A report to the Surgeon General on the transport of sick and wounded by pack animals / by George A. Otis.
- George Alexander Otis
- Date:
- 1877
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: A report to the Surgeon General on the transport of sick and wounded by pack animals / by George A. Otis. Source: Wellcome Collection.
14/48 page 4
![nature of the campaign would allow. In a report to the Surgeon General, dated Fort Brook, Tampa Bay, Florida, January 5, 1838, Dr. Satterlee described the measures taken for the aid of the wounded after the engagement at O kee-cho-bee i1 Sir: I have the honor to inform you that the brigade to which I am attached1 as Medical Director has had a very severe engagement with the Mickasuckie and Seminole Indians, about one hundred and fifty miles from this place, near a lake called O-kee-cho-bee; it took place on the twenty-fifth ultimo, and lasted nearly two hours, and resulted in the total defeat of the Indians, but with great loss to our troops in killed and wounded.1 Under the circumstances, as we had no permanent hospital nearer than this, and as the troops must, from the nature of the country, retire from it long before the wounded could recover, I deemed it proper to bring them immediately to this place. I arrived with them last evening, and have now the satis- faction to say that they are in comfortable quarters. I found the ambulances very serviceable, but as some of the wounded could not be transported in them oh account of the roughness of the road, between thirty and forty of them were brought, a part of the way, on litters between two horses. This is a very comfortable means of transportation, but difficult on account of the number of men and horses required. I have requested the quartermaster to have twenty litters constructed here, except the poles, which I think can be obtained in the woods. We were obliged to use blankets, and raw-hides of the cattle which we found on our way, but the length of time taken to construct them, together with the want of proper tools, and at a time when the medical officers with me (Assistant Surgeons McLaren and Simpson), as well as myself, were fully occupied night and day with the wounded, it was found very difficult to construct them; this is the reason why I wish them to be on hand and ready for any emergency that may occur. * *• In the war with Mexico, the wounded were transported mainly in wheeled vehicles; but Colonel G. E. Cooper has informed me of one instance, at least, in which a two-horse litter was used for sick-transport for a long distance.2 This litter, and those used by Medical Director Satterlee are not spe- cifically described; but were probably similar to that referred to and figured by Inspector General B. B. Marcy,iu his instructive hand- book for travellers on overland expeditious to the Pacific coast.3 This is a very ancient form of litter,often em- ployed prior to the in- troduction of coaches, in the XVI century, for conveying people of consequence, or for the carriage of sick persons. I take the liberty of copying his illustration of the mode of improvising this appliance and adapting it to the exigencies of frontier life. Should a party travelling with pack-animals, and without ambulances or wagons, have one of its. members wounded or taken so sick as to be unable to walk or ride on horseback, a litter may be constructed by taking two poles about twenty feet in length, uniting them by two sticks three feet long lashed across the centre at six feet apart, and stretching a piece of stout canvas, a blanket, or hide between them to form the bed. Two steady horses or mules are then selected, placed between the poles in the front and rear of the litter, and the ends of the poles made fast to the sides of the animals either by attachment to the stirrups or to the ends of straps secured over their backs. The patient may then be placed upon the litter, and is ready for the march. The elasticity of the long poles gives an easy motion to the conveyance and makes this method of locomotion much more comfortable than might be expected.—[The Prairie Traveler, p. 150.] 'After the engagement at O-kee-eho-bee; December 25, 1837, the commanding officer, Colonel Zachary Taylor, in his official report, referred with the most pleasing and grateful recollections to the attention and ability displayed by Surgeon Satterlee, Medical Director, and his assist- ants, in ministering to the wounded, as well as to their uniform kindness to them on all occasions. 2 1 have never seen a horse-litter used for transporting sick or wounded, save in one instance, which was in the case of an officer who was carried from the city of Mexico to Vera Cruz in one ; and of this I have but little recollection, except that there were two horses—one in the front of the litter and the other behind it,—and that the litter was supported by shafts extending from the front and rear, to which the horses or mules were harnessed. The officer was, if my memory fails me not, Capt. WALKER, 6th U. S. Infantry. Not having had anything to do with the getting up of the litter, and having seen it but once as it passed me on the road, I cannot give any reliable description of its construction.—Extract from a letter of Dr. COOPER dated Point San Jos6, California, January 20, 1877. 3 The Prairie Traveler, a Handbook for Overland Expeditions, etc. By Randolph B. Marcy, Captain, U. S. Army, New York, 1859, p. 150. Fig. 1.—Two-horse litter. [After Marcy.]](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21779156_0014.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
