Union Army Surgeon Dr. Edward Stonestreet & His Civil War Hospital in Rockville

Speaker: Clarence Hickey

Dr. Edward Stonestreet of Rockville served as Montgomery County Examining Surgeon in 1862, performing physical examinations on local Union Army recruits and draftees. He also served two terms as Acting Assistant Surgeon with the Union Army. He was in charge of a temporary Army General Hospital in Rockville, treating the wounded after the Battle of Antietam (1862), and also treated the ill soldiers of the 6th Michigan Cavalry Regiment in Rockville (1863) prior to its heroic efforts during the Battle of Gettysburg. Civil War medicine is discussed in relation to medical education of that era and in relation to 19th century medicine before and after the War.

This presentation is based on the speaker’s 2009 book Send for the Doctor. The speaker brings a doctor’s bag from 1885 containing example medical instruments of the Civil War and the 1800s.

Clarence Hickey is an interpretive docent with the Montgomery History’s Stonestreet Museum of 19th Century Medicine in Rockville, MD, and a re-enactor with the Speakers Bureau. He portrays historic Rockville physician Dr. Edward E. Stonestreet, who practiced medicine for 51 years (1852-1903) and was a Civil War Surgeon with the U. S. Army. Clarence’s living history portrayals, some in first person Chautauqua format, discuss the Doctor’s life and times, medical education, medical practice, and Civil War service; 19th-century medicine; and Civil War medicine and its effects on civilian medical practice. The Chautauqua format includes a first-person appearance and presentation by Dr. Stonestreet (in 19th-century attire), question and answer by the doctor in the 1800s, and question and answer by Clarence, stepping out of character. The performance draws from Clarence’s book Send For the Doctor: The Life and times of Dr. Edward E. Stonestreet, published by the Montgomery County Historical Society in 2009.