Hospital Steward Chevrons

Description

Hospital Stewards were among the highest pay enlisted men at $30 a month and were considered to have a very responsible position. They assisted the regiment surgeon, acted as dressers and dispensed medication. Many of them had some medical background. At a time when there were no medical licenses or even a formal requirement of what credentials were necessary to be called a physician, a few hospital stewards were promoted to the position of assistant surgeon. Army regulations specified that men selected as hospital stewards had to be of good character: “temperate, honest, and in every way reliable, as well as sufficiently intelligent, and skilled in pharmacy”. Temperance was an important quality since one responsibility of the hospital steward was controlling and dispensing medicinal whiskey. As he was responsible for keeping many medical records, the steward also needed to be literate and intelligent.

For a Hospital Steward–a half chevron of the following description, –viz.: of emerald green cloth, one and three-fourths inches wide, running obliquely downward from the outer to the inner seam of the sleeve, and at an angle of about thirty degrees with a horizontal, parallel to, and one-eighth of an inch distant from, both the upper and lower edge, an embroidery of yellow silk one-eighth of an inch wide, and in the center “caduceus” two inches long, embroidered also with yellow silk, the head toward the outer seam of the sleeve.

Measures approximately 10″ x 1-7/8″. Priced per set.