An Indissoluble Union: How the American War for Independence Transformed Philadelphia's Medical Community and Created a Public Health Establishment

s news spread through Philadelphia that Germantown was lost and that General Howe’s army was on the march toward the revolutionary capital, thousands fled the city. Some wanted to get themselves safely within Patriot-held territory. Some simply feared another round of the pillaging that had become a common practice of both armies. Some, however, went to attach themselves to the Continental Army, and among these were a number of Philadelphia’s medical men. When the war came, American forces harvested many of their best doctors and surgeons from Philadelphia, the richest intellectual soil in the nation. When they returned to the city at war’s end, they came with a new