Letters from a Civil War Surgeon

Letters from a Civil War Surgeon
Author: William Child
Publisher: Polar Bear
Total Pages: 408
Release: 2001
Genre: History
ISBN:

Dr. Child's is a writer of wit, humor, candor, understanding, emotion and fact. His letters to his wife take us into the Civil War, into his time, as we relive most of the major battles, the struggles, and are given special insights into the politics. As a witness to the assassination of Lincoln he writes an eyewitness account that leaves you speechless.

Letters of a Civil War Surgeon

Letters of a Civil War Surgeon
Author: William Watson
Publisher: Purdue University Press
Total Pages: 180
Release: 1996
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 9781557530929

From September 1862 until May 1865, Major William Watson served as surgeon with the 105th Regiment of Pennsylvania Volunteers, which fought at Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, the Wilderness, and elsewhere. Over the course of three years at war, he wrote 91 letters to his family, in which he describes his own war against death and disease. This well-educated and sensitive young man has left us a variety of impressions of camp life, marches, and battles; of a soldier's matter-of-fact willingness to accept -- though not without grumbling -- the rigors of his lot, of concern with the job at hand and with immediate needs like food and shelter; and of a veteran's indifference to the flag-waving of professional patriots. In spite of his often acute criticisms of the Union's military leadership, Watson never faltered in his belief in the Union cause and the ultimate outcome of the war nor in his dedication to Lincoln's major goals.

A Surgeon's Civil War

A Surgeon's Civil War
Author: Daniel M. Holt
Publisher: Kent State University Press
Total Pages: 326
Release: 1991-05-31
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780873385381

Daniel M. Holt, a successful country doctor in the upstate village of Newport, New York, accepted the position of assistant surgeon in the 121st New York Volunteer Army in August 1862. At age 42 when he was commissioned, he was the oldest member of the staff. But his experience served him well, as his regiment participated in nearly all the major campaigns in the eastern theater of the war--Crampton's Gap before Antietam, Fredericksburg, Salem Church, the Mine Run campaign, the Wilderness, Spotsylvania, Cold Harbor, Petersburg, the 1864 Shenandoah Valley campaign, and Appomattox. In A Surgeon's Civil War, the educated and articulate Holt describes camp life, army politics, and the medical difficulties that he and his colleagues experienced. His reminiscences and letters provide an insider's look at medicine as practiced on the battlefield and offer occasional glimpses of the efficacy of Surgeon General William A. Hammond's reforms as they affected Holt's regiment. He also comments on other subjects, including slavery and national events. Holt served until October 17, 1864 when ill health forced him to resign.

I Hope to Do My Country Service

I Hope to Do My Country Service
Author: John Bennitt
Publisher: Wayne State University Press
Total Pages: 439
Release: 2005
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 081433170X

Although a number of memoirs from Civil War surgeons have been published in the last decade, "I Hope to Do My Country Serviceis the first of its kind from a Michigan regimental surgeon to appear in more than a century.

The Journal of a Civil War Surgeon

The Journal of a Civil War Surgeon
Author: Jonah Franklin Dyer
Publisher: U of Nebraska Press
Total Pages: 364
Release: 2003-01-01
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780803266377

J. Franklin Dyer?s journal offers a rare perspective on three years of the Civil War as seen through the eyes of a surgeon at the front. The journal, taken from letters written to his wife, Maria, describes in lengthy and colorful detail the daily life of a doctor who began as a regimental surgeon in the Nineteenth Massachusetts Volunteers and was promoted to acting medical director of the Second Corps, Army of the Potomac. ø This firsthand account traces Dyer?s attempts to manage his Gloucester household even as the Second Corps fought on the Peninsula, at Second Bull Run, Antietam, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, and from the Wilderness to Petersburg. Over time his letters to his wife become fraught with the tension of a man losing his early martial ardor as he witnesses the ghastly procession of suffering and death. ø Both a talented surgeon and a careful administrator, Dyer nevertheless declined opportunities to work at hospitals in the rear in order to stay near his old regiment and the fighting. He confronted the aftermath of battle?thousands of wounded and dying men?with a small staff and simple instruments. He and his fellow surgeons saved lives as best they could?often at the cost of amputated limbs?then dropped to the ground from exhaustion and slept in blood-drenched uniforms until the cries of the wounded woke them and induced them back to work. Dyer also provides a glimpse of the most devastating opponent the armies faced: disease. He and his medical colleagues fought cholera, typhus, dysentery, measles, and, despite official denials in Washington , a scurvy outbreak that weakened Federal units during the Peninsula campaign.

