Osgood (Charles E.)

Wikipedia says: During the civil war the role of hospital stewards was integral to medicine in the civil war and the operation of hospitals. First becoming a role in the military medical field in the late 1700’s to early 1800’s, they were assigned very important tasks, taking the role of a pharmacists in the army, a term used and adopted later, and to generally act as hospital administrators. In addition to having to fill out the prescriptions for the people in the hospitals, they were also in charge of mixing and creating the drugs and medicine for the patients themselves. As part of administrative duties they also had to keep inventory of the supplies and keep and make the medical records of the hospital. Despite being such a necessary and vital part to hospitals, the numerous standards and requirements set for someone to be hired in this position were so high only a select few could become a steward. These included things such as being well educated in pharmaceutical practices, minor education in surgical procedures, be able to cook, the application of bandages, cups, and leeches. These requirements went even further recommending that stewards be younger, intelligent and healthy men with good natures. To ensure that candidates met their desired standards they gave potential candidates exams and checked for any previous experience in medical or medicinal fields. Ultimately, the selected candidates were men who scored the highest on the exams and had the experience working in the field before. Because of this process to select the best candidates, hospitals would only ever have one or two stewards assigned to the entire building, leading to them being heavily overworked with their duties.