An Army Doctor on the Western Frontier

An Army Doctor on the Western Frontier
Author: Robert M. Utley
Publisher: UNM Press
Total Pages: 207
Release: 2014-04-30
Genre: History
ISBN: 0826354556

Assigned to the District of Utah during the Civil War, physician John Vance Lauderdale spent the next twenty-five years on army posts in the American West, serving in California, Arizona, New Mexico, South Dakota, and Texas. Throughout his career he kept a detailed journal and sent long letters home to his sister in upstate New York. This selection of Lauderdale’s writings, edited and annotated by a premier historian of the American West, offers an insightful account of army life that will teach readers much about the settlement and growth of the West in a time of rapid change. Lauderdale’s observations are keen and critical. He writes about fellow officers, his army superiors, the civilians and American Indians he encountered, life on officers’ row, and the day-to-day functioning of the army medical service. Particularly valuable are his insights into military interactions with local communities of Mormons, American Indians, and Hispanos.

Doctors of the Old West

Doctors of the Old West
Author: Robert F. Karolevitz
Publisher:
Total Pages: 200
Release: 1967
Genre: Medical
ISBN:

Traces the development of the healing art with such related factors and facets as hospitals, apothecaries, medicines, equipment, nursing and midwifery.

A Saw, Pocket Instruments, and Two Ounces of Whiskey

A Saw, Pocket Instruments, and Two Ounces of Whiskey
Author: Anton Paul Sohn
Publisher:
Total Pages: 250
Release: 1998
Genre: History
ISBN:

For more than a century the history of the American Frontier, particularly the West, has been the speciality of the Arthur H. Clark Company. We publish new books, both interpretive and documentary, in small, high-quality editions for the collector, researcher, and library.

Frontier Military Medicine at Fort Hoskins, 1857-1865

Frontier Military Medicine at Fort Hoskins, 1857-1865
Author: Timothy D. Trussell
Publisher:
Total Pages: 272
Release: 1996
Genre: Frontier and pioneer life
ISBN:

Fort Hoskins, located in Kings Valley, Oregon, was a U.S. Army post established in 1856 and decommissioned in April 1865. In 1992, the site of Fort Hoskins went into the public trust as a Benton County Park. Developing an interpretive center for the park will necessitate ground disturbing activities on the site of the Fort Hoskins Infirmary. Accordingly, in 1993 and 1994, archaeological testing was conducted at this location to determine the potential impact such work will have on the archaeological resources associated with the Infirmary. This thesis examines military medicine at Fort Hoskins and provides a basis for comparison with other similar archaeological sites. American and military medicine during the Civil War period is discussed to provide a broad context within which to interpret operational practice and procedure at Fort Hoskins. Data on sick and wounded at Fort Hoskins is utilized to form a picture of the everyday life and health of soldiers at the post. The general and site specific contexts developed are used to analize the artifact assemblage and provides a valuable source of information regarding medical practice and potential distribution and location of further archaeological resources at Fort Hoskins.

Frontier Medicine at Fort Davis and Other Army Posts

Frontier Medicine at Fort Davis and Other Army Posts
Author: Donna Gerstle Smith
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
Total Pages: 192
Release: 2022-10-24
Genre: History
ISBN: 1439676534

From a headless burial to cocaine toothache drops, the true stories hidden in the Wild West's medical records are a match for its tallest tales. In the 19th century, when dying young was a fact of life, a routine bout of diarrhea could be fatal. No one had heard of viruses or bacteria, but they killed more soldiers on the frontier than hostile raiding parties. Physicians dispensed whiskey for TB, mercury for VD and arsenic for indigestion. Baseball injuries were considered to be in the line of duty and twice resulted in amputations at Fort Davis. Donna Gerstle Smith explains how an industrious laundress could earn more than a private, how a female army surgeon won the Medal of Honor and how a garrison illegally hung the local bartender.

Little Pills

Little Pills
Author: Robert Henderson McKay
Publisher:
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2023-07-18
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 9781022390782

A firsthand account of life as a medical officer in the US Army in the late 19th century, this book provides a unique perspective on the challenges and triumphs of providing healthcare in a harsh and unforgiving environment. McKay's experiences are both humorous and harrowing, and provide valuable insight into an important chapter in the history of American medicine. This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the "public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

Bleed, Blister, and Purge

Bleed, Blister, and Purge
Author: Volney Steele
Publisher: Mountain Press Publishing Company
Total Pages: 396
Release: 2005
Genre: History
ISBN:

Describes the medicines and medical practices uses to treat a wide variety of illnesses and disorders on the American frontier.

Health of the Seventh Cavalry

Health of the Seventh Cavalry
Author: P. Willey
Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press
Total Pages: 539
Release: 2015-09-01
Genre: Medical
ISBN: 080615330X

With its charismatic leader George Custer and its memorable encounters with Plains Indians, including the Battle of the Little Bighorn, the Seventh Cavalry serves as the iconic regiment in the post–Civil War U.S Army. Voluminous written documentation as well as archaeological and osteological research suggest that the soldiers of the Seventh represented a cross section of the men who joined the army as a whole at the time. In Health of the Seventh Cavalry, editors P. Willey and Douglas D. Scott and their co-contributors—experts in history, medicine, human biology, epidemiology, and human osteology—examine the Seventh’s medical records to determine the health of the nineteenth-century U.S. Army, and the prevalence and treatment of the numerous conditions that plagued soldiers during the Indian Wars. Building on previous comparisons of archaeological evidence and medical records, Willey and Scott follow multiple lines of inquiry to assess the health of the Seventh, from its organization in 1866 to its 1884 station on the Northern Great Plains. Pairing general overviews of nineteenth- and twentieth-century health care with essays on malaria, injuries, post-traumatic stress disorder, and other specific ailments, Health of the Seventh Cavalry provides fresh insights into the health, disease, and trauma that the regiment experienced over two decades. More than 100 tables, graphs, and maps track the troops’ illnesses and diseases by month, season, year, and location, as well as their stress periods, desertions, and deaths. A glossary of medical terms rounds out the volume. As an ideal exemplar of regiments of its time, the Seventh Cavalry affords scholars and enthusiasts a better understanding of nineteenth-century health and medicine. This volume reveals the struggles that the post–Civil War Seventh, and the entire U.S. Army, faced on the battlefield and elsewhere.

Life of a Soldier on the Western Frontier

Life of a Soldier on the Western Frontier
Author: Jeremy Agnew
Publisher:
Total Pages: 284
Release: 2008
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN:

Focusing on the Indian Wars period of the 1840s through the 1890s, Life of a Soldier on the Western Frontier captures the daily challenges faced by the typical enlisted man and explores the role soldiers played in the conquering of the American frontier.