Surgeon General’s Report to Virginia’s Surgeons June 1777

To my most respected colleagues:

Gentlemen, I write you this time to inform you of an order of our Commander in Chief, General Washington.  By way of background, which you have experienced and already know, the demand for surgeries and supplies for our army has outstripped the ability of supply.  The Continental Armies’ hospitals are few in number and at a distance from the battles, therefore we resort to the use of opportunistically opened houses, barns and public buildings as substitute care for an Army injured soldier.  Often these facilities are cramped, dirty and poorly ventilated.

Attempts have been made to regulate the temporary hospitals to no avail and they remain rather unpleasant places.  Adequate numbers returned to fight, medical supplies, diet, and proper staffing are unmet goals.  Since the outset of the war, the hospitals’ nursing care has been delegated to other soldiers thereby removing them from combat.  Effective June 1777, General Washington directs that we replace the soldier nurses with females.

Image: Following the Army by Pamela Patrick White

Women should attend the hospitals in numbers proportionate to the sick in each regiment, one nurse for every 10 patients.  Nursing staff will be answerable to the hospital matron.       

Your Obedient Servant, Surgeon Charles Driscoll  

Surgeon General for the Armies of the Commonwealth of Virginia

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1. This system first proposed in 1777 was not heartily adopted.  Of course we know that most medical officers were openly opposed to having women nurses in their hospitals, so implementation was conditional on the acceptance or hesitations of the Chief Surgeon of a hospital.  This problem was recurrent 75 years later during the Civil War and then came the turning point away from all male nurses to acceptance of women in the delivery of care to male soldiers.

2. https://www.womenhistoryblog.com/2014/07/first-women-nurses.html