Rather than start a new thread- reckon I'll just bump this one.
I'm still watching documentaries on the Civil War and lately I've run across a question I can't seem to find a straight answer to and figured I'd roll the dice here to see what folks thought.
The question I've been pondering deals with field hospitals & headquarter structures for the commanding generals. It seems to me universal that the HQ across many battlefields occupying the main floor of whatever structure with the basement and above e floors regularly doubling as a field hospital (and sharpshooters sharing space on the upper floors of said buildings.
This strikes me as... well odd and as I said I can't seem to find a straight answer as to 'why'. By my train of thought- if I was a commanding general and occupying a building as my HQ during an active battle, that entire space would be dedicated to staff officers supporting the battle but time & time again I see that they shared the space as a field hospital and I can't help but think that'd be incredibly distracting.
Knowing what I know about Civil War era field hospitals- they were essentially butcher shops of the living, hacking off limbs of the crying & wounded men out the literal windows. And to put myself in the shoes of a general at that time, I can't imagine having this "modern day surgery" occurring both above my head & below my feet (likely literal blood was dripping constantly from the ceiling above) but that just seemed common/the way it was.
So my question to the intellectuals here is was this space shared because field hospitals took priority and HQ's just used whatever space was available as I'm guessing or is there a better explanation as to why they would operate this way?
Thanks in advance.
-LD
I'm still watching documentaries on the Civil War and lately I've run across a question I can't seem to find a straight answer to and figured I'd roll the dice here to see what folks thought.
The question I've been pondering deals with field hospitals & headquarter structures for the commanding generals. It seems to me universal that the HQ across many battlefields occupying the main floor of whatever structure with the basement and above e floors regularly doubling as a field hospital (and sharpshooters sharing space on the upper floors of said buildings.
This strikes me as... well odd and as I said I can't seem to find a straight answer as to 'why'. By my train of thought- if I was a commanding general and occupying a building as my HQ during an active battle, that entire space would be dedicated to staff officers supporting the battle but time & time again I see that they shared the space as a field hospital and I can't help but think that'd be incredibly distracting.
Knowing what I know about Civil War era field hospitals- they were essentially butcher shops of the living, hacking off limbs of the crying & wounded men out the literal windows. And to put myself in the shoes of a general at that time, I can't imagine having this "modern day surgery" occurring both above my head & below my feet (likely literal blood was dripping constantly from the ceiling above) but that just seemed common/the way it was.
So my question to the intellectuals here is was this space shared because field hospitals took priority and HQ's just used whatever space was available as I'm guessing or is there a better explanation as to why they would operate this way?
Thanks in advance.
-LD
