Dr. (USA), Prentiss Jonathan Kent

Civil War Veteran

Affiliation: Union

Mustered in: Dec. 2, 1862, by Capt. Mott, 19th Infantry

Unit: 174th New York Infantry

Service: Assistant Surgeon

Mustered out and discharged: Feb. 9, 1864

Links:

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/54368571

https://vermontcivilwar.org/get.php?input=51479

Obituary

MONTPELIER --- DR. PRENTISS J. KENT, AGED 85, DIED OF OLD AGE SATURDAY NIGHT.

Dr. Prentiss J. Kent, aged 85 years, a well-known citizen of Montpelier, died Saturday night of breaking down due to advanced age. He has lived for many years on Main Street in Montpelier. He was a native of Calais, born September 34, 1834. The early years of his life were spent in that town. He was graduated from the University of Vermont Medical College, and later attended a medical College in Michigan, and then served as a surgeon in the army during the Civil War. Upon leaving that service he practiced in Winooski and Burlington, and then gave up that profession, and followed the work as a machinist in Worcester, Mass for some years.

He was twice married, his first wife being Elizabeth Atwater of Burlington, who died some years ago. His second wife was Clara McKnight Vincent of East Montpelier, who survives him. He also leaves a son, E. Atwater Kent of Philadelphia. He was well-liked among his associates.

The funeral will take place from the late home Tuesday morning. The body will be taken to Burlington for burial.

Barre Daily Times, May 5, 1919

Excerpt From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:

Main article: Union (American Civil War) § Medical conditions

The hygiene of the camps was poor, especially at the beginning of the war when men who had seldom been far from home were brought together for training with thousands of strangers. First came epidemics of the childhood diseases of chicken pox, mumps, whooping cough, and, especially, measles. Operations in the South meant a dangerous and new disease environment, bringing diarrhea, dysentery, typhoid fever, and malaria. There were no antibiotics, so the surgeons prescribed coffee, whiskey, and quinine. Harsh weather, bad water, inadequate shelter in winter quarters, poor policing of camps and dirty camp hospitals took their toll.[3] This was a common scenario in wars from time immemorial, and conditions faced by the Confederate army were even worse.

When the war began, there were no plans in place to treat wounded or sick Union soldiers. After the Battle of Bull Run, the United States government took possession of several private hospitals in Washington, D.C., Alexandria, Virginia, and surrounding towns.[4] Union commanders believed the war would be short and there would be no need to create a long-standing source of care for the army's medical needs. This view changed after the appointment of General George B. McClellan and the organization of the Army of the Potomac. McClellan appointed the first medical director of the army, surgeon Charles S. Tripler, on August 12, 1861. Tripler created plans to enlist regimental surgeons to travel with armies in the field, and the creation of general hospitals for the badly wounded to be taken to for recovery and further treatment.[5] To implement the plan, orders were issued on May 25 that each regiment must recruit one surgeon and one assistant surgeon to serve before they could be deployed for duty. These men served in the initial makeshift regimental hospitals. In 1862 William A. Hammond became surgeon general and launched a series of reforms.[6] He founded the Army Medical Museum,[7] and had plans for a hospital and a medical school in Washington; a central laboratory for chemical and pharmaceutical preparations was created; much more extensive recording was required from the hospitals and the surgeons. Hammond raised the requirements for admission into the Army Medical Corps. The number of hospitals was greatly increased and he paid close attention to aeration.[8] New surgeons were promoted to serving at the brigade level with the rank of Major. The Surgeon Majors were assigned staffs and were charged with overseeing a new brigade level hospital that could serve as an intermediary level between the regimental and general hospitals. Surgeon Majors were also charged with ensuring that regimental surgeons were in compliance with the orders issued by the Medical Director of the Army.[9]

In the Union skilled, well-funded medical organizers took proactive action, especially in the much enlarged United States Army Medical Department,[10] and the United States Sanitary Commission, a new private agency.[11] Numerous other new agencies also targeted the medical and morale needs of soldiers, including the United States Christian Commission as well as smaller private agencies such as the Women's Central Association of Relief for Sick and Wounded in the Army (WCAR) founded in 1861 by Henry Whitney Bellows, and Dorothea Dix. Systematic funding appeals raised public consciousness, as well as millions of dollars. Many thousands of volunteers worked in the hospitals and rest homes, most famously poet Walt Whitman. Frederick Law Olmsted, a famous landscape architect, was the highly efficient executive director of the Sanitary Commission.[12]

States could use their own tax money to support their troops as Ohio did. Following the unexpected carnage at the battle of Shiloh in April 1862, the Ohio state government sent 3 steamboats to the scene as floating hospitals with doctors, nurses and medical supplies. The state fleet expanded to eleven hospital ships. The state also set up 12 local offices in main transportation nodes to help Ohio soldiers moving back and forth.[13]

Field hospitals were initially in the open air, with tent hospitals that could hold only six patients first being used in 1862; after many major battles the injured had to receive their care in the open. As the war progressed, nurses were enlisted, generally two per regiment. In the general hospitals one nurse was employed for about every ten patients.[14] The first permanent general hospitals were ordered constructed during December 1861 in the major hubs of military activity in the eastern and western United States.[15] An elaborate system of ferrying wounded and sick soldiers from the brigade hospitals to the general hospitals was set up. At first the system proved to be insufficient and many soldiers were dying in mobile hospitals at the front and could not be transported to the general hospitals for needed care. The situation became apparent to military leaders in the Peninsular Campaign in June 1862 when several thousand soldiers died for lack of medical treatment.[16] Dr. Jonathan Letterman was appointed to succeed Tripler as the second Medical Director of the Army in 1862 and completed the process of putting together a new ambulance corps. Each regiment was assigned two wagons, one carrying medical supplies, and a second to serve as a transport for wounded soldiers. The ambulance corps was placed under the command of Surgeon Majors of the various brigades. In August 1863 the number of transport wagons was increased to three per regiment.[17]

Union medical care improved dramatically during 1862. By the end of the year each regiment was being regularly supplied with a standard set of medical supplies included medical books, supplies of medicine, small hospital furniture like bed-pans, containers for mixing medicines, spoons, vials, bedding, lanterns, and numerous other implements.[17] A new layer of medical treatment was added in January 1863. A division level hospital was established under the command of a Surgeon-in-Chief. The new divisional hospitals took over the role of the brigade hospitals as a rendezvous point for transports to the general hospitals. The wagons transported the wounded to nearby railroad depots where they could be quickly transported to the general hospitals at the military supply hubs. The divisional hospitals were given large staffs, nurses, cooks, several doctors, and large tents to accommodate up to one hundred soldiers each. The new division hospitals began keeping detailed medical records of patients. The divisional hospitals were established at a safe distance from battlefields where patients could be safely helped after transport from the regimental or brigade hospitals.[18]

Although the divisional hospitals were placed in safe locations, because of their size they could not be quickly packed in the event of a retreat. Several divisional hospitals were lost to Confederates during the war, but in almost all occasions their patients and doctors were immediately paroled if they would swear to no longer bear arms in the conflict. On a few occasions, the hospitals and patients were held several days and exchanged for Confederate prisoners of war.[19]

The both Armies learned many lessons and in 1886, it established the Hospital Corps. The Sanitary Commission collected enormous amounts of statistical data, and opened up the problems of storing information for fast access and mechanically searching for data patterns.[20]

Link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medicine_in_the_American_Civil_War