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Posted on 03/04/2005 10:18:42 PM PST by snippy_about_it
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 are acknowledged, affirmed and commemorated.
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| Our Mission: The FReeper Foxhole is dedicated to Veterans of our Nation's military forces and to others who are affected in their relationships with Veterans. In the FReeper Foxhole, Veterans or their family members should feel free to address their specific circumstances or whatever issues concern them in an atmosphere of peace, understanding, brotherhood and support. The FReeper Foxhole hopes to share with it's readers an open forum where we can learn about and discuss military history, military news and other topics of concern or interest to our readers be they Veteran's, Current Duty or anyone interested in what we have to offer. If the Foxhole makes someone appreciate, even a little, what others have sacrificed for us, then it has accomplished one of it's missions. We hope the Foxhole in some small way helps us to remember and honor those who came before us.
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 "It is the most sickening sight of the war, this tide of wounded flowing back. One has a shattered arm, and the sling in which he carries it is the same bloody rag the surgeon gave him the day of battle; another has his head seamed and bandaged so you can scarcely see it, and he weaves like a drunken man as he drags along through the hot sun; another has his shoe cut off, and a great roll of rags around his foot, and he leans heavily on a rough cane broken from a pine tree; another breathes painfully and holds his hand to his side, where you see a ragged rent in his blouse; another sits by a puddle, dipping water on a wounded leg, which , for want of dressing since the battle, had become inflamed; another lies on a plot of grass by the roadside, with his browned face turned full to the sun, and he sleeps." - Dr. William Morton The medical side of the War Between the States isn't a pretty story. The War took place in the "Medical Middle Ages," a time where treatments were just starting to advance into more modern methods. The reason for the horrible casualties in this conflict and the reason for the high amputation rate that seems to go hand in hand with the idea of Civil War Medicine was probably more than anything else the Minie Ball or Bullet. This bullet was about the size of a quarter.  It is a soft lead slug tended to expand when it came into contact with bone, causing horrific injuries and destroying bone and tissue beyond any hope of repair.  Patients in Ward of Harewood Hospital with Mosquito Nets Over Beds - Washington, D.C. A Civil War soldier had a better chance of being hit by a minie bullet than he would cannon fire (including canister as well as solid shot) or being cut by the bayonet or the sword. In fact, wounds from these "cutting" weapons were extremely rare accounting for only 2% or so of the total wounds treated by surgeons. The medical story of the Civil War is not a glorious one. When Walt Whitman wrote that he believed the "real war" would never get into the books, this is the side he was talking about. Yet, it's important that we remember and recall the medical side of the conflict too, as horrible as it was.  Field Hospital after the Battle of June 27 - Savage Station, VA, June 30, 1862 Civil War medicine was in a time before the doctors even knew much about bacteriology and were ignorant of what caused disease. Doctors during the Civil War for the most part had two years of medical school, though some pursued higher amounts. We were woefully behind Europe. Harvard Medical School didn't even own a single stethoscope or microscope until after the war. Most Civil War surgeons had never treated a gun shot wound, many had never performed surgery. Medical boards let in many "quacks" who were not qualified. Yet, for the most part the Civil War doctor , as understaffed, sometimes underqualified, and very usually under supplied as he was, did the best he could, exploring through the so-called "medical middle ages." Some 10,000 surgeons served in the Union and about 4,000 served the Southern Confederacy.  