Analysis of Health Service Support with Frontier Surgeons and Ambulance Corps to 1876 Centennial Campaign: Sheridan's War Against the Sioux and Cheyenne Native American on Indian Hunting Grounds

This excellent report has been professionally converted for accurate flowing-text e-book format reproduction. The Centennial Campaign of 1876 is a valuable example of warfare between the US and Native Americans. Originally conceived as a punitive campaign, three columns of combined cavalry and infantry units under the overall command of General Phillip Sheridan converged on the Sioux and Cheyenne Indian hunting grounds with the goal of subduing recalcitrant groups. The campaign included two of the largest battles fought during the Plains Indian Wars and consequently the largest casualty rates before its close in September of 1876. Supporting each column was a skeleton of the health service support system that evolved during the Civil War.

This study evaluates the health service support provided to the Centennial Campaign units, primarily those engagements leading up to and immediately after the Battle of the Little Big Horn. It also addresses how leadership decisions and philosophies influenced medical planning. The major aspects of health service support are analyzed from the viewpoint of current medical planning doctrine and assessed based on the health service support structure and techniques developed during the Civil War. This analysis provides a focused and holistic view of health service that is absent in the major studies of the Centennial Campaign of 1876.

The Centennial Campaign of 1876 differed greatly from the campaigns fought during the Civil War. The Centennial Campaign saw infantry and cavalry forces engaged in battles against indigenous forces instead of a symmetrical and conventional enemy. The campaign itself encompassed operations far from logistic depots and the Army relied on expeditionary techniques to overcome this limitation. Although the expeditionary nature of the campaign differed from the Civil War army, the medical requirements were similar- sick and wounded soldiers still required medical treatment and evacuation. Because these medical requirements existed, the Army Medical Department resourced the 1876 campaign's capabilities to sustain the health and medical readiness just as it had sourced Civil War units. One example of the similarities included the government's hiring of contract surgeons to augment military surgeons in order to remedy the assigned health care provider deficiencies.

The study's goal is to examine the health service support provided to the Centennial Campaign units, primarily leading up to and immediately after the Battle of the Little Big Horn. The Battle of Little Big Horn produced the largest number of US Army casualties during the campaign. This study describes the conditions of the frontier posts and medical care provided there, how surgeons dealt with disease and non-battle injuries, how the army conducted casualty evacuation and the influence of leadership decisions and philosophies on medical planning. The major aspects of health service support will be analyzed from the viewpoint of current medical planning doctrine and contrasted against health service support structure and techniques developed during the Civil War.