Scope and Contents
This collection contains material about Jonathan Letterman but not by Jonathan Letterman, except for a reproduced 1862 newspaper article listed under Publications. The bulk of the collection consists of memoirs, biographical sketches, and articles referencing Letterman. It also includes information about the Letterman Army Medical Center, correspondence about this collection, and several images.
Biographical / Historical
Jonathan Letterman (1824-1872) was an American military surgeon who made significant reforms in battlefield medicine. He was born in Canonsburg, PA on December 11, 1824. His father was also a surgeon. Letterman attended Jefferson College in Canonsburg, graduating in 1845. Four years later, he completed his M.D. at Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia. After graduation from medical school, Letterman passed the Army Medical Board Exam and became an assistant Army surgeon. From 1849 to 1861, he served on military campaigns against Native Americans in several states, including Florida, Minnesota, New Mexico, and California.
Letterman was in California when the Civil War began in 1861. He returned East and was assigned to the Army of the Potomac. In May of1862, he was appointed Medical Director of the Department of West Virginia. One month later, Letterman was promoted to Medical Director of the entire Army of the Potomac. At this time, battlefield medicine was disorganized, leading to greater loss of life. General George B. McClellan, then in command of the Union Army, tasked Letterman with reforming this ineffective system.
Before Letterman’s reforms, wounded soldiers were often left on the battlefield until someone was able to remove them. Letterman addressed this problem by implementing a triage system. Injured soldiers would be taken first to a field dressing station, where initial dressings and tourniquets would be applied to their wounds. Next, they would be taken to a field hospital located nearby,to have emergency surgery or other treatment. Those who needed long-term care were transferred to larger military hospitals away from the battlefield. Letterman’s system proved efficient and successful at the battles of Antietam (September 17, 1862), Fredericksburg (December 11-15, 1862), and Gettysburg (July 1-3, 1863).
Letterman’s improvements to Army medical care also included reforms of military hospitals. His plan called for each hospital to have a Chief Surgeon in charge, with two assistant surgeons. The surgeons would be aided not by the three highest-ranking medical officers, but by the three most skilled. Additionally, Letterman started the Army’s first Ambulance Corps, training men as stretcher-bearers and wagon drivers.
In March of 1864, the Union Army officially adopted Letterman’s reforms as standard practice, by an Act of Congress. It was signed into law by President Abraham Lincoln. Letterman served a brief term as Inspector of Hospitals before resigning from the Army in December of 1864. He then moved to San Francisco, CA, where he was the city coroner from 1867-1872. In 1866, he published a memoir, Medical Recollections of the Army of the Potomac.
Following the death of his wife in 1872, Letterman faced depression and bouts of physical illness. He died on March 15, 1872 in San Francisco, at the age of 47. On November 13, 1911, a new military hospital near San Francisco was named the Letterman General Hospital in his honor.