Death, Disease, and Life at War

Death, Disease, and Life at War
Author: Christopher E. Loperfido
Publisher:
Total Pages: 168
Release: 2018
Genre: New York (State)
ISBN: 9781611213591

"Union surgeon James Dana Benton witnessed firsthand the suffering and death brought about by the ghastly wounds, infections, and diseases that wreaked havoc to both the Union and Confederate armies. A native of New York, Dr. Benton penned a series of letters throughout the war to his family relating his experiences with the 111th New York Infantry as an assistant surgeon, and later with the 98th New York as surgeon. His unique correspondence, together with insights from author Chris Loperfido, coalesce to produce Death and Disease in the Civil War: A Union Surgeon's Correspondence from Harpers Ferry to Richmond. Dr. Benton was present for some of the war's most gruesome and important battles, including Gettysburg, Cold Harbor, and the siege of Petersburg. He was also present at Harpers Ferry, Second Battle of Auburn, Battle of Morton's Ford, and Abraham Lincoln's second Inaugural address. His pen offers an insightful and honest look into what everyday life was like for the surgeons who tirelessly worked to save the men who risked their lives for the preservation of the nation. Loperfido's Death and Disease in the Civil War should be read by every student of the Civil War to better understand and come to grips with what awaited the wounded and the medical teams once the generals were finished with their work"--Provided by publisher.

"This Terrible Struggle for Life"

Author: Thomas S. Hawley, M.D.
Publisher: McFarland
Total Pages: 263
Release: 2012-10-03
Genre: History
ISBN: 0786466588

This book offers a rare insight into the history of the Civil War in the western theatre through the eyes of a regimental surgeon. The newly graduated Dr. Thomas S. Hawley served in one of the premier fighting regiments of the Union Army. This collection of letters is important for two reasons: They detail his four and a half year career in the army through firsthand accounts of the various campaigns and his numerous duties, and they chronicle his interactions with captured Confederate soldiers, his encounters with pro-Southern and pro-Northern civilians in areas occupied by the Union Army, his experiences with freed slaves and numerous other daily events in the war. Notable among the letters is his record of the early Civil War in Missouri, the Vicksburg Campaign, the Battle of Tupelo and the Battle of Nashville.

Civil War Surgeon - Biography of James Langstaff Dunn, MD

Civil War Surgeon - Biography of James Langstaff Dunn, MD
Author: Paul B. Kerr MD
Publisher: AuthorHouse
Total Pages: 296
Release: 2012-03
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 146855980X

