Bee's Brigade at First Manassas - Medical Department

[hta1970]

With the 150th First Manassas fast approaching (less than 5 months away), the units portraying the medical department of Bee's Brigade have been busy preparing for the reenactment.

We have a number of medical officers serving the separate regiments of the brigade, coming from many different unaffiliated reenacting units, many of whom are members of this forum. I look forward to serving with all of them. Some of them are the tops in the medical reenacting hobby.

Pharmaceutical guidance has been prepared based on early war confederate Medical Departmental invoices for field service.

Example paperwork for Reports of Sick and Wounded have been disseminated based on original paperwork from the 33rd Virginia Infantry for July 1861. This example is also being used to prepare sick call at the event for a more accurate portrayal of sick call.

Example Surgeon's Morning Reports are being prepared for distribution based on original reports from the 4th Alabama, 2nd Mississippi and 11th Mississippi reports from late May/early June 1861.

The staff of the medical department of the 2nd Mississippi will be operating a period correct dressing station/field hospital during and following the battle.

After the battle members of the medical department will be sent to a original pre-Civil War house which was used as a Confederate hospital immediately following the battle and will be operating a field hospital at that site, taking it over from the 19th century civilian reenactors who will be on site prior to our arrival.

You don't need to be perfect to join us, just the desire to do the best job possible making an accurate portrayal of the Confederate Medical Department in July 1861, and a willingness to make changes as needed to accurately portray the original cast of the Confederate Medical Department.

We still have some openings in the medical department for those interested in a July 1861 medical department experience.

If this is something that interests you, or if you'd like to serve with us at First Manassas, please contact me.

[Busterbuttonboy]

A breif diary from James G. Hudson who served with the Canebrake Rifles, 4th ALA is available online. I beleive he serves in a medical capacity.

[cjdaley]

Is it possible to contact me at tailor@cjdaley.com to get more info? I don't really do PM that often here.

[hta1970]

Many thanks for the reference to the diary. It allowed me to add a bit to my casualty notes for the 4th Alabama regarding some wound locations.

I should probably also have noted that the regiments of Bee's Brigade are planning on using casualty cards to more accurately reflect the nature and type of wounds recieved by the regiments in the battle, based on the historical record.

Currently nearly complete casualty notes have been prepared for the 2nd Mississippi, 4th Alabama and Staunton Artillery. The other regiments research is still in progress.

Brief biographies have also been prepared for the medical officers who served in Bee's Brigade in July 1861.

[cwdoc45]

Harry,

Our unit will be on the Union side. Hope to visit with you.

[hta1970]

Trevor,

Would be nice to see you again. Haven't seen you since High Tide.

We will also be at Sharpsburg next year so hope to see you then as well.

Not sure how you guys will be doing things on the Federal side, but on the Confederate side we will be evolving our medical department through the war years based on out ongoing research. Should be quite a thing to see over the 150th cycle!

[Elaine Kessinger]

For the 150th Cycle, in the mid-Atlantic area, in the very few instances a woman's presence is documented as appropriate, either general civilian or female nurse/matron, I hope you will consider contacting me.

[LilyLee]

With the 150th First Manassas fast approaching (less than 5 months away), the units portraying the medical department of Bee's Brigade have been busy preparing for the reenactment.

We have a number of medical officers serving the separate regiments of the brigade, coming from many different unaffiliated reenacting units, many of whom are members of this forum. I look forward to serving with all of them. Some of them are the tops in the medical reenacting hobby.

Pharmaceutical guidance has been prepared based on early war confederate Medical Departmental invoices for field service.

Example paperwork for Reports of Sick and Wounded have been disseminated based on original paperwork from the 33rd Virginia Infantry for July 1861. This example is also being used to prepare sick call at the event for a more accurate portrayal of sick call.

Example Surgeon's Morning Reports are being prepared for distribution based on original reports from the 4th Alabama, 2nd Mississippi and 11th Mississippi reports from late May/early June 1861.

The staff of the medical department of the 2nd Mississippi will be operating a period correct dressing station/field hospital during and following the battle.

After the battle members of the medical department will be sent to a original pre-Civil War house which was used as a Confederate hospital immediately following the battle and will be operating a field hospital at that site, taking it over from the 19th century civilian reenactors who will be on site prior to our arrival.

You don't need to be perfect to join us, just the desire to do the best job possible making an accurate portrayal of the Confederate Medical Department in July 1861, and a willingness to make changes as needed to accurately portray the original cast of the Confederate Medical Department.

We still have some openings in the medical department for those interested in a July 1861 medical department experience.

If this is something that interests you, or if you'd like to serve with us at First Manassas, please contact me.

Hi, Harry,
I am brand new to this so bear with me. I am the great-great granddaughter of William Fitzhugh Lee, who died at First Manassas and lived for several days at the Ben Lomond House before dying there. I found a post from Cornfed dated 2008 where it seems he was enlisting volunteers to play Willy, Lily Parran Lee, my g-g-grandmother, and their Episcopalian rector from Shepherdstown, C.W. Andrews. Also, his cousin, Edwin Lee was there. I have quite a bit of information on them and would want to see if I could be of help. Also, I've never been to a re-enactment, but if I would be allowed to see this I would be so happy. I've been researching their lives for several years, now, and have considerable information (although you may have even more.) Please feel free to contact me at acreeves@optonline.net. I'd like to know whether I would be able to see that scene in the house and how I should sign up. I am really excited about this.

Thanks,

LilyLee

[hta1970]

It is less than 4 weeks to the 150th First Manassas, and the units portraying the medical department of Bee's Brigade have been busy preparing for the event.

Each of our full regiments will be staffed with a medical officer, coming from many different unaffiliated reenacting units, many of whom are members of this forum. I look forward to serving with all of them. Some of them are the tops in the medical reenacting hobby.

Pharmaceutical guidance has been prepared based on early war Confederate Medical Departmental invoices for field service. Each medical officer has prepared his own labels based on early war examples with the typical Astoria or Philadelphia lables being quite absent.

Example paperwork for the Monthly Report of Sick and Wounded has been distributed using original paperwork from the 33rd Virginia Infantry for July 1861 found in the Compilied Military Service Records at the National Archives.

Example Surgeon's Morning Reports have been prepared and distributed based on original reports from the 4th Alabama, 2nd Mississippi and 11th Mississippi reports from late May/early June 1861 found at the Museum of the Confederacy.

The staff of the medical department of the 2nd Mississippi will be operating a period correct dressing station/field hospital during and following the battle with full cooperation of that regiment.

After the battle some members of the medical department will be sent to the Pringle House nearby which was used as a Confederate hospital immediately following the battle. Here they will be operating a field hospital, taking it over from the 19th century civilian reenactors who will be on site from Friday morning through Sunday. These civilians will be portraying the typical Northern Virginia civilians in a period house before and during the main battle reenactments.

We still have some openings in the medical department for those who are registered for the event and interested in a July 1861 Confederate medical department field hospital experience.

Male nurses and/or hospital stewards are also welcome to join us at the hospital. Highly under represented and a perfect chance to take on this portrayal in an original house used as a hospital at the battle 150 years ago.

We are also seeking wounded to fill the hospital. Since General Kirby Smith and other officers were treated here along with enlisted, this opportunity is open to both officer's and enlisted. It would be a nice place to rest and cool off after a day serving in the field as well as supporting Prince William County in their historic preservation efforts for this house and other sites they own and maintain.

If this is something that interests you, or if you'd like to serve with us at First Manassas, please contact me. But time is short and logistics need to be considered, so don't wait until the last moment.

And for other Confederate medical staff at the event, please feel free to stop by Bee's Brigade Headquarters and ask for the Medical Director. It is always nice to meet others in our department in the field, even if we are not supporting the same soldiers.