Civil War Hospitals in Beaufort

In late 1861, Northern troops, in a seaborne assault, secured Beaufort and the surrounding area for the Union. It was quickly realized that the medical means brought along fell far short of meeting the  needs of the troops.  Necessity being the mother of invention, homes abandoned by their owners were commandeered as hospitals.

Courtesy of the Library of Congress. The buildings in red indicate Union hospitals.

Thousands of soldiers and freed slaves, called, "contrabands" were treated in these hospitals. Some survived; some did not. Thus, "Sorrow by the Sea" is the story of the medical side of the Civil War in Beaufort.

Dave Smoot, who has been a Civil War Surgeon re-enactor for more years than he'd like to say, will be the presenter. You may remember him as "Dr. Tooms" or "Dr. Meade" from other library programs that he's done for us. (He will not however be portraying a physician this time.)

This BDC@ Beaufort Branch local history program is open to all who would like to learn more about Beaufort's medical history.

"Sorrow by the Sea: Civil War Hospitals of Beaufort" with Dave Smoot
Wednesday, September 11, 2019 at 5:30 PM
 First come; first seated. Doors will open after 5:05 pm (We have to close down the Research Room first.)

Please note: All units of the Library system will be closed on Monday, September 2, 2019 for Labor Day. Regular hours will resume on Tuesday, September 3rd - unless Hurricane Dorian takes aim for coastal South Carolina. Please monitor the official notifications from the Beaufort County Emergency Management Division.

We host Dr. Meade Tonight: Come Join Us

Learn about treatments for measles, typhoid fever, addle-headedness, childbirth, shrapnel and gunshot wounds, amputations, chronic conditions, etc. from Atlanta's most beloved doctor, Dr. Meade as portrayed by Dave Smoot, a living historian who has been playing a doctor at Civil War re-enactments for years!

The program is free and open to anyone interested in learning more about mid-19th medical practices and treatments.


Please note: He won't be available to diagnose anyone's current medical conditions nor give you contemporary medical advice. This is strictly a "history of medicine" presentation brought to you by the Beaufort District Collection.

"Dr. Meade and the Medicine of Gone With the Wind" with Dave Smoot

Wed., August 29

BDC@ Beaufort Branch Meeting Room, 311 Scott Street, 1st Floor 
 
5:30 PM 

Local History Program for August 29, 2018

News Flash: Just added to our program schedule!  

Beaufort is visually stunning with lots of antebellum homes because the Union occupied this town and established lots of hospitals during the Civil War. Thank goodness for the need to help the wounded. It helped save a lot of structures from physical damage and destruction. We're hosting a program based on medical history to illuminate the period for our customers on August 29th.

The beloved novel Gone with the Wind has a lot of characters - and a fair portion of them get sick or wounded. Living historian Dave Smoot has created a new program to share his deep knowledge of mid-19th medical treatments and practices based upon the medical manuals of the time. (The BDC connection?: Some students of Margaret Mitchell's work claim that at least some of the inspiration for the life and times of the Old South came from her childhood visits to Beaufort.)

• Scarlett's first husband, Charles Hamilton,  contracts measles; what would have been the treatment?
• Scarlett's mother, Ellen Robillard O'Hara, contracts typhoid fever; how would it have been treated?
• Mr. O'Hara's beloved Tara falls on hard times after the Southern defeat and he becomes addle-headed; what would have happened to him?
• Both Scarlett O'Hara Hamilton Kennedy Rhett and Melanie Hamilton Wilkes give birth; what special circumstances would have been present?
• A cast of thousands are lying wounded on an Atlanta street. One screams, "Don't cut, don't cut", on the operating table. What happened to the Civil War wounded?
• The book and the movie are different. There are characters in the book that are not featured in the movie? Some get sick. What happens to them?

Come to this free "first come, first seated" BDC local history program to find out!