This page from Battles and Leaders of the Civil War (Vol. 2, p. 672; 1884) features two field hospitals shortly after the battle of Antietam, both on Dr. Otho J. Smith’s farm near the Upper Bridge over the Antietam northeast of Sharpsburg.

Mentioned are Doctors Samuel Sexton, 8th Ohio and Anson Hurd, 14th Indiana Infantry – Assistant Surgeon and Surgeon, respectively, of two of the regiments in General Nathan Kimball’s brigade of General William H French’s division. These men, along with other surgeons and staff, treated wounded soldiers on the day of the battle in a barn on the Roulette Farm close to the action and about a mile south of Smith’s, but, being under fire there, moved with their patients back to the main Divisional Hospital here on the Smith Farm late on the 17th or early on the 18th of September 1862.

The pictures in B&L are from two stereo photographs taken about 20 September 1862 by Alexander Gardner:

Keedysville, Maryland (vicinity). Smith’s barn, used as a hospital after the battle of Antietam [Library of Congress]

Keedysville, Md., vicinity. Confederate wounded at Smith’s Barn, with Dr. Anson Hurd, 14th Indiana Volunteers, in attendance [Library of Congress]

One Response to “French’s Division hospital, Smith Farm”

  1. Elizabeth Hawkinson says:

    My great uncle Charles Quattlebaum,son of General Paul Quattlebaum, died at Smith’s Farm in 1865. I don’t have any information as to whether he was in the battle at Antietam.
    It seems unlikely that he died 3 years after these scenes.
    He was from SC.

    [later]
    I was mistaken about Antietam. My great uncle, Charles Quattlebaum died in 1865 at the battle of Averasboro in Harnett County, NC. I found another record on MyHeritage about the battle in Dunn, NC. They have a museum and more information. It was the largest Confederate battle.

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