Photograph of an army ambulance being loaded with wounded soldiers. Image caption reads, “Grandfather York with his ambulance during the Civil War.”

Typical army ambulances were wagons covered with a canvas cover, pulled by horses or mules, with room for two to four stretchers and one or two walking wounded. Lacking springs or other suspension, the trip from the battlefield to the field hospital could be extremely painful. The sight of ambulances such as these would have been common on the battlefields of the Trans-Mississippi Theater.

Tintype by Unknown Photographer

Image Courtesy Wilson’s Creek National Battlefield; WICR 32037