Three Surgeons of 1st Division, 9th Corps - Petersburg, VA, October 1864 Each year, medicine advanced a little more. However, it was the tragedy of the era that medical knowledge of the 1860s had not yet encompassed the use of sterile dressings, antiseptics and antiseptic surgery, and the realization of sanitation and hygiene was still inadequate and many died as a result from diseases such as typhoid or dysentery. The deadliest thing that faced the Civil War soldier was disease. For every soldier who died in battle, two died of disease. In particular, relatively simple intestinal complaints such as dysentery and diarrhea claimed many lives. Diarrhea and dysentery alone claimed more men than did battle wounds. The Civil War soldier also faced outbreaks of measles, small pox, malaria, pneumonia, or camp itch. Malaria was brought on by usually camping in damp areas (that were conductive to breeding mosquitos) while camp itch was caused by insects or a skin disease. In brief the large amount of disease was caused by a) inadequate physicals before entering the Army; b) plain old ignorance; c) the fact many troops came from rural areas; d) neglect of camp hygiene; e) insects and vermin; f) exposure; g) lack of clothing and shoes; h) poor food and water. Many unqualified recruits entered the Army and diseases cruelly weeded out those who should have been excluded by physical exams. There was no knowledge of the causes of disease, no Koch's postulates.  Group of Sanitary Commission Workers at the Entrance of the Home Lodge - Washington, D.C., June 1863 Rural area troops were crowded together for the first time with large numbers of other individuals and got diseases they had no immunity to. Neglect of camp hygiene was a common problem as well. Ignorance of camp sanitation and scanty knowledge about how disease was carried led to a sort of "trial and error" system. An inspector who visited the camps of one Federal Army found that they were, "littered with refuse, food, and other rubbish, sometimes in an offensive state of decomposition; slops deposited in pits within the camp limits or thrown out of broadcast; heaps of manure and offal close to the camp." There was formed a Sanitary Commission in the North even because things were so bad in Army camps. Mary Livermore, a nurse, wrote that... "The object of the Sanitary Commission was to do what the Government could not. The Government undertook, of course, to provide all that was necessary for the soldier, . . . but, from the very nature of things, this was not possible. . . . The methods of the commission were so elastic, and so arranged to meet every emergency, that it was able to make provision for any need, seeking always to supplement, and never to supplant, the Government."  Nurses and Officers of the U.S. Sanitary Commission - Fredericksburg, VA, May 1864 Both Armies faced problems with mosquitos and lice. Exposure turned many a cold into a case of pneumonia, and complicated other ailments. Pneumonia, was the third leading killer disease of the war, after typhoid and dysentery. Lack of shoes and proper clothing further complicated the problem, especially in the Confederacy as the War progressed. The diet of the Civil War soldier was somewhere between barely palatable to absolutely awful. It was a wonder they did not all die of acute indigestion. It was estimated that 995 of 1000 Union troops eventually contracted chronic diarrhea or dysentery; his Confederate brother suffered similarly. Disease particularly ran rampant in the prisons of course as many of these conditions that led to disease were very much present. To halt disease, doctors used many cures. For bowel complaints, open bowels were treated with a plug of opium. Closed bowels were treated with the infamous "blue mass"... a mixture of mercury and chalk. For scurvy, doctors prescribed green vegetables. Respiratory problems, such as pneumonia and bronchitis were treated with dosing of opium or sometimes quinine and muster plasters. Sometimes bleeding was also used. Malaria could be treated with quinine, or sometimes even turpentine if quinine was not available. Camp itch could be treated by ridding the body of the pests or with poke-root solution. Whiskey and other forms of alcohol also were used to treat wounds and disease ... though questionable medical valuably, whiskey did relieve some pain.  Field Hospital of the 1st Division, 2nd Corps - Brandy Station, VA, February 1864 Disease, of course, was a huge killer. The medicines brought in to try and halt diseases were manufactured in the north for the most part; the southerners had to deal with running the Union blockade. On occasion, vital medicines were smuggled into the South, sewn into the petticoats of ladies sympathetic to the Southern cause. The South also had some manufacturing capabilities and worked with herbal remedies. However, many of the Southern medical supplies came from captured Union stores. Dr. Hunter McGuire, the medical director of Jackson's corps, commented after the War on the safeness of anesthesia, saying that in part the Confederacy's good record was due in part from the supplies requisitioned from the North. Battlefield surgery was also at best archaic when held against the modern standard. Doctors often took over houses, churches, schools, even barns for hospitals. The field hospital was located near the front lines-- sometimes only a mile behind the lines-- and was marked with (in the Federal Army from 1862 on) with a yellow flag with a green "H".  