42 H is for Hospital

Log Fence by Becky Brown

The H signifies a field hospital.

A faded Civil War hospital flag

from Gettysburg National Military Park Collection. 

The background color was probably a stronger yellow 150 years ago.

Flags were used to communicate on the battle field. We're all familiar with the white flag as a signal of surrender. Yellow flags meant the no-fire zone of a hospital for either side. Confederate nurse Kate Cumming explained their use in her first day of nursing in Corinth, Mississippi.

We are at the Tishomingo Hotel, which, like every other large building, has been taken for a hospital. The yellow flag is flying from the top of each. Mrs. Ogden tried to prepare me for the scenes which I should witness upon entering the wards. But alas! nothing that I had ever heard or read had given me the faintest idea of the horrors witnessed here. I do not think that words are in our vocabulary expressive enough to present to the mind the realities of that sad scene. Certainly, none of the glories of the war were presented here."

Hand-colored photo of a field hospital

after the Battle of Savage's Station, Virginia.

Late in the War the Union Army adopted a clearer signal, a yellow flag with a green H. The graphic design alerted friend and foe that patients were sheltered in that camp. 

Above the Michigan State Relief Association nursing at a field hospital in Virginia.

Is that a quilt airing out on the tent?

The quilt block is drawn from a child's quilt that is pictured in my book Civil War Women, made by a member of the Burkhart family in Illinois about the time of the Civil War. Terry Thompson and I called it Log Fence for that book. The H's just jumped out at me recently.

I want to emphasize: I am NOT saying this mid-century quilt was intended to represent the H or a hospital. We can, however, use the block to symbolize the brave doctors and nurses who worked in the field hospitals.

Cutting an 8" Finished Block

Use a background that captures the faded yellow in the Gettysburg flag above or a brighter yellow to indicate the flag as it once was.

A Cut 1 green square 1-5/8"

B Cut 2 background yellow prints into rectangles 3-7/8" x 1-5/8"

C Cut 2 green and 2 background yellow prints into strips 8-1/2" x 1-5/8"

D Cut 2 slightly darker yellow strips 8-1/2" x 2" (This will give you extra to center and trim the block when done.)

See more about nurses on this post from April.
http://civilwarquilts.blogspot.com/2011/04/17-comfort-quilt.html

Read Kate Cumming's 1866 book
A Journal of Hospital Life in the Confederate Army of Tennessee

http://books.google.com/books?id=jXwKAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA9&lpg=PA9&dq=journal+of+hospital+life&source=bl&ots=IVggqdzGVP&sig=Ck227H-si_hGK1C_P93R8jvIJTQ&hl=en&ei=pgQrTt7MHJDVgAfJ4PWaCw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=6&ved=0CEUQ6AEwBQ#v=onepage&q&f=false

It's also available in a newer print edition as Kate: The Journal of a Confederate Nurse.

Here's a version of Log Fence by

Francine Pons of San Antonio, Texas.

Below three photos of nurses at Union Hospitals in Washington D.C. from the Library of Congress