Bibliographic record and links to related information available from the Library of Congress catalog.
Note: Electronic data is machine generated. May be incomplete or contain other coding.
Introduction: The Evolution of Battlefield Surgery during the Civil War ............................................... 1 Treatment of the Wounded Early in the War ................... 2 Treatment of the Wounded after the First Year of the War ........ 3 Treatment of the Wounded at the End of the War ............... 5 Abbreviations Used in Text .................................. 6 1. In The Beginning: Ill-Prepared and Overwhelmed .............. 7 The Influence of the Crimean War ............................ 8 The U.S. Sanitary Commission ............................... 9 The Union Surgeons General .......... ................... 13 The Confederate Medical Department ....................... 15 Tripler and the Army of the Potomac ............ ........ 16 Reforms in the Union Medical Bureau ....................... 19 Medical Records of the Civil War ......... .................. . 22 Medical Care in the Federal and Confederate Navies ............ 26 The Army Surgeons ........... ......................... . 27 The Examining Boards ........... ...................... 32 2. Sects and Science: Civil War Medicine in Context ............ 37 Medical Science in the Mid-1800s ........................... 39 The Beginnings of Clinical Science .................... 42 The Paris Connection ................................... 43 Other Notable Teachers of American Physicians ............ 46 Civil War Medical Research Societies ........................ 47 Concepts of Epidemic Disease in the Mid-1800s .............. 49 Contagion ..................................... ...... 50 Miasmas, Fomites, and Civil War Sanitation ................ 51 Did American Physicians Have Up-to-Date Information? ....... 55 U.S. Medical Education in the Mid-1800s ........ ....... 57 Medical Education in Europe .................. .......... 62 Use of Stethoscopes and Thermometers ...................... 64 Use of the Microscope ..................................... 67 Use of the Ophthalmoscope ................................ 69 3. Civil War Surgery: Desperate Measures for Desperate Wounds .. 75 Anesthesia during the Civil War ............................. 76 Surgery before the Civil War .......... ...................... 81 The Weapons: Mini6 Balls, Sabers, and Artillery Shells .......... 84 Wounds in Different Sites ................................ 86 Understanding Casualty Statistics ........................... 90 Surgery during the Civil War ............................. 92 4. 'Thank God For Jonathan Letterman": Field Surgeons, Field Hospitals, and Ambulances ............................. 97 The New Ambulance and Field Hospital System ............ ....98 Initial Wound Treatment ................................ 99 Ambulances ......................................... 103 Field Hospitals ........................................ 106 Medical Transportation Systems ......................... 108 Hospital Trains ....................................... 109 Hospital Ships ....................................... 112 The Big Picture: Evolution of the Union Ambulance and Field Medical Systems ................................ 115 First Bull Run (July 21, 1861) .......................... 117 Peninsula Campaign (March-July 1862) .................. 117 Second Bull Run (August 29-30, 1862) .................. 121 Battle of Antietam (September 17, 1862) ................. 123 Battle of Fredericksburg (December 13, 1862) ............. 124 Battle of Gettysburg (July 1-3, 1863) ...................... 125 The Great Battles in Virginia (1864) ..................... 129 Siege of Petersburg and the Appomattox Campaign (June 1864 to April 1865) ............................. 134 Imitation: The Sincerest Compliment ....................... 136 5. Amputations and Excisions: "Experience Teaches" ........... 143 Amputation Techniques ................................... 149 Primary versus Secondary Amputations ...................... 151 Attitudes toward Disfigurement ......................... ...156 6. Learning to Treat Wounds: The Surgeons, the Operations, and the Results ........................................... 161 Surgical Innovations ..................................... 165 Arterial Ligation ...................................... 166 Early Neurosurgery ................................... 168 Treating Abdominal Wounds ............................ 173 Chest Wounds: A "Clinical Trial" ......................... 174 Origin of Plastic Surgery ......................... 177 Dentistry during the Civil War ............................. 180 Confederate Dentistry ............. .................. . 181 Dental Splints for Jaw Fractures ............ ......... 182 Treating Eye Injuries ..................................... 184 Blood Transfusions ...................................... 185 Survival Rates during the War ............................ 186 Scurvy and the Mortality Rate from Gunshot Wounds ....... 189 Did Civil War Surgeons Do As Well As Their European Counterparts? ......................................... 191 7. Wound Infections: Laudable and Not-So-Laudable Pus ........ 197 "Laudable Pus" and Pyemia ............................... 200 Hospital Gangrene and Erysipelas ........................ 201 Bromine: An Experimental Treatment for Hospital Gangrene .................................. 204 Controlling the Spread of Hospital Gangrene .............. 207 Antisepsis ............................................. 211 Tetanus ...............................................213 8. Civil War Hospitals .............. ................................ 217 The Evolution of General Hospitals ........................ 218 Confederate Hospitals ................................... 221 Hospital Inspections ..................................... 225 Specialty Hospitals ...................................... 227 9. Treating Disease: Questionable Drugs and "Heroic" Therapies ........................................ 231 The "Physiological Approach" to Medical Therapy ............ 231 Commonly Used Drugs ................................... 233 Quinine: A Real Cure .................................. 236 Opium and Morphine .................. .............. 238 Union Medical Supplies .................................. 242 Confederate Medical Supplies ............................. 245 Diet as Therapy ......................................... 248 "Heroic" Therapies .................. ................... 250 10. Epidemic Diseases in Recruits ............................. 257 "Everything Except Teething, Nettle-Rash, and Whooping Cough" .................................... 257 Recruits ............................. 260 Medical Screening ....... ...... ................... 262 Farm Boys and City Slickers ............................ 265 Children .......................... ................266 The Epidemics ............................ . 269 Measles and Mumps ................................. 269 Acute Respiratory Tract Infections ....................... 271 Typhoid Fever ........................................ 272 Remittent, Continued, and Typhomalarial Fevers ........... 276 Typhus ....................................... 277 Meningitis and Meningococcemia ............................ 278 Sunstroke .... ................................. 279 11. Nature's Scourges: Epidemic Diseases on Parade ............ 283 Diarrhea and Dysentery ................. 283 Use of the Term "Cholera" ............ ........... 286 Jaundice .............................................. 287 Tuberculosis and Scrofula ................................. 287 Malaria ....................... ..... ... 289 Smallpox ............................................... 290 Smallpox Vaccination ..... .......................... 291 Smallpox in the Prisons ........... .................. 294 Treating Smallpox .................. 296 Yellow Fever ........................................... 296 New Orleans and Yellow Fever ......................... 298 Outbreaks in Other Cities ............................. 301 The Federal and Confederate Navies ..................... 302 12. Disease Among the Troops: Real, Imagined, and Imitated .... 307 Acute Rheumatism (Acute Rheumatic Fever) ................. 307 Chronic Rheumatism ...................... 309 Tonsillitis ........................................... 312 Scarlet Fever and Bright's Disease .............. ....... 312 Sexually Transmitted Diseases ............................. 313 Safe Sex in Tennessee ................................. 315 Psychiatric Problems ..................................... 317 Malingering ........................................... 318 "Soldier's Heart" .. .............................. .... 321 Alcoholism ..................................... 323 Skin Diseases ...... ...................................... 324 Comparison of Disease in Black and White Troops .......... 325 Variations in Death Rates .............................. 327 Case-Fatality Rates of Major Diseases ... ... ....... 329 13. Scurvy and Other "Dietic Diseases": Desiccated Vegetables and Deteriorating Health: ................................ 337 Union Troops' Diet ................ .................. 338 Confederate Food Supplies ............................... 341 Scurvy . . .......... ................................... 34 3 Scurvy's Manifestations ................................ 346 Scurvy during the Peninsula Campaign ................... 349 Foraging . ..... .................................... 352 Scurvy in the Navy ... ........ ................... 354 Night Blindness ......................................... 356 Variations in the Incidence of Scurvy and Night Blindness ..... 357 Women Fight Scurvy ..................................... 359 Scurvy in European Military Units during the 1860s and 1870s ............................................. 361 14. Chronic Diarrhea: It Takes Good Guts to Be a Good Soldier .. 365 Causes of Chronic Diarrhea ..................... ......... 366 Amebiasis .... .. .................................... 367 Immune Deficiency ................................... 368 Chronic Diarrhea and Malnutrition ......................... 369 Treatment of Chronic Diarrhea ..... ...... ................. 372 15. Prison Camps: The Most Appalling Story ............... 377 Andersonville: The Most Disease-Ridden Confederate Prison ... 380 Inadequate Rations ................................... 381 Vermin and Disease ..................... ............. 382 Andersonville's "Hospital" ............................. 383 Deaths at Andersonville .................. .............. 385 The Trial of Captain Wirz .............................. 388 Elmira: The Most Disease-Ridden Federal Prison ............. 390 Care of Wounded Prisoners .......................... 394 Captured Physicians .................................. 397 Physicians and the Prisons ................................ 400 16: Women of the Civil War: Soldiers, Sisters, and Socialites ..... 405 The Beginning of Nursing ................................ 405 Dorothea Dix ........................................ 408 Other Union Women Who Served ........................ 411 Nuns as Nurses ......................................... 413 Women Physicians ....................................... 417 Acceptance of Women as Nurses and Supervisors ........... .. 419 Southern Women Who Served ............................. 425 Nursing Care of Prisoners ............................... 428 The Invalid Corps ....................................... 430 17: Re-Evaluating Civil War Medical Care: Shattering the Myths . .435 Oft-Quoted Negative Comments ........................... 436 Forgotten Favorable Observations ..........................438 Later Evaluations . ......................................441 Civil War Medicine: A Reassessment ........................442 A Final Note ...................................... ......444