The Field Hospital
There are many field hospitals in Civil War reenactments, but our surgeon, Marjy Wienkop, specializes in military medicine of the 18th and 19th centuries. With three decades of experience, Marjy Wienkop, who portrays Dr. (Major) Geo. G. McClelland III, has done programs for the museum and numerous other historic sites and schools. Dr. Robert Hicks, former Director of the Mütter Museum, says this Civil War display is one of the best he has seen.
Much of the equipment consists of actual antiques, and those that are not have been crafted by our surgeon. A good portion of the medicines are authentic; however, controlled or illegal substances, as well as those deemed particularly hazardous or no longer available, have been replaced with facsimiles. We use the appropriate medicines and hospital flags to reflect the specific year being recreated at events.
We aim to demonstrate a variety of injuries and illnesses to reflect what truly occurred during the war. We focus on illustrating more common injuries and wounds, avoiding the overdone amputation displays that other surgeons often repeat. Our surgeon’s specialties are disease, pharmacy, and dentistry. Since the Medical Department dealt far more with sickness and disease than anything else, we place an emphasis in this area. We also discuss the lesser-known roles of the regimental surgeon, including meteorology and the natural sciences.
The hospital is always looking for people wanting to do impressions of hospital stewards, male nurses, orderlies, Veteran’s Reserve Corp, or ambulance corpsmen. If you are interested, please contact Marjy Wienkop (MarjyArts@comcast.net), or our contact page.