When I think of Civil War battles, I always think of the "sawbones". Because most people had not even heard of the theory of germs (including most doctors), there were no cleaned tools or hands. They knew that foreign fragments caused infection, from observation of patients, but they didn't know what was going on. They did not attach it to cleanliness. But beyond the germs, they did not have very good surgical techniques either. Most of the time appendages were just sawed off and thrown in a pile. I realize it was war, and no fancy surgeries could have been preformed, but it was clear that battlefield weaponry had evolved faster than life-saving medicine. What do you think?
Unfortunately that is a reality of life in this broken world, it is easier to destroy than it is to build, easier to tear down than to build up, yet it was through this trial by fire that that medical personnel were able to learn how to save lives in a better fashion.
Yes, medical science was woefully slow in understanding personal and public health issue solutions, but it was in the ACW some first faultering steps were made in the advance of this topic. Lessons were learned from the Crimea War (1854-55) that brought forth some attemps at "battlefield nursing". There were small advancements in the organization of ambulences and the evacuation of cases to the rear and to organized hospitals. These were small steps but they did save a few lives. Remember too that, except in the shortest of military campaigns, disease was a greater waster of armies than battle. This trend lasted at least up to WWII and the introduction of medical improvements and DDT. And it was not until the Korean Conflict that the US Army overcame the cripeling problem of "Trenchfoot". During the ACW were seen small advancements in Public Health. When the City of New Orleans was occupied by "bluedevils" the locals thought there would be another of the pandemics of Yellow Fever that visited the city in the summers. The military governor, MG Ben F. Butler, proclaimed a programme of civic 'beautification' which included the removal of trash-dumps and such littler. Unknowingly this forstalled the Yellow Fever pandemic as the removal of trash also removed the breeding grounds for the mosquitos which were the biological vector of the pandemic. Not fulling understanding the cause and effect MG Butler still managed to save hunderds if not thousands of Union soldiers.
It would appear they knew more than we give credit (there is an error on the links the first volume I is in fact volume II) thus making the full set of three volumes: https://archive.org/search.php?quer...of the war of the rebellion, (1861-65) (1870) Surgeon General: https://archive.org/search.php?query=surgeon general 1861 British Report 1858 (Florence Nightingale) : http://www.scribd.com/doc/35789415/Mortality-of-the-British-Army-1858
I skimed part of the 1858 British report. It confirmed what wrote earlier, that it was disease and poor sanitation which was the waster of armies, not battle. Corollary note: did you know most non-custom made shoes were cobbled with no distinction for right or left feet? This distinction was begun during the ACW then cobbers in the Northern factories began using distinguishing right/left lasts (the form over which cobblers build shoes).e ameg Wargaming History note: Gary Gygax, the publisher and co-inventor of Dungeons and Dragons, was a professional cobbler before the RPG took off circa 1974.
I recently saw an artificial leg from the Civil War period in a local museum. It got me wondering who actually received them? Were they expensive for the time? The leg I saw belonged to a man that lost it in the war, but he had gone on to be a business owner. He probably made a decent living. What of the dirt-poor farmers? Did they have to devise their own "peg legs" or walk on crutches for life?
It was tragic to lose a limb at any time, slightly better than losing one's life. But the tragdy of the whole-sale loss of limbs in the ACW lead to the start of the prostetic limb business in the US. Between wars the business was regenerated as the Farm Machinery BOOM, such as John Deere tractors and MaCormic reepers, lead to accidents, and more need for prostetics. I understand Minneapolis/St. Paul became a hub for both farm machinery and prostetic industries.
