Letterman signs a contract

Who was the Dr. Walker who appears in various orders and lists of Camp Letterman Hospital in Gettysburg as Acting Assistant Surgeon in 1863? “TH Walker” came to life in the files of the National Archives as Thomas H. Walker with a contract signed by Jonathan Letterman, Medical Director of the Army of the Potomac.

Walker’s first contract as a private physician lasted  from March to May 1862 with the 11th Indiana.  The second contract signed at Washington, D.C., from October 8, 1862 until April 1863 was for duty at a Frederick Maryland hospital following the battle of Antietam.  The most interesting document is a handwritten “contract with a private physician” between Walker and  Surgeon Letterman, Medical Director of the Army of the Potomac, dated July 7th at Frederick Maryland.  A note at the bottom indicates that “Dr. Walker will proceed to Gettysburg and report to Surgeon Janes USA in charge of the hospitals at that place.”   Jonathan Letterman later sent a letter confirming the contract and apologizing that it was signed in pencil, “as pen and ink were not readily available.” Walker was probably first assigned to the 2nd Corps hospital, relieved from the Cavalry hospital on August 6, and then reported to Camp Letterman until he left in mid-August to report to Vicksburg and serve  in a Small Pox hospital at Natchez , Mississippi until April 1864.  He lived in Chicago at the time of the Civil War but later moved to Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, and died at the home of his daughter in Mechanicsburg.