In examining the Ambulance "Corps" of both armies during the Gettysburg campaign, an excellent account exists for the Union Second Corps. Each of the three divisions in this corps had its own ambulance train consisting of about 4 officers, 125 men, and 100 or so horses pulling about 35 ambulances and several forage and forge wagons. In the Confederate army, it appears that every company furnished two men for the Ambulance Corps; at least three separate accounts agree on this point: Surgeon Thomas Fanning Wood of the 3rd North Carolina writes that his regiment had 20 men assigned to the ambulance corps, with two horse- or mule-drawn ambulances per regiment. Lt. A. S. Douglas of the 13th South Carolina indicates the ambulance corps of his brigade was also composed of two men from each company. Likewise in the 10th Alabama according to Charles W. Foust. It adds up to a great many strong and able bodied men taken off the line. Lewis Branscomb of the 3rd Alabama said it was the most dangerous position in a battle. Not quite (see below), but neither was it safe duty. If they did their job well, the litter bearers were close to the front, exposed to hostile fire. They combed the fields at night looking for the wounded, often mingling with their enemy counterparts. In one instance, according to Foust, the Federals allowed the Ambulance Corps of his regiment to enter their lines to collect a 10th Alabama soldier with a broken thigh. After being carried back, this "wounded" soldier arose unharmed - he had fooled everyone and escaped a trip to a Union prison camp. The litter bearers or "stretcher" men would sometimes have to carry their wounded soldier a half mile or more to a waiting ambulance or to a field hospital. In addition, they were by no means deadbeats - Surgeon Wood says these men were "selected with care, generally because of their physical strength and courage. They were relieved from general camp duty and instead did irregular duties as were assigned them besides having a considerable liberty. They all willingly asssisted the doctors ." To get a sense of the danger, losses in the Union Second Corps' Ambulance Corps at Gettysburg, according to the officer in charge, were six or seven horses shot, six or seven men shot, and three ambulances struck by cannon shot.