Letter on poor hospital care, Virginia, 1864
Item 65107 info
Maine Historical Society
Charles H. Lewis who was soon to leave the Washington, D.C., area and move to South Manchester, Ct., wrote to Benjamin H. Hinds at the Maine Agency Sanitary Commission in Washington to report on the death of Samuel Huff of Co. E of the 17th Maine Regiment.
Huff died at Sickles Hospital in Alexandria, Virginia. Lewis charged the death could have been avoided with better medical care. He wrote that the circumstances of Huff's death would "not reflect much credit on the person in charge of this hospital."
He wrote that the doctor had not examined Huff in a week and never gave him more than one personal examination. In addition, it appears that requests for Huff to get a furlough to go home for treatment were ignored or denied.
Samuel Huff Jr. was 31 when he enlisted as a private in Co. E of the 17th Maine on August 18, 1862. He died on Oct. 14, 1864.
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