A Lesson about Saving Soldiers

“If any one of you, by observing the following rules, should save the life, or even limb of but one citizen, who has bravely exposed himself in defense of his country, I shall think myself richly rewarded for my labor.” Dr. John Jones, Plain Concise Practical Remarks on the Treatment of Wounds and Fractures (New York, 1775)

Our 2022 exhibition, Saving Soldiers, teaches its audience that the majority of the medical practitioners who served in the Continental Army—whose valiant work saving lives and easing the suffering of soldiers and sailors was essential to the achievement of American independence—learned their discipline through apprenticeship, with few having prior experience of war. This lesson plan asks students to analyze the primary source collection of rare books, manuscripts, portraits and artifacts featured in Saving Soldiers and write in the voice of one of these eighteenth-century healers, creating a field manual compiling best practices for treating soldiers for the review and endorsement of General George Washington and the Continental Army’s Hospital Department.

Suggested Grade Level

Elementary and Middle School

Recommended Time Frame

Three fifty-minute sessions

Objectives and Essential Questions

Students will learn:

  • what ailments and maladies befell soldiers during the Revolutionary War,
  • how American military doctors serving in the Continental Army treated the sick and wounded, drawing from their experience before and during the war as well as available medical publications to forge a system of medical care based on the prevailing science of the time, and
  • how the contributions of the war’s medical practitioners played as critical a role in the war’s outcome and the achievement of American independence.

Materials and Resources
(in order of appearance)