Smith's Barn, Used as a Hospital After the Battle of Antietam – Near Keedysville, MD, September 1862 Though anesthesia was usually used, the Civil War period operation was still not pretty. Anesthesia's first recorded use was in 1846, making it still in it's infancy at the time of the Civil War. Anesthesia was almost always, as a rule, used in surgery, in fact, there were 800,000 cases of it's use. Chloroform was used about 75% of the time. Of 8,900 cases of use of anesthesia, only 43 deaths were attributed to the anesthetic, a remarkable mortality rate of just 0.4%. Anesthesia was usually administered by the open-drop technique. The anesthetic was applied to a cloth held over the patient's mouth and nose and was withdrawn after the patient was unconscious. A good capable surgeon could amputate a limb in 10 minutes. Surgeons worked all night, with piles of limbs reaching four or five feet. Lack of water and time meant they did not wash off hands or instruments. Bloody fingers often were used as probes. Bloody knives were used as scalpels. Doctors operated in pus stained coats. Everything about Civil War surgery was septic.  Confederate Wounded at Smith's Barn with Dr Anson Hurd 14th Indiana Volunteers in Attendance after the Battle of Antietam – Near Keedysville, MD, September 1862 The antiseptic era, and Lister's pioneering works in this field were in 1865, right as the war was ending. Blood poisoning, sepsis or Pyemia (Pyemia meaning literally pus in the blood) were common and often very deadly. Surgical fevers also could develop, as could gangrene. One witness described surgery as such: "Tables about breast high had been erected upon which the screaming victims were having legs and arms cut off. The surgeons and their assistants, stripped to the waist and bespattered with blood, stood around, some holding the poor fellows while others, armed with long, bloody knives and saws, cut and sawed away with frightful rapidity, throwing the mangled limbs on a pile nearby as soon as removed." If a soldier survived the table, he faced the awful surgical fevers. However, about 75% of amputees did survive.  Wounded Soldiers Being Tended in the Field After the Battle of Chancellorsville - Near Fredericksburg, VA, May 2, 1863 The numbers killed and wounded in the Civil War were far more than any previous American war. As the lists of the maimed grew, both North and South built "general" military hospitals. These hospitals were usually located in big cities. They were usually single storied, of wood construction, and well-ventilated and heated. The largest of these hospitals was Chimbarazo in Richmond, Virginia. By the end of the War, Chimbarazo had 150 wards and was capable of housing a total of 4,500 patients. Some 76,000 soldiers were treated at this hospital.  Hospital Tents in the Rear of Douglas Hospital - Washington, D.C., 1864 May There were some advances, mainly in the field of military medicine. Jonathan Letterman revolutionized the Ambulance Corps system. With the use of anesthesia, more complicated surgeries could be performed. Better and more complete records were kept during this period than they had been before. The Union even set up a medical museum where visitors can still see the shattered leg of flamboyant General Daniel Sickles who lost his leg at the Trostle Farm at the battle of Gettysburg when a cannon ball literally left it hanging by shreds of flesh. The Civil War "sawbones" was doing the best he could. Sadly when American decided to kill American from 1861 to 1865, the medical field was not yet capable of dealing with the disease and the massive injuries caused by the minie bullet and by the outmoded tactics practiced by the generals who had learned about War in the Napoleonic Age.      |
First in?
Good morning
March 5, 2005
Today's text states that God causes the cypress tree and the myrtle tree to flourish where once thorns and briers encumbered the ground. This analogy reminds us that God can bring forth beauty and grace where evil once flourished.
Where cynicism once grew, hope and optimism can begin to emerge. Where sarcasm thrived, gentle words of healing can appear. Where lust grew rampant and unrestrained, pure love can spring up. This-a transformed life-is the living and lasting sign of God's work, the memorial He seeks (Isaiah 55:13).
Do you long for this kind of transformation in your life? Then "seek the Lord while He may be found" (v.6). There are moments when we grow tired of the evil within us, and our heart aches for holiness. This is God calling, reminding us that He is near. At such times we must sink our roots deep into God's Word and ask Him to conform us to His likeness. He says that "as the rain comes down, and the snow from heaven, and . . . water the earth, and make it bring forth and bud, . . . so shall [His] word be that goes forth from [His] mouth" (vv.10-11).
