The Baltimore American praised a Mrs. Susan Harry and a Hagerstown-based Ladies Aid Society as they repeatedly “assembled at different houses, sewed bandages, scraped lint and made up such things as would relieve the sufferers, and from sun-up to sun-down you could find them in every nook of the town, and through the country, searching for, begging, and buying such articles as the sufferers might ask for or want. At morning, noon, and evening, you would see these ladies, accompanied by their husbands, children and servants, with baskets, buckets, pitchers and plates in their hands winding their way to the hospitals….”

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The North’s two predominant civilian aid organizations, the U.S. Sanitary Commission and the U.S. Christian Commission, also were on hand to help out. Both were headquartered at the Susan Hoffman farm and were vital in obtaining and distributing supplies. Regarding their efforts, the Baltimore American reporter wrote, “The Sanitary Commission and the Christian Commission are performing a work of magnificent benevolence in the aid they bring to the regular medical staff in the army….”

James Grant, a volunteer with the Christian Commission, arrived during the battle and made his way to a brick farmhouse, probably the Hoffman farm, where he found “every room in the dwelling and all the outbuildings, the yard and the adjacent fields were swarming with wounded men. The excitement was intense, the scene indescribable, a great wave from the tide of battle was bearing on its bloody crest to this spot, all bleeding and torn, hundreds of heroes to suffer and many of them to die.”

A group of volunteer nurses, led by Mrs. Anna Holstein, the wife of a prominent Philadelphia Episcopal minister, traveled from the City of Brotherly Love to lend assistance. They worked out of several hospitals located in private houses in and around Sharpsburg, as well as the Locust Spring Hospital. Of one hospital she would write, “In this uncomfortable little place crowded with boxes and swarming with hospital flies, the six ladies continued their labors during the day, waiting and working faithfully among the wounded.”

Other female care providers at Antietam included Clara Barton, who probably worked at the Samuel Poffenberger farm hospital; Lizzie Brown; a Mrs. C. Evans; a Mrs. Holihan; a Mrs. Cadwalader; A. Anna Edmunds; Helen Gilson and a Mrs. Gray, both at the Hoffman farm; Mrs. Mary Lee, who worked at several locations; and Ophelia Gehrt, who worked at a field hospital for the 33rd New York Volunteers on the Susan Hoffman farm. At the Smoketown Hospital, Maria Hall, Mrs. Francis Barlow, Mrs. Mary Morris Husbands, Mrs. John Harris, Mrs. Howard Kennedy and a Miss Tyson complemented the staff of Surgeon Bernard Vanderkrieft.

Eventually, many of the small hospitals were consolidated into larger facilities. Once a soldier was healthy enough, he could be sent to even more permanent hospitals in Frederick, or to Camp Curtain in Harrisburg, Pa. Soldiers remained, however, in Sharpsburg area hospitals until spring 1863.

Hundreds of displaced civilians eagerly welcomed the hospital consolidation. Most returned to find their homes decimated by the soldiery, and in the years following the war, many farmers filed damage claims with the government in an attempt to gain recompense for their losses. John Otto, whose property was located not from Burnside’s Bridge, filed a claim in 1873 for $2,350.60 in damages. Otto asserted that his “house, barn and granary were taken possession of Sept. 17th and used for hospital purposes til the 4th of Nov. 1862, during which time everything in and around it that could be of any service was taken and used, including beds, furniture, commissary stores, condiments, and anything that would contribute to the comfort of the wounded, being either consumed entirely or rendered unfit for use.”

Otto received merely $893.85 for his losses, but he was more fortunate than most who filed claims. Ephraim Geeting’s farm was part of the Locust Spring hospital complex, and he filed a claim for $1,238.45 in damages, itemizing “occupation and use of houses, barns, furniture, bedding and household effects from September 17 to about April 15 for hospital purposes.” Geeting’s claim was rejected.

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