impact and effectiveness of the blockade in other areas, but the drag shortages it caused thereby were real and their impacts demonstrable. 

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