Hi Lori:

If you will post your ancestor's name, I will look him up in Samuel P. Bates' "History of Pennsylvania Volunteers."

You asked: >>>They say that he went in the hospital 7/1862 in Winchester VA and died at Phil. PA. Would it seem strange that he was transported this distance during that time? <<<

Not really. Winchester is at the head of the Valley of Virginia and changed hands many, many times during the war. In early July 1862, General McClellan was bottled up at Harrison's Landing on the north bank of the James River. General Jackson's army had joined with General Lee to halt McClellan's 1862 attempt to capture Richmond leaving few Confederate forces in the Valley. But there were Federal forces at the head of the Valley assigned to block any surprise Confederate advance into central Maryland and Pennsylvania.

The Baltimore & Ohio Railroad was operational passing from the Midwest through Harper's Ferry which would have easily carried your ancestor to Baltimore. From there he could have been transported to a convalescent hospital in Philadelphia by rail or by water.

The following was extracted from "The District: A History of the Philadelphia District, U. S. Army Corps of Engineers, 1866-1971" (U. S. Army Corps of Engineers, January 1974, page 126) written by Frank E. Snyder and Brian H. Guss: "In the course of the war, the city served as [an] evacuation and hospitalization center for tens of thousands of wounded soldiers, who streamed north from Southern and Western battlefields. A vast network of military hospitals was established in the city, including the 4000-bed Mower General Hospital in Chestnut hill, and the 4500-bed Satterlee General Hospital in West Philadelphia. There some 157,000 wounded cared for in Philadelphia hospitals during the war received treatment--having been evacuated by boat up the Chesapeake, by barge through C&D Canal, thence up Delaware Bay and in the Delaware and Schuylkill Rivers to Gray's Ferry, where they were disembarked to ox-carts, and trundled off to Satterlee General."

Snyder and Guss cited Frank H. Taylor's "Philadelphia in the Civil War" (1913) as the source of this commentary. I'm sure there are more modern texts on Philadelphia and its military hospitals.

The Union dead from these hospitals, if not claimed by family for burial, would have been interred in either the Philadelphia National Cemetery, or the Beverly National Cemetery just across the Delaware River from Philadelphia. Both cemeteries are currently under the management of the Director, Beverly National Cemetery whose office should have a list of the known dead at these two sites. Call (609) 877-5460 or write to Director, Beverly National Cemetery, Department of Veterans Affairs, Beverly, New Jersey 08010.

Hope all this helps!

Hugh Simmons
Fort Delaware Society
http://www.del.net/org/fort