Background
Jonathan Letterman was born in Canonsburg, Washington County, Pennsylvania. His father was Jonathan Letterman, a physician, and his mother was a daughter of Craig Ritchie of Canonsburg.
(This scarce antiquarian book is a selection from Kessinge...)
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https://www.amazon.com/Medical-Recollections-Army-Civil-War/dp/1429015187?SubscriptionId=AKIAJRRWTH346WSPOAFQ&tag=prabook-20&linkCode=sp1&camp=2025&creative=165953&creativeASIN=1429015187
(For 18 months in the early days of the American Civil War...)
For 18 months in the early days of the American Civil War, no man had more direct responsibility for the health and well-being of millions of Union soldiers than Dr. Jonathan Letterman. As Medical Director for the great Army of the Potomac, he was tasked with providing guidance and directives for the setup of hospitals, treatment of wounds and illness, diet for men in the field, and assignments of other medical personnel. Here is Letterman's own words is the summary of that enormous task, written just after the close of war. He saw it all and met the major military and political men of his time, serving initially under General George Brinton McClellan. Most fascinating are his assessments of what was needed to keep the army healthy and able to fight. He also includes anecdotes of his time in the field and around battles. Every memoir of the American Civil War provides us with another view of the catastrophe that changed the country forever.
https://www.amazon.com/Medical-Director-Potomac-Abridged-Annotated/dp/1519048785?SubscriptionId=AKIAJRRWTH346WSPOAFQ&tag=prabook-20&linkCode=sp1&camp=2025&creative=165953&creativeASIN=1519048785
Jonathan Letterman was born in Canonsburg, Washington County, Pennsylvania. His father was Jonathan Letterman, a physician, and his mother was a daughter of Craig Ritchie of Canonsburg.
His early education, by a private tutor, was followed by a course in Jefferson College in his native town, from which he was graduated in 1845. He received his medical education at Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia, where, in 1849, he received the degree of M. D.
Immediately following his graduation Letterman passed the examination before the United States Army examining board in New York and was appointed assistant surgeon. During the following twelve years his service was largely on the western and southwestern frontiers, with troops engaged in intermittent warfare with Seminoles, Navajos, Apaches, and Utes. The ingenuity and the improvisations necessary in the treatment, care, and transportation of the wounded under the difficult conditions incident to such warfare was an excellent training for the larger problems which were to confront him later.
At the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861 he was assigned to duty with the Army of the Potomac; in June 1862 he was promoted to major and surgeon and was appointed medical director of that army, then under the command of Major-General McClellan. In this position he displayed a remarkable degree of administrative ability. He completely reorganized the field medical service, created an effective mobile hospital organization, and instituted an ambulance service for the evacuation of battle casualties. This organization functioned so effectively at Chancellorsville and later at Antietam and Gettysburg that it was adopted for use throughout the Union army; in fact, the basic plan of field hospitalization and evacuation devised by Letterman has influenced that service in every modern army. He spent the latter part of the war as inspector of hospitals in the department of the Susquehanna.
Resigning his army commission in December 1864, he took up his residence in San Francisco, California. In 1866 he published his Medical Recollections of the Army of the Potomac. After the death of his wife he became severely depressed. Mental depression, coupled with a chronic intestinal trouble, kept him a semi-invalid until his death in his forty-eighth year.
(For 18 months in the early days of the American Civil War...)
(This scarce antiquarian book is a selection from Kessinge...)
Letterman was married in October 1863 to Mary Lee, of Maryland, to whose home he came, worn from the fatigue of the battlefield of Antietam. She died in November 1867.