This book is a Biography of James Langstaff Dunn, MD, Civil War Surgeon and unwavering Patriot, from Medical Student 1846 to War End 1865. A modern doctor, Paul B Kerr, MD, obtained 140 letters Dunn wrote to his dear wife, Temperance, and children, from his College and War years. Dr Kerr interprets the letters as relates to surgery, diseases, tent life, prisons, hospitals and logistics in the light of life and medicine today, and his own experiences in Army Medicine in WW II and Korea. Dr Kerr also discusses the knowledge of anesthesia in the 1800s, and how it evolved during 40 years of his own practice of anesthesia. Dunn was the Surgeon of the 109th PA Volunteers of Infantry for three years, a Batallion that carried many central assignments and battles. Fighting for 1 1/2 years with the Army of the Potomac, his unit did a second 1 1/2 years with the Army of the Tennessee. Dunn describes first-hand the Battles for Gettysburg, Chancellorsville, Chattanooga, Atlanta and the occupancy of Savannah. You won't forget his exhausting personal help for women and babies in the fiery destruction of Columbia, South Carolina. Nor will his description of first entry into Atlanta be forgotten. Dunn personally names Clara Barton "The Angel of the Battlefield." He witnesses the amazing assault on Lookout Mountain, visits relatives in Cincinnati and Nashville. In Washington, he observes President Lincoln and the huge tent city with thousands of marching men there. We have from him a dateline Washington, DC on the very day Lincoln was shot. We meet his boss and friend, General John Geary, who from Mayor of San Francisco and Governor of Kansas, becomes his Commandant, and, after the War, Governor of Pennsylvania. We learn first hand about drunkenness, "Hospital Gangrene;" and Dunn's encounters with slaves, the aristocracy of Virginia and the primitive whites of the Tennessee Mountains. Throughout, Dr Dunn keeps his morals, his devotion to the Union and his disgust with pacifists at home in Pennsylvania and in Congress. He discusses the Conscription Laws and means of substitution. His letters are full of Military Information that in other wars were subject to censorship. His 140 letters are as a "War Correspondent."

War Letters

War Letters
Author: Andrew Carroll
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 518
Release: 2008-06-23
Genre: History
ISBN: 1439107319

In 1998, Andrew Carroll founded the Legacy Project, with the goal of remembering Americans who have served their nation and preserving their letters for posterity. Since then, over 50,000 letters have poured in from around the country. Nearly two hundred of them comprise this amazing collection -- including never-before-published letters that appear in the new afterword. Here are letters from the Civil War, World War I, World War II, Korea, the Cold War, Vietnam, the Persian Gulf war, Somalia, and Bosnia -- dramatic eyewitness accounts from the front lines, poignant expressions of love for family and country, insightful reflections on the nature of warfare. Amid the voices of common soldiers, marines, airmen, sailors, nurses, journalists, spies, and chaplains are letters by such legendary figures as Gen. William T. Sherman, Clara Barton, Theodore Roosevelt, Ernie Pyle, Gen. Douglas MacArthur, Julia Child, Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf, and Gen. Benjamin O. Davis Sr. Collected in War Letters, they are an astonishing historical record, a powerful tribute to those who fought, and a celebration of the enduring power of letters.

Doctor Edward Maynard

Doctor Edward Maynard
Author: Rodney S. Hatch
Publisher: Iron Horse Pub.
Total Pages: 204
Release: 2010-01-01
Genre: Dentists
ISBN: 9780615376172

In the spring of 1845, Dr. Edward Maynard, prominent Washington dental surgeon and aspiring gun inventor sold the first of his many gun inventions, his patented tape primer and lock to the U.S. Government for five thousand dollars. Following this success, he set his sights on selling his revolutionary invention to the Governments of Russia, Prussia, Belgium and other European Kingdoms. In July 1845, he left his wife, Ellen with their three boys and his busy Washington D.C. dental practice to travel to these countries in hopes of realizing a fortune from the sale of his invention. He planned to return home in six months; instead his trip took fifteen months. Due to unexpected delays and a deteriorating financial state, he would resort to performing dental operations in order to raise funds. This in turn, would lead to his becoming Dentist to the Imperial Family of the Tsar of Russia. During his travels, he wrote his wife, Ellen, on a daily basis, telling her of his activities and successes with both his invention and dental operations. In the spring of 1997, more than 150 years after his letters were written; they were discovered by Dr. Maynard's great-great-great grandson in his family's garage in upstate New York. These letters, in addition to extensive research by the author, tell the story of Dr. Maynard's unique travels in 1845 and the heretofore untold biography of this fascinating 19th century dental surgeon, gun inventor and entrepreneurial business figure. Included in this book are photographs of numerous Maynard prototype firearms never before seen by collectors and enthusiasts of Dr. Maynard's guns.