  1. Saving Soldiers: Medical Practice in the Revolutionary War catalog, The American Revolution Institute.
  2. “The Sentiments of An American Woman,” 1780.  Esther De Berdt Reed. “The Sentiments of an American Woman.” 19th century-copy. The Society of the Cincinnati, The Robert Charles Lawrence Fergusson Collection.
  3. George Washington to Ester De Berdt Reed, 14 July 1780.
  4. Ellen McCallister Clark, Benjamin Rush’s Directions for Preserving the Health of Soldiers, April 15, 2022, The American Revolution Institute.
  5. Benjamin Rush. Directions for Preserving the Health of Soldiers Recommended for the Consideration of the Officers of the Army of the United States. Lancaster, Pa.: Printed by John Dunlap, 1778. The Society of the Cincinnati, The Robert Charles Lawrence Fergusson Collection.
  6. Robert Donkin. Military Collections and Remarks. New-York: Printed by H. Gaine, 1777. The Society of the Cincinnati, The Robert Charles Lawrence Fergusson Collection.
  7. James Melvin. “James Melvin his book Anno Domini 1777.” Bound manuscript. [Page titled “Prisoner in Quebec” shown in facsimile.] The Society of the Cincinnati, The Robert Charles Lawrence Fergusson Collection.
  8. Sir John Pringle. Observations on the Diseases of the Army, in Camp and Garrison. London: Printed for A. Millar [et al.], 1753. Dr. Samuel Tenny’s copy. The Society of the Cincinnati, The Robert Charles Lawrence Fergusson Collection.
  9. Gerard, Freiherr van Swieten. The Diseases Incident to Armies, with the Method of Cure. Philadelphia: Printed, and sold, by R. Bell, 1776. The Society of the Cincinnati, The Robert Charles Lawrence Fergusson Collection.
  10. William Brown. Pharmacopoeia simpliciorum et efficaciorum in usum nosocomii militaris, ad exercitum foederatarum Americae civitatum pertinentis. Philadelphiae: Ex officina Styner & Cist, 1778. The Society of the Cincinnati, The Robert Charles Lawrence Fergusson Collection.
  11. Flame-stitch wallet owned by Ebenezer Crosby. 1774. Linen, wool, and silk. The Society of the Cincinnati, Gift of Rear Admiral Schuyler N. Pyne, Society of the Cincinnati in the State of New Jersey, 1967.
  12. Lancet owned by Justus Storrs. Made by Benjamin Hanks, Mansfield, Conn., 1774. Brass and iron. The Society of the Cincinnati, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Harold Justus Craft, Society of the Cincinnati in the State of Connecticut, 1965.
  13. Scales and weights owned by Justus Storrs. 18th century. Oak, brass, metal, paper, and wool. The Society of the Cincinnati, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Harold Justus Craft, Society of the Cincinnati in the State of Connecticut, 1965.
  14. Mortar and pestle owned by William Chowning. 18th century. Ceramic and wood. The Society of the Cincinnati, Gift of William J. Chewning, Jr., Society of the Cincinnati in the State of Virginia, 1959.
  15. John Stephenson (1750-1807). American School. Late 18th-early 19th century. Oil on canvas. The Society of the Cincinnati, Gift of Albert Walton, 1954.
  16. John Jones. Plain Concise Practical Remarks on the Treatment of Wounds and Fractures. New-York: Printed by John Holt, 1775. Dr. Henry Latimer’s copy. The Society of the Cincinnati, The Robert Charles Lawrence Fergusson Collection.
  17. Henry-François Le Dran. A Treatise, or Reflections, Drawn from Practice on Gun-shot Wounds. London: Printed for John Clarke, 1743. Dr. Charles McKnight’s copy. The Society of the Cincinnati, The Robert Charles Lawrence Fergusson Collection.
  18. Barnabas Binney. “A remarkable case of gun shot wound.” In Memoirs of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, volume I (Boston: Printed by Adams and Nourse, 1785). The Society of the Cincinnati, The Robert Charles Lawrence Fergusson Collection.
  19. Barnabas Binney (1751-1787). Artist unknown, possibly William Verstille, ca. 1779-1783. Watercolor on ivory. The Society of the Cincinnati, Gift of Emily V. Binney, 1955.
  20. Surgical kit owned by Justus Storrs. Made by Evans & Co., London. 18th century. Leather, metal, tortoise shell, and velvet. The Society of the Cincinnati, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Harold Justus Craft, Society of the Cincinnati in the State of Connecticut, 1965.
  21. David Olyphant (1720-1805). By Samuel F. B. Morse, ca. 1818-1821. Oil on canvas. The Society of the Cincinnati, Gift of Murray Olyphant, Jr., New York State Society of the Cincinnati, 1985.
  22. William Burnet (1730-1791). American School, late 18th century. Oil on canvas. The Society of the Cincinnati, Gift of Helen W. Ellsworth, 1994.
  23. Register of patients admitted to a Continental Army hospital. September 16, 1778-early January 1779. The Society of the Cincinnati, The Robert Charles Lawrence Fergusson Collection.
