the hospital complex at Parker’s Store. Artillerist Robert Stiles, “rode up to ambulance and looked in. They had taken off Longstreet’s hat, coat and boots. The blood had paled out of his face and its somewhat gross aspect was gone.” After about a three mile ambulance ride, doctors examined Longstreet at the field hospital and found that his wound, though extremely painful, would probably not be fatal. Moved again by ambulance on May 7, Longstreet went to Orange Court House, staying the night at Meadow Farm, the home of Erasmus Taylor, who served as Longstreet’s quartermaster. Longstreet traveled from Orange to Lynchburg by train where
he recovered for a time at Mrs. Caroline Garland’s home.
Many Federal wounded at the Wilderness ended up in hospitals in Fredericksburg, where they received attention in homes, churches, and other buildings set up as makeshift hospitals. Attended to by army doctors and nurses, and civilian organizations like the U.S. Sanitary Commission and the U.S. Christian Commission, they were joined by more of their comrades wounded in the extended fighting that came next at Spotsylvania Court House.
Evacuating the Federal wounded from Fredericksburg by May 27, the army transported most of them to hospitals in Alexandria D.C. The Confederates moved many of their wounded to Orange Court House, and from there by railroad to hospitals in Richmond, Gordonsville, Farmville, Petersburg, and other locations.
CVBT has helped save over 220 acres of Wilderness battlefield land, including the sites of Fifth Corps field hospitals.
The Artilleryman is a quarterly magazine founded in 1979 for enthusiasts who collect and shoot cannon and mortars primarily from the Revolutionary War, Civil War to World War II.
