Civil War Medicine: The Blue & Gray Hospital Association

As this medical series started, Mark Quattrock reached out to Emerging Civil War inquired if he could share about this living history group. We welcome his guest post.

Hello and welcome to The Blue & Gray Hospital Association! My name is Mark Quattrock and for the past 11 years I have been the Director of the Association. We are both a Living History and Educational Organization whose purpose is to educate the public about the various aspects of Civil War Medicine and the important fight which took place during the war, the fight to save lives. We strive to present a balanced view not just looking at Medicine from the Union perspective but also from the Confederate side. We also strive to educate the public about caregivers who participated in the war i.e. Surgeons, Assistant Surgeons, Hospital Stewards, Chaplains, Nurses, etc.

The Blue & Gray Hospital Association got its start back in January 2012 when 3 people, Daryl Crawford, Jackie Greer, and I met for lunch at Gettysburg Eddies. It was there the 3 of us agreed to form the Blue & Gray Hospital Association and for our official birth date as January 1, 2012. Now 11 years later we have grown as an Association from 3 people to one whose current membership is at 43. Our Membership includes our General Members who, participate in our Living History events as Historical Interpreters and those who are our Associate/Supporting Members. While, we consider our base in Gettysburg our Membership includes people from: PA, MD, VA, DC, NE, and AR.

In the time we have been active as an Association we have attended many Living History events at sites that include: The National Museum of Civil War Medicine, the Pry House Field Hospital and Museum on the Antietam Battlefield, the Antietam Battlefield at the George Mumma Farm, Monocacy Battlefield at the Gambrill Mill, Gettysburg National Military Park at the PA Monument working with the Society of Civil War Surgeons, the Hessian Barracks in Frederick, MD, the National Civil War Museum, the United States Army Heritage Center in Carlisle, PA, and the Gettysburg Heritage Center.

In addition to the locations I listed we also have a great opportunity each year to work with the Gettysburg Foundation as one of the Living History organizations who are invited to do programs at the George Spangler Farm. This year we took part in 2 Living History Programs: Family Day at the Farm on Saturday, May 28^th and the weekend of June 17^th-19^th. This year we were much honored to be invited to attend a very special event organized by Ron Kirkwood, a volunteer at the Spangler Farm and author of the book Too Much for Human Endurance: The George Spangler Farm Hospital and the Battle of Gettysburg which, took place on Saturday, June 4th. As a result of writing this book Ron was contacted by about 60 descendants of George Spangler’s children. The event he organized was Descendant’s Day, a family reunion of the Spangler Family at the Farm. We had set up some of our Living History displays and we had an opportunity to chat with the descendants who came. We also had created a quilt with signatures of the descendants who came out and we presented it to Ron Kirkwood and to the Foundation.

The past 10 years we had the pleasure of working with the National Museum of Civil War Medicine to organize two Workshops, the Living History Workshop for Living Historians who do a Civil War Medical Impression and a Historical Interpreter Workshop. This year we have started a partnership with the Gettysburg Foundation to organize our First Annual Civil War Medicine Symposium on Saturday, October 15^th, 2022 in the Kinsley Learning Center at the George Spangler Farm in Gettysburg, PA. This Symposium is both in person in the Center and Virtual and includes 5 speakers including myself who, are presenting on various topics of Civil War Medicine. Anyone who is interested can go to the Gettysburg Foundation web site and register online. The deadline for in person registration is October 9^th.

If you have any additional questions about the Association and what we do or about the Symposium you are welcome to reach out to me at mquattrock@outlook.com. You can also check out our web site at www.bluegrayhosptialassoc.com, our Facebook page at Blue & Gray Hospital Association or on Instagram. Please, stop by and see us at one of our events.