Beyond the Book: Civil War Movies

We know that my character Aimee Sherwood likes the Civil War because the man she cares for has a house built in the Civil War era. Recently, Aimee went looking for a list of Civil War movies, and this is what she found.

1.Gone With The Wind

2.Cold Mountain                                      

3.The Horse Soldiers                    

4.North and South                    

5.Shenandoah                            

Beyond the Book: The Civil War

Last week we talked about Civil War photography, and today we're going to discuss other technologies that either developed during the war or were invented during this time. The obvious place to start is with guns.

Before the war soldiers carried muskets that could only be fired once before a soldier had to reload. They weren't very accurate until you were very close to your target. Rifles had greater range, but it was too hard to load them so they weren't used in battle until a Frenchman named Claude Minie invented a better, easier to load bullet. It was an improvement, but you still had to pause and load after every shot. By 1863 rifles that fired more than one shot before soldiers had to reload was invented. This gave the North a huge advantage over the South because the South didn't have the new guns. This is the Spencer rifle that shot 7 times before reloading.

The North used hydrogen filled balloons to fly over Confederate sites and report what they found.


The North also used ironclad boats, but the South developed submarines to try to stop them. They did sink one ironclad off the coast of SC. The Hunley a Confederate sub sank the Housatonic, but the Hunley sank too.

Railroads and telegraphs were also used in the war. In both cases the North had the advantage. The union had 24,000 miles of railroad track at the beginning of the war, and the South only had 9,000. The North also had most of the track and locomotive factories. Of course the advantages of moving troops and supplies quickly is obvious. The railroad was one technology that was extensively used after the war ended.

Abraham Lincoln was the first president to communicate using a telegraph. Again, relaying information quickly is obviously an advantage to any army. The South lacked the money and experience to have widespread telegraph usage.

In case you've forgotten, we're talking about the Civil War because Aimee Sherwood my heroine in Fortuna is in love with two men, and one of them owns a house built during the Civil War era. If you'd like to pick up a copy of Fortuna you can find it at http://amzn.to/23yoW2d

Beyond the Book: Civil War Culture

Photography was an important part of culture back in the Civil War days. The Civil War was the first war to extensively photographed. Photographers went into army camps and battles to capture the death and carnage that was so prevalent. Matthew Brady, who was already famous, was probably the most important photographer of all. He decided to make a record of the entire war so he hired some other men to help him and sent them into the field to catalogue the war.

It wasn't easy taking pictures back then. The photographers had to transport them heavy equipment in horse drawn wagons, and their darkrooms were less that ideal.

Brady exhibited his first pictures in 1862 in New York. Since most Northerners had never been near a battlefield, they were horrified at what they saw. I've posted a few of the pictures below. If you'd like more information about Civil War culture you can go to www.history.com.  

Picture source:https://www.pinterest.com/pin/437130707554331379/

Photo source:https://www.pinterest.com/pin/437130707554330948/

Book Review Moccasin Trace

If you came for Beyond the Book, scroll on down, but why not take a look at this post too? I wrote a book review for this one.

Moccasin Trace

by Hawk MacKinney

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

BLURB:

… it was about the land…a tale of love and loss and hope…

“The most engaging and brilliantly crafted historical work since Margaret Mitchell’s great classic.”

Barbara Casey

Author, The Gospel According to Prissy

Hamilton Ingram looked out across the fertile Georgia bottomlands that were Moccasin Hollows, seeing holdings it had taken generations of Ingrams to build.  No drop of slave sweat ever shed in its creation.  It was about the land…his trust, his duty to preserve it for the generation of Ingrams to come…

It is July of 1859, a month of sweltering dog days and feverish emotional bombast.  Life is good for widower Rundell Ingram and his Hazel-eyed, roan-haired son, Hamilton.  Between the two of them, they take care of Moccasin Hollows, their rustic dogtrot ancestral home, a sprawling non-slave plantation in the rolling farming country outside Queensborough Towne in east Georgia.  Adjoining Ingram lands is Wisteria Bend, the vast slave-holding plantation of Andrew and Corinthia Greer, their daughter Sarah, and son Benjamin.

Both families share generations of long-accepted traditions, and childhood playmates are no longer children.  The rangy, even-tempered Norman-Scottish young Hamilton is smitten with Sarah, who has become an enticing capricious beauty—the young lovers more in love with each passing day, and only pleasant times ahead of them.

But a blood tide of war is sweeping across the South, a tide that might be impossible to stand before.

EXCERPT:

Bessie's head jerked around, "...them gun shots."

           

A stooped-over Sarah looked up, "What?"

           

"Gun shots..."  Bessie put down the box of jars and headed toward the cellar door.  "From the direction where the men be.  We gittin' upstairs, an' gittin' now."

           

Sarah's heart pounded as they came up out of the cellar and looked in the direction of more shots.

           

"Come on..."  Bessie hurried into the pantry where she reached down the powder horn from the top shelf, then the rifle and pistols. "Git 'em ready with all that shootin'.  Till we know different, we make sure two-legged low-downs don't sneak to the house."

           

Sarah rushed to the window and murmured, "Hamilton..."  She feared  for him, for their child, for all of them.  "Surely you don't suppose it's Federals?"

           

"Might be better if'n it is 'stead of what else be skulkin' in them woods.  Stay away from the winder, an' finish rammin' this powder."

           

Sarah poured the ball and powder firm, rammed it, pulled the rammer out, and whispered, "Bessie listen...birds stopped singing."

           

"Except that cawin' crow seein' somethin' what don't belong."

           

Sarah took another quick peek, "There's several horses, but I don't see any riders.  Mules are still hitched.  I don't see anyone at the plow, but there's men on among the trees."

           

"You watch the front door."  Bessie snugged the pistol in her apron pocket.  "I cover the back.  Anybody tries comin' through the dogtrot door or through the parlor, we back into here, keep 'em from circlin' us."

           

"What about Papa Rundell?"  Sarah's stomach was queasy.

           

"He keep his rifle ready.  Anyone bust in his room be dead 'fore they twitch a hair."

           

With a crash the kitchen door flew open.  Sarah brought her rifle up and fired, the shot splintering door and jamb.  The sound thundered through the house.  Bessie's rifle steadied dead-on.

           

The silhouetted head and shoulders ducked into a hunch and Hamilton yelled, "Sarah!"  His hand smeared at stinging blood-speckled splinters of wood along his cheek.

AUTHOR Bio and Links:

With postgraduate degrees and faculty appointments in several medical universities, Hawk MacKinney has taught graduate courses in both the United States and Jerusalem. In addition to professional articles and texts on chordate neuroembryology, Hawk has authored several works of fiction.

Hawk began writing mysteries for his school newspaper. His works of fiction, historical love stories, science fiction and mystery-thrillers are not genre-centered, but plot-character driven, and reflect his southwest upbringing in Arkansas, Texas and Oklahoma. Moccasin Trace, a historical novel nominated for the prestigious Michael Shaara Award for Excellence in Civil War Fiction and the Writers Notes Book Award, details the family bloodlines of his serial protagonist in the Craige Ingram Mystery Series… