The Civil War Artillery Message Board

Confederate artillery surgeon

A rare description of an artillery hospital camp was given by Felix R. Galloway of Company A of the Sumter [Lane's Georgia] Battalion [see Confederate Veteran Magazine, August 1913, p. 388]. Galloway stopped at the hospital camp to inquire about comrades wounded during the battle of Gettysburg. He writes: "As I came up Dr. William [A.] Green[e], once a member of Company A, said to me: 'You see that pile of hands, feet, arms, fingers, ears, noses, and legs, about four bushels, over there? John Tyson's leg and Dupont Gary's arm are in it. We did the best we could for them and sent them farther to the rear for safety.' They both died that night." Greene was chief surgeon of the battalion at the time, but he evidently attended men from other Third Corps artillery commands as well, including Sgt. Mabery Hammond of the Purcell artillery from Pegram's battalion.