![]() ![]() During and after a large battle, the scene around a field hospital was a macabre vista of horribly wounded men, frantic bloody activity, and severed limbs. The most common surgery at a field hospital was amputation, which was the most rapid way to save the life of a soldier wounded in a limb. An illustration of a Civil War soldier following amputation. Sometimes whiskey was given as well, then the patient was taken to an ambulance to be delivered to a general hospital for further treatment. He then might administer morphine to address the pain and provide the victim with clean drinking water. The surgeon’s first goal was to stop bleeding. The field hospital was the second stage of medical attention, a treatment center staffed by each regiment’s surgeon and assistant surgeon. If the soldier’s wounds were such that he was thought to have a strong chance of survival, he was transported to the field hospital farther back in the rear to be given further assessment and treatment. ![]() Limb fractures were splinted, tourniquets applied to bleeding wounds until they could reach the surgeons at the field hospital, and gaping open wounds were packed with lint that had been scraped from linen or cotton fabrics, then bandaged until they could reach the field hospital or a general hospital. The slightly wounded and those needing surgery were separated and transported or treated onsite. (Image source: WikiMedia Commons)Ī sorting system that would become known as “triage” by World War I was employed-most head, chest, and abdominal wounds were considered to be untreatable, and those patients were made comfortable, frequently left to die, or they became the last to be evacuated. Officers salute the wounded being carried from the field at Lewinsville, 1861. The stations were set up prior to any action on the battlefield, and some were identifiable by a red hospital flag or other visual marker to help guide the wounded and their rescuers. Wounded Civil War soldiers usually received the first emergency attention at a field dressing station. The technology of the time also gave them options that had not been available in earlier wars: surgical tools, anesthesia, and improved conveyances for the wounded. The war trained thousands of surgeons at a time when there were very few doctors in America who knew how to treat gunshot wounds. Both the Confederate and Union medical departments exercised good, solid, logical organization and changed the vista of health care. Many more lives were saved than was possible in earlier wars, and many lives were saved later because of knowledge gained during the Civil War. The more immediate the care, the greater the likelihood of survival. They quickly implemented the discoveries of other men, and what they hadn’t learned in the medical schools, they learned on battlefields and in field hospitals. Many of the physicians and surgeons were recent medical school graduates with no practical experience, but they were able to share ideas and information with their more experienced colleagues. (Image source: WikiMedia Commons)Ĭivil War doctors embraced a practical approach to medicine, setting up new systems and methods, sometimes learning surgical techniques in camps and hospitals from the diagrams in books. ![]() Wounded from the Battle of the Wilderness lie in front of a field hospital in Fredericksburg, Virginia, 1864. ![]() By the end of the war, there were great hospitals like Chimborazo and Satterlee, hospital trains and ships, skilled nurses, and a working ambulance corps. There were no large-scale treatment facilities and surgery was rarely performed in the country. Methods of getting wounded men from the battlefield to a place of care were haphazard at best and nonexistent at worst. Skilled nursing as a profession or a staff position did not exist. Organized, systemized medical care did not exist in America of the 1860s. They initiated programs and research and left a legacy of skill and honor. They served as the medical directors of huge armies and completely reorganized the medical corps. They designed, built, and operated revolutionary new hospitals. The medical community of the Civil War achieved an outstanding record for survival rates from disease and wounds. CIVIL War marked the beginning of modern advancements in medicine that were generated in response to the new weapons technologies that created a wholesale mechanical slaughter. (Image source: WikiMedia Commons) “Many more lives were saved than was possible in earlier wars, and many lives were saved later because of knowledge gained during the Civil War.” Union troops demonstrate the evacuation of wounded from the battlefield by ambulance, 1862. ![]()
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