  24. “Pay roll of a detachment of the part of the several Virg’a Regiments left in the hospital at Baltimore for one month.” Signed by Mordecai Gist and John Willis. June 14, 1777. The Society of the Cincinnati, The Robert Charles Lawrence Fergusson Collection.
  25. Peter St. Medard. Medical journal kept aboard the Continental frigate Deane and other vessels. Boston, 1777-1788. The Society of the Cincinnati, The Robert Charles Lawrence Fergusson Collection.
  26. James Lind. A Treatise on the Scurvy. London: Printed for S. Crowder [et al.], 1772. Admiral Richard Digby’s copy. The Society of the Cincinnati, The Robert Charles Lawrence Fergusson Collection.
  27. Affidavit on behalf of James Warren, Jr., lieutenant of marines, in support of his petition for a state pension. Signed by Matthew Parke, Samuel Cooper, and James Warren [Sr.]. February 5, 1784. The Society of the Cincinnati, The Robert Charles Lawrence Fergusson Collection.
  28. Nathan Dorsey (1754-1806). By Charles Willson Peale, ca. 1775. Watercolor on ivory. On loan from the Corinne Dorsey Onnen Trust.
  29. Benjamin Rush, M.D. Engraved by Christian F. Gobrecht after a painting by Thomas Sully, 19th century. The Society of the Cincinnati.
  30. Friedrich Wilhelm Steuben. Regulations for the Order and Discipline of the Troops of the United States. Philadelphia: Printed by Styner and Cist, 1779. The Society of the Cincinnati, The Robert Charles Lawrence Fergusson Collection.
  31. General Orders for the Army under the Command of Brigadier General M’Dougall…Concerning the Means of Preserving Health. Fishkill, N.Y.: Samuel Loudon, 1777. The Society of the Cincinnati, The Robert Charles Lawrence Fergusson Collection.
  32. Orderly book of the Sixth Pennsylvania Regiment. Kept by Capt. Jacob Bowers. January 1-April 27, 1779. The Society of the Cincinnati, The Robert Charles Lawrence Fergusson Collection.
  33. Thomas Shipley. A Receipt for a Cheap Soup for Six Persons, Published for the Use of the Private Soldiers and Their Families, Encamped on Cox-Heath, near Maidstone. Maidstone, Kent, England, 1778. The Society of the Cincinnati, The Robert Charles Lawrence Fergusson Collection.
  34. Hugh Williamson, M.D., LL.D. Engraved by Asher Brown Durand after a painting by John Trumbull, ca. 1812. The Society of the Cincinnati, Gift of Mary H. Pinckney, 2006.
  35. Clément Joseph Tissot. Gymnastique Médicinale et Chirurgicale. A Paris: Chez Bastien, Libraire, 1780. The Society of the Cincinnati, The Robert Charles Lawrence Fergusson Collection.
  36. James McHenry to Margaret Spear Smith. July 1, 1781. The Society of the Cincinnati, The Robert Charles Lawrence Fergusson Collection.
  37.  Perez Morton. An Oration Delivered at the King’s Chapel in Boston, April 8, 1776, on the Re-interment of … Joseph Warren, Esquire, President of the Late Congress of this Colony, and Major-General of the Massachusetts Forces, who Was Slain in the Battle of Bunker’s-Hill, June 17, 1775. Boston: Printed, and to be sold by J. Gill, 1776. The Society of the Cincinnati, The Robert Charles Lawrence Fergusson Collection.
  38. Enoch Edwards. “A List of Goods Belonging to Anthony Morris Dec’d.” January 11, 1777. The Society of the Cincinnati, The Robert Charles Lawrence Fergusson Collection.
  39. Edward Paine, Nathaniel West, and George Hubbard to Priscilla Birge, November 17, 1776. The Society of the Cincinnati, The Robert Charles Lawrence Fergusson Collection.
  40. Kezia Hobart. “Sacred to the memory of Mr. Daniel Hobert, who was slain at White-Plains, Oct. 29, 1776, AE 28 years.” Watercolor and ink on paper. 18th century. The Society of the Cincinnati, The Robert Charles Lawrence Fergusson Collection.
  41. “Anchor’d in the haven of Rest.” Souvenir maker unknown. 20th century. Plaster. On loan from Glenn A. Hennessey, who represents Jabez Smith, Jr. in the Society of the Cincinnati in the State of Connecticut.
  42. Sir John Pringle. Observations on the Diseases of the Army. First American edition with notes by Benjamin Rush. Philadelphia: Published by Edward Earle, 1810. The Society of the Cincinnati, The Robert Charles Lawrence Fergusson Collection.
  43. David Ramsay. An Eulogium upon Benjamin Rush, M.D. Philadelphia; New York: Bradford and Inskeep, 1813. The Society of the Cincinnati, Library purchase, 2021.
  44. James Thacher. A Military Journal during the American Revolutionary War, from 1775 to 1783. Boston: Published by Richard & Lord, 1823. The Society of the Cincinnati, The Robert Charles Lawrence Fergusson Collection.
  45. James Tilton. Economical Observations on Military Hospitals and the Prevention and Cure of Diseases Incident to an Army. Wilmington, Del.: J. Wilson, 1813. The Society of the Cincinnati, The Robert Charles Lawrence Fergusson Collection.
  46. Society of the Cincinnati Eagle insignia owned by James Tilton. Made by Jeremiah Andrews, ca. 1784-1791. Gold, enamel, silk, and metal. The Society of the Cincinnati, Gift of Elizabeth Tilton Beaudrias, 2021.

Background Knowledge

Students should be familiar with the colonial period in America and with the events of the American Revolution.

Sequence and Procedure

Part One: Share the Introduction to the Saving Soldiers Exhibition with Students

American military doctors who joined the cause for independence faced formidable odds. Of the 1,400 medical practitioners who served in the Continental Army, only about ten percent had formal medical degrees. The majority of the rest had learned their practice through an apprenticeship with an established physician. Most were young men at the beginning of their careers. Few had prior experience of war. Their civilian practices had not prepared them for the grim realities of warfare in eighteenth-century America, where far more soldiers under their care would die from disease and infection than would be killed on the battlefield.

Undaunted by these challenges, the healers played as critical a role in the war’s outcome as that of the warriors on the front lines. The field of military medicine was in its infancy at the time of the American Revolution. A generation earlier, Sir John Pringle had transformed medical care in the British army by emphasizing the need for order, cleanliness, sanitation and ventilation in military hospitals. Published a century before the discovery of microbes and antibiotics, Pringle’s Observations on Diseases of the Army was a pioneering work in the prevention of contagion and cross-contamination in treating the sick and wounded. Working under constrained and often brutal conditions—and with a perpetual shortage of medicines, supplies and personnel—American military doctors drew from Pringle and other writers to forge a system of medical care for the army based in the prevailing science of the time.

Each regiment of the army was staffed with a surgeon and surgeon’s mates who provided battlefield triage and critical care. The Hospital Department, created by Congress in July 1775, oversaw a more extensive staff of directors, physicians, purveyors and apothecaries who were responsible for managing and supplying the network of hospitals established across the states. With no clear chain of command between the department and the regiments, the delivery of adequate care to the troops was beset with administrative and logistical problems. Despite these obstacles, the medical practitioners kept their focus on their patients, working tirelessly to improve their condition and ease their suffering. In recognition of their service, Congress granted the army’s doctors the same rank and benefits as officers of the line.

After the war, most veteran military doctors returned to civilian practice. Several became leaders in their field, building upon the knowledge gained from their wartime experiences to promote reforms and advancements that would shape American medical practice for the next generation.

Part Two: Explore the Saving Soldiers Exhibition Galleries as a Class

Divide students into groups, assigning each group one or two different subtopic(s) from the exhibition:

          1. The Scourge of Smallpox
          2. Fighting Disease
          3. Treating Wounds and Fractures
          4. The Hospital Department
          5. Shipboard Medicine
          6. An Ounce of Prevention
          7. Diet, Exercise & a Clean Shirt
          8. Rituals of Death
          9. After the War

 

Each student group should read the corresponding subtopic gallery pages of the digital Saving Soldiers exhibition catalog, exploring and analyzing the primary sources cited (highlighted in the gallery below) and preparing a summary of their respective subtopic(s) to share with the class. The groups should introduce one or more of the key primary source items featured in their respective subtopic as part of their presentation to the class.

After all of the groups have reported their investigation summaries to the class, individual students should choose at least two subtopics to investigate on their own.

Part Three: Individual Student Research of a Subtopic

Direct students to research their subtopics further, finding evidence from the exhibition’s resources as well as supporting primary sources from other archives. No fewer than three rich primary sources should be secured by each student. For example, the letters exchanged between George Washington and Pennsylvania’s first lady Ester De Berdt Reed in July 1780—with Washington noting:

“A Shirt extraordinary to the Soldier will be of more service, and do more to preserve his health than any other thing that could be procured him”

or De Berdt Reed’s 1780 broadside “The Sentiments of an American Woman,” which proclaims:

“IDEAS, relative to the manner of forwarding to the American Soldiers, the Presents of the American Women. All Women and Girls will be received without exception, to present their patriotic offering; and, as it is absolutely voluntary, every one will regulate it according to her ability, and her disposition… the wants of our army do not permit the slowness of an ordinary path … The shilling offered by the Widow or the young girl, will be received as well as the most considerable sums presented by the Women who have the happiness to join to their patriotism, greater means to be useful.”

would serve as rich material for a student searching for resources on the Diet, Exercise & and Clean Shirt subtopic.

Assessment and Demonstration of Student Learning

As a class, watch the video featuring Library Director Ellen McCallister Clark discussing Benjamin Rush’s Directions for Preserving the Health of Soldiers, then explore an excerpt of Dr. Rush’s 1778 publication.

Direct students to write in the voice of Dr. Benjamin Rush, or another eighteenth century persona delivering medical care during the Revolutionary War, drafting recommendations for a field manual compiling best practices for treating soldiers on the subtopic they researched for the review and endorsement of General George Washington and the Continental Army’s Hospital Department. Students should support their work with evidence from primary sources and be prepared to share their work with the class. Teams of students who researched different subtopics could combine their work into a volume that includes all nine subtopics covered in the Saving Soldiers exhibition.

Extension

Invite students to investigate how eighteenth-century maladies and ailments are treated by medical professionals in the twenty-first century, what maladies and ailments confront today’s military medical providers, and what challenges are common to both eras.

Revolutionary Achievements Category

Independence

Exploring the Revolution Category

The Revolutionary War