Potty talk: Hey, who leaked this messy Nashville story?

The two-story outhouse here during the war was not ideal.

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Sometimes history is, ah, a little weird. It's often quite messy, too. During the U.S. Army’s occupation of Nashville, the First Presbyterian Church (now Downtown Presbyterian Church) was used as a military hospital. Next to the church, the Federals built a two-story outhouse. It was suboptimal. 

During the Civil War, the U.S. Army
used Downtown Presbyterian Church
 as a military hospital.

According to James A. Hoobler’s Cities Under The Gun, Images of Occupied Nashville and Chattanooga: 

 “The two-story outhouse built by the Federal army was an attempt to solve the sanitary problem presented by a twenty-six-hole latrine in the side yard of the church. Although the latrine was closed in January of 1864, the solution was even worse. The two-story outhouse had four holes upstairs and four holes downstairs. The elbows in the drains were made of leather — and leaked. It did contain a stove for warmth, however.” 

Not sure who leaked this story. 👊 In any case, I chuckle every time I walk past this spot.

In a more serious vein, here's a post on my blog about a visit to the church by Union veterans in September 1895 and another on a gift given to an assistant surgeon who worked there in  Hospital No. 8 in 1865.

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-- Have something to add, correct? E-mail me at jbankstx@comcast.net