War Medical History

A soldier dreaded being on the battlefield more than being in the field hospital, right…?

Drew Gilpin Faust’s, This Republic of Suffering: Death and the American Civil War, is an intensive study that reflects on the impact of the Civil war had on the soldiers and civilians. Faust wanted to show that, as they dealt with and mourned over the overwhelming amount of carnage, the nation and the lives of the American people were already changed forever. Although there are many other publications relating to the Civil war, she is able to successfully reflect upon the morbid topic of death in the Civil war in a new and unique way. This book shows the war in a whole different perspective by focusing less on quantifying and stating the statistics of the civil war deaths. Rather, she examines more closely on how the Civil War deaths transformed the “society, culture and politics,” and the impact it had on the lives of the Americans in the 19th century. It follows the process of the American’s changing

Imagine seeing a friend get shot but not being able to do anything to help because if one would help they’d be the next to go. This is what was happening in the American Civil War from 1861-1865. Many soldiers came back and very different, some in good ways but many in bad ways. During the Civil War, soldiers experienced horrific and terrifying things often causing severe psychological trauma; as a result of this trauma, men often suffered mistreatment and went wrongly diagnosed until Jacob DaCosta discovered and researched what we now call Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).

Doctors are infamous for their unreadable writing; Richard Selzer is not one of those doctors. A talented surgeon, Selzer has garnered critical acclaim for his captivating operating room tales, and rightfully so. A perfect exhibition of this is The Knife, a detailed illustration of a surgery. What may seem like an uninteresting event is made mesmerizing by Selzer’s magnificent account of the human body and the meticulousness that goes into repairing it. The rhetorical appeals, tone, and figurative language that Selzer uses throughout The Knife provide the reader with a vivid description of the sacred process of surgery.

The United States Civil War is possible one of the most meaningful, bloodstained and controversial war fought in American history. Northern Americans against Southern Americans fought against one another for a variety of motives. These motives aroused from a wide range of ideologies that stirred around the states. In James M. McPherson’s What they fought for: 1861-1865, he analyzes the Union and Confederate soldier’s morale and ideological components through the letters they wrote to love ones while at war. While, John WhiteClay Chambers and G. Kurt Piehler depict Civil War soldiers through their letters detailing the agonizing battles of war in Major Problems in American Military History. In both books, readers are able to understand the motives of the war, attitudes of Americans and the hostility of battles through the letters of soldiers.

Medical treatments have made major advances throughout the years. The way that different diseases or injuries are treated have changed a tremendous amount from the time of the Civil War. In 1863, when the Civil War took place there was very little known about all diseases and the proper way to treat injuries like gunshot wounds. In the book, The Killer Angels, it follows the viewpoints of different soldiers who fought in the Battle of Gettysburg. Several of the soldiers get injured or have already existent diseases that are treated much differently from how they would in present time.

Daniel Hale Williams was the first successful American to perform open heart surgery. He was a very determined and well driven doctor who had many achievements during his career as being a doctor. After reading Medicine with Dr. Henry Palmer, who had been the Surgeon General of the Wisconsin Regiments during the Civil War, Hale became the first African-American to graduate from Northwestern University Medical school (John Boman. “ Daniel Hale Williams (1858-1931) Jan 2001. N.P. Ebscohost. May 2nd, 2018.). He also was later called to reorganize the Federal Freedman’s Hospital in Washington, DC, which included establishing internships for black physicians, improving the nursing school, and serving on the Howard University faculty in surgery

The Civil War: “the central event in America's historical consciousness” (A Brief Overview of the American Civil War). This was a period of time full of blood, violence, and severe tension between a “united” nation to solve the abiding dispute over slavery. During the Civil War, thousands of soldiers were wounded and killed. Because of the constant trauma, nurses played a huge role during the Civil War. Having nurses on the battlefield to respond to wounded soldiers was crucial in saving lives, so soldiers could eventually continue to fight. Clara Barton was one well-known nurse for the Union. Her medical care lead her to continue research in the medical field in order to help people all around the country in a more efficient way. As founder of the American Red Cross and advocate for improved medical care during the Civil War, Clara Barton is one of the most influential women in the medical field.

Between the years of 1800 and 1900, the North American social and political landscape changed by the presence of so many African people, who brought with them several centuries of civilization. Africanized America in terms of medicine. In this paper, I will be exploring the influence of Africans on the American traditions of medicine.

76,000 men were treated during the 4 years of the Civil War in hospitals. Medicine was a critical part of the Civil War during the late 1800s. The Civil War was broken up into two separate sides of the United States, the Union which was the North and the Confederacy, which was the South. During the war, many people became wounded badly or killed. Medicine was a practice of the treatment for infection and disease. Hospitals during the Civil war aided soldiers until they could be transferred to hospitals in nearby cities. What was the impact of Medicine and Hospitals on the Civil War? Medicine and Hospitals impacted the Civil War by creating a

As soon as the Civil War started, injuries increased and diseases spread at a rapid pace. Sickness spread to millions. In fact, disease caused 65% of deaths, while war injuries caused up to 100% (“Disease”). Abundant amounts of medical issues caused medical procedures to evolve at a rapid speed. The medical advancements during the Civil War led to future medical technologies and procedures. Different treatments were discovered, doctors and women nurses came forth, technology and transportation evolved, but, there were many disadvantages that came into view during this time.

Drew Gilpin Faust, wrote the book This Republic of Suffering: Death and the American Civil War, this book was about the suffrage in the Civil War. Although more specifically the book goes in depth about the death of the ones who was in the war as well as the spiritual. Since this was back in the nineteenth century, they have not had the access to the medical technology that we do today. This then led to many deaths from “infections, disease in the camp, and that doctors did not have the knowledge to use clean instruments when treating a wound properly” (Faust 4). Though just from 1861 and 1865 it was estimated about 620,000 soldiers died in the Civil War, this is a time expand of approximately four years. However, this did not only impact the

In recent discussions of Civil War technology, a controversial issue has been whether medicine or telegraph were more critical to winning the war. On one hand some argue that the telegraph was essential to the war effort. On the other hand, however, others argue that medicine was more essential in winning the Civil War. Based on the article Modern Medicine’s Civil War Legacy “During the Civil War, both sides were devastated by battle and disease” (OneNote). Based on this evidence, disease took more lives during the Civil War than conflict did therefore medical advancements were essential to win the Civil War. The Civil War encouraged medical records and reports that slowed down bad practices. In sum, then, the issue is whether medicine or

The role nurses played during the Civil War was truly an extensive one, as the war carried the most casualties in American history and so many more injuries. Despite their invaluable work, though, their experiences have not been related in depth. Civil War Nurse: The Diary and Letters of Hannah Ropes by Joseph Brumgardt is a much-desired addition to the primary collection depicting the story of the United States medical corps during the Civil War. The book’s thesis claims that these men and women who served in the medical end of the conflict deserve attention as full participants in the war rather than as mere helpers of the main actors, more interesting than substantial. As evidence of this, the book focuses on the story of Hannah Ropes, who

The civil war took place in the 1800s. Approximately 620,000 people died in this war. Civil war medicine wasn’t very effective because diseases usually spread in reusing equipment. Due to lack of supplies and constant woundings, reusing equipment was required. Many woundings would just lead to amputations. Many lives were lost in the Civil war but not many of those lives were lost on the battlefield. The following are examples of the kind of injuries that occurred in this war.