General Hospital #3, Colonia, NJ

by Sandra Moss

Months before the United States military joined the Allies on the European battlefields in the spring of 1917, Surgeon General William Crawford Gorgas anticipated the need for stateside hospitalization, surgical repair, and rehabilitation for as many as 250,000 wounded men.

Orthopedic surgeon and bone graft pioneer Fred Houdlett Albee, a self-assured man of forceful temperament, had spent four months during 1916 in wartime France at the request of the French war office, where he taught bone grafting and limb-saving techniques in military hospitals. Much of what is known about the military hospital in Colonia, New Jersey, is based on Albee’s 1943 autobiography, A Surgeon’s Fight to Rebuild Men.

With the support and encouragement of wealthy estate owner Charles D. Freeman of Colonia (now within Woodbridge Township in Middlesex County), Albee began to plan for a rehabilitation hospital “on the rolling hillsides of New Jersey.” Freeman donated two hundred acres between the Lincoln Highway (Route 27) and New Dover Road about a mile east of present-day Metropark), while Albee presented the plan for a specialized orthopedic/rehabilitation hospital to Gorgas, who advised him to make application for Army Reconstruction Hospital No. 3 (Nos. 1 and 2, planned for Washington and Boston, were never built, but the designation No. 3 persisted). Such a hospital would require state-of-the-art surgical facilities, physical and vocational rehabilitation departments, provision for psychological rehabilitation, and shops to create artificial limbs and braces. The proximity to port-of-entry facilities at Hoboken and a major rail line would facilitate transport of the wounded from ship to hospital.

The War Department decided on a general hospital (rather than a dedicated reconstruction hospital) with a bed capacity of 2000 to be organized by Albee, who was appointed director and chief surgeon. He cheerfully completed basic military training to prepare himself for command of a military hospital and was granted the rank of colonel.

Construction began officially on February 2, 1918. To move materials and supplies, a railway spur was constructed to the northeast corridor railhead some two miles away to transport materials (and later, some of the wounded following their disembarkation). Over 100 wooden barrack-style buildings (standard military pavilion style hospital construction) covering some 200 acres were erected for patient care and support functions. In the end, the total cost of construction was between $2.75 and $3.5 million. By June, 500 beds were open for patients; by October, total bed capacity numbered 1,700. The first contingent of wounded arrived in July—casualties from the battle of Chateau Thierry, one of the first actions of the American Expeditionary Force. The census increased quickly, with peak bed occupancy of some 1950 men at the end of January 1919.

Although the hospital was officially designated a “general hospital,” the emphasis was on surgical cases, with special facilities for orthopedic trauma, and nervous system injuries (brain, spine, peripheral nerves). The orthopedic military surgical service within the general hospital was the largest in the United States. Many of the orthopedic cases involved grievous injuries to the extremities (mainly lower limbs) due to shrapnel and explosives. Many of these wounded men had undergone amputations at field hospitals in Europe, arriving at the Colonia hospital with nonhealing wounds, embedded battlefield debris and shrapnel, deep infections, necrotic tissue, and extensive loss of bone.

April 1919 saw the admission of 750 such amputees. In these cases, lengthy disinfection protocols and careful wound care were required before reconstructive surgery and bone grafting could be undertaken. In that pre-antibiotic era, wounds were disinfected by the Carrel-Dakin method of prolonged irrigation with a dilute bleach solution, together with the application of antibacterial viruses (bacteriophages). Following surgery, prosthetic limbs were fitted and constructed in a dedicated “orthopedic workshop.” For many men who had not undergone amputation in Europe, wound management and bone grafting saved limbs.

Of critical importance was the work of rehabilitating shattered minds and nerves and rebuilding morale in preparation for return to productive civilian life. Physical and occupational therapy increased mobility, helped men adjust to artificial limbs, and fostered self-confidence. An innovative “curative workshop,” based on a British model, taught skills including carpentry, drafting, telegraphy, mechanical drawing, printing, welding, and automobile mechanics. Some men with amputations helped to construct their own artificial limbs. Classes were offered in subjects such as mathematics, basic literacy, and business administration. Organizations such as the Red Cross and various community volunteers assisted in providing patient services and support. For example, patients and staff produced a magazine called Over Here, while sports and cultural activities further contributed to morale and recovery.

Orders were received in spring 1919 to begin dismissing staff at temporary wartime hospitals across the county in preparation for decommissioning. With some 1,500 men still in need of care at Colonia—many with wounds that were not yet ready for bone graft operations—Albee hurried to Washington and gained a reprieve of several months. With less than 1,000 patients, some requiring transfer to permanent military hospitals, and only a handful of new admissions, the hospital closed in October 1919 and the buildings were demolished. Into the 1940s, only empty fields remained, with a flagpole to mark the site. Today a tree-lined residential community occupies the hundreds of acres that were once the site of General Hospital No. 3.

SOURCES

1. Fred H. Albee. A Surgeon’s Fight to Rebuild Men. New York: E. P. Dutton &Co., 1943.

2. United States Army Medical Department, Office of Medical History. “General Hospital No. 3, Colonia , N.J.” Chapter XVIII in The Medical Department of the United States Army in the World War. Washington, Surgeon General’s Office, 1923.
   http://history.amedd.army.mil/booksdocs/wwi/MilitaryHospitalsintheUS/chapter18.htm (text of reference 2; accessed May 28, 2017)
   http://history.amedd.army.mil/booksdocs/wwi/MilitaryHospitalsintheUS/chapter18page387.pdf (statistical table, accessed May 28, 2017)

Sandra Moss M.D., M.A. (History) is past president of the Medical History Society of New Jersey. She is the author of three books and many articles about the history of medicine in New Jersey.