Hospital Stewards In Favor Of The Revolutionary War

MEDICAL SERVICES According to the US Army Medical Department, Office of Medical History, The establishment of a “an hospital” or Medical Service was enacted by the United States Congress on July 27th, 1775, due to the ineffectiveness of medical care, caused by a insufficiency of trained medical personnel, the inaccessibility to medications and medical equipment, the scarcity of medical treatments and the inability to prevent the diseases that devastated the U.S. Army at the eruption of the Revolutionary War. This is why we celebrate July 27th, 1775, is known as the Anniversary date for the Army Medical Department. The importance of this legislation is that is allowed for the establishment of a medical support structure to care for the injured,

In 1813, after Congress failed to reauthorize the incorporation of stewards, the Secretary of War saw the need to maintain personnel in this vital position, so he transferred competent NCOs from the line, in order to take care of patients, proving on the job training, sometimes absent of a surgeons supervision. Only by 1851, Hospital Stewards were recognized by the Army with the award of a “Half Chevron” denoting the rank of Hospital Steward. Finally in 1857, Congress allowed the incorporation of stewards as NCOs, which permanently merged Hospital Stewart into the Medical Department. Decades later, in 1887, Hospital Stewards were given similar chevrons as those wore by all other Army NCOs, with an additional stripe on top and the centered top Red cross. In 1903, the term Hospital Steward was replaced with Sergeant and Master Hospital

With the development of World War I, enlisted personnel of the Army Medical Department began to provide training classes in Laboratory, radiology, dental, veterinary and psychiatric; some courses were taught at civilian universities. Training was also implemented for NCO's to ensure that they could perform their duties on and off the battlefield. Additional specialized training was also offered at the Medical Replacement Training