---

Battle of Salem Church • Tour the Battlefield

---

The ‘From Church to Hospital’ wayside marker is in front of the historic Salem Church along Plank Road (Virginia Route 3) 4 miles west of downtown Fredericksburg, Virginia and 1.5 miles west of exit 130 on Interstate 95 (38° 17.346′ N, 77° 31.873′ W; map to historic Salem Church)

The ‘Battle of Salem Church’ U.D.C. monument and the ‘Refuge from Horror’ wayside marker are next to this marker, and a number of other markers and monuments are nearby around the historic church.

From the marker:

From Church to Hospital

As the tumult of battle subsided, new sounds filled the air; the cries and moans of wounded soldiers. Two days of fighting around Salem Church left about 4,000 men killed or wounded. As soon as the battle ended, Confederate surgeons turned the building into a field hospital. Their work saved hundreds of lives.

Still, 92 Union soldiers and an unknown number of Confederates died at the church and were buried just outside its doors. For several days, surgeons worked tirelessly inside the church, bandaging wounds, administering anesthesia, and removing injured arms, legs, hands, and feet. The human suffering was immense.

The sight inside the building for horror, was, perhaps, never equaled within so limited a space. Every available foot of space was crowded with wounded and bleeding soldiers. The amputated limbs were piled up in every corner almost as high as a man could reach; blood flowed in streams along the aisles and out at the doors….
Colonel Robert McMillan, 24th Georgia

From the caption to the picture in the upper right:

One of the Confederate surgeons working at Salem Church was George R. C. Todd, brother of Mary Todd Lincoln and brother-in-law of President Abraham Lincoln.