Raising the American Flag at Satterlee General Hospital - NEW

Item MED-11871

Description

Printed invitation to witness the raising of the United States Flag (presented by the citizens of Philadelphia ) at United states General Hospital, West Philadelphia - (Satterlee General Hospital).
Document is signed by Isaac I. Hayes, Surgeon in Charge of the Hospital.


Satterlee General Hospital was the largest union hospital during the American Civil War, operating from 1862 to 1865 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Its physicians and nurses rendered care to thousands of Union soldiers and Confederate prisoners.
 
After its patient population spiked following the battles of Bull Run and Gettysburg, this hospital became the second-largest in the country with 34 wards and hundreds of tents, containing 4,500 beds. Initially referred to as the West Philadelphia General Hospital, it was later renamed in honor of Richard Sherwood Satterlee, a physician from Seneca County, New York, who was stationed with the United States Army at Fort Winnebago in Portage, Wisconsin during the Black Hawk War. He then rose to prominence and was brevetted as a lieutenant colonel, colonel, and brigadier general during the Civil War for diligent care and procuring proper army supplies as medical purveyor, and for economy and fidelity in the disbursement of large sums of money.
 
 
Isaac Israel Hayes (1832-1881) was an American Arctic explorer, physician, and politician who was appointed as the commanding officer at Satterlee General Hospital during the American Civil War. He was then elected after the war to the New York State Assembly.
 
In 1863, Hayes was elected as a member to the American Philosophical Society. His book, "The Open Popular Sea: A Narrative of a Voyage of Discovery Towards the North Pole in the Schooner United States," was published in 1867.