Surgeon General’s War Report to Virginia’s Army Surgeons, 1775

Dear Fellow Virginia Army Surgeons:

          The invasion of Canada has begun with General Montgomery’s inexorable march toward Quebec.  I consider the American medical planning for this invasion wholly inadequate.  Authorities are preoccupied with the siege of Boston, and have neglected to plan for proper medical care of an army traversing the wilderness.  Nearly a quarter of the troops are sick; no medical stores are supplied to treat them.  Surgeons are not supplied and many doctors have left the scalpel for the sword.       

In mid-October, 600 men reached Quebec under conditions of cold, wet, hunger and overcome by fatigue.  Only 480 men fit for duty, the rest afflicted with dysentery, diarrhea or rheumatism.  An American general hospital has been established outside the Quebec fortress in a stone convent upon the Charles River.  British batteries a half mile away mercifully have spared the convent, but subject it to constant sniping.  No herbs for the sick could be found and very few drugs as the surgeon had lost all of his drugs and instruments on the march through the wilderness.