Seek the Lord while He may be found. Plantings of grace can replace the thorns of our sinful nature. -David Roper
God can transform a sin-stained soul into a masterpiece of grace.
I got the shirt the other day!
Thanks so much, I love it!
Sawbones Bump for the Freeper Foxhole.
Regards
alfa6 ;>}
Glad ya like it :-)
hee is a thread that you might enjoy...
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1354412/posts
You wouldn't know anything about some of these things now would you?
Have a great day
Regards
alfa6 ;>}
Great thread, I'm sure I could think of something to add to it..
Off to a couple meetings.
Enjoy your Saturday and Thanks again!
Morning Snippy.
It's hard to even imagine the conditions and methods used in those days.
You ready? :-)
Is this the BIG WEEKEND???
If so Good Luck, if not, aw what the heck Good Luck anyways
Regards
alfa6 ;>}
Yeah. First in! I was going to post a warning that it was very descriptive and such but I figure we Foxholer's were already strong of stomach. ;-)
On this Day In History
Birthdates which occurred on March 05:
1324 David II Bruce king of Scotland (1331..71)
1326 Louis I [the Great] King of Hungary (1342-82), Poland (1370-82)
1512 Gerardus Mercator Rupelmonde (Belgium), geographer/mapmaker
1574 William Oughtred England, mathematician/inventor (slide rule)
1637 John van der Heyden Dutch painter/inventor (fire extinguisher)
1658 Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac French colonial governor of America
1746 Jacob Wallenberg Swedish writer/naval chaplain
1824 Elisha Harris US, physician/found American Public Health Association
1824 James Merritt Ives lithographer (Currier & Ives)
1825 John Dunovant Brigadier General (Confederate Army), died in 1864
1825 Joseph Albert German photographer (albertotype)
1893 Emmett J Culligan founder of water treatment organization
1908 Rex [Reginald Carey] Harrison Huyton Lancashire England, actor (My Fair Lady, Dr Doolittle)
1908 Sophie Stewart Scotland, actress (As You Like It, Under the Red Robe)
1914 Joan Sterndale-Bennett London England, actress (Those Fantastic Flying Fools)
1920 Virginia Christine actress (Mrs Olson)
1934 James B Sikking Los Angeles CA, actor (Hill St Blues, Star Trek 3, Doogie Howser)
1935 Philip K Chapman Melbourne Australia, astronaut (Apollo 14 support)
1936 Dean Stockwell Hollywood CA, actor (Quantum Leap, Blue Velvet)
1938 Fred "Hammer" Williamson Gary IN, NFLer (Chiefs)/actor (Julia)
1946 Michael Warren South Bend IN, actor (Bobby Hill-Hill Street Blues)
1946 Rocky Bleier Wisconsin, NFL running back (Pittsburgh Steelers)
1952 Alan Clark keyboardist (Dire Straits-Sultans of Swing)
1953 Russel D Feingold (Senator-D-WI)
1953 Valery Grigoriyevich Korzun Russian Colonel/cosmonaut (TM-24)
1954 Marsha Warfield comedian/actress (Roz-Night Court)
1955 Penn Jillette Greenfield MA, magician (Penn & Teller-Penn & Teller are Dead)
1974 Kevin Connolly actor (Beverly Hillbillies, Rocky V, Angus)
1977 Natalie Bevins Miss West Virginia-USA (1997)
Thanks for all the support for our eviiiiil capitalist venture from y'all.
We're hoping all that seed is gone buy the end of the weekend. :-)
Best wishes
Sam & Snippy!
BTTT!!!!!!
Awwww. Thanks feather. The perfect thing to see as we head out the door. See you all later, we'll drop in when we can!
Group HUG!
Morning Glory Folks~
This is certainly an area of the CW that gets little mention.
The deadliest thing that faced the Civil War soldier was disease. For every soldier who died in battle, two died of disease.
I did read in one book that the dysentery was so bad that soldiers in the field just cut out the bottoms of their pants. Hey when ya gotta go . . .
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