Postponed Book Talk – Islands of Mercy: Hospitals in the Maryland Campaign

Hear the incredible story of how 200 doctors treated 18,000 wounded soldiers on several battlefields during the 1862 Maryland Campaign.

This event has been postponed and will be rescheduled to a later date to be announced.

At the Pry House Field Hospital Museum on a date to be determined, join NMCWM founder Dr. Gordon Dammann and historian John Schildt as they discuss their latest book Islands of Mercy: Hospitals in the Maryland Campaign September, 1862.

In the aftermath of the Maryland Campaign in September 1862 over 18,000 wounded soldiers were treated in hospitals spanning a thirty-mile area from Frederick, Maryland to Shepherdstown, Virginia (now West Virginia). Located in barns, churches and homes, more than 200 doctors treated the wounded from the slopes of South Mountain and along Antietam Creek. Explore the various sites that provided care to the wounded and suffering in the aftermath of the Battles of South Mountain and Antietam.

The pay-what-you-please presentation will take place at 2:00 PM in the Pry Barn – itself used as a Union field hospital after Antietam. There is a separate suggested donation of $3 to tour the Pry House.

Dr. Gordon E. Dammann, D.D.S. is the founder of the National Museum of Civil War Medicine, whose collection of medical artifacts from the Civil War forms the core of the Museum’s holdings. Dr. Dammann began collecting in 1971, and felt that a museum would be a good way to share his collection and the story of Civil War medicine with the public. Dammann is the author of the three-volume Pictorial Encyclopedia of Civil War Medical Instruments and Equipment, co-author of Images of Civil War Medicine—A Photographic History, and editor of the reprint Memoirs of Jonathan Letterman, MD Surgeon of U.S. Army 1861-1864.

Dammann, recently retired from his private dental practice in Lena, IL, and is active in several Civil War and historical societies. He is a licensed guide at Antietam National Battlefield and has participated in Civil War programs throughout the United States, including West Point and the Smithsonian Institution

John W. Schildt was introduced to the Civil War by his great-grandmother who fed Union troops on the way to Gettysburg when she was a little girl. His fields of specialty are the XII and IX corps, as well as Antietam’s Hospitals and Lincoln’s visit to Antietam in October 1862. Having been a lifelong student of Antietam, Mr. Schildt has written many books on the subject, including September Echoes, Drums along the Antietam, Four days in October, Roads to Antietam, Jackson and the Preachers, Antietam Hospitals, and Antietam through the Years. Other recent publications include Frederick in the Civil War, Hills of Glory, and New Hampshire at Antietam. He has pioneered in writing on Antietam hospitals and monuments, as well as Lincoln’s visits. Mr. Schildt is a licensed guide at Antietam National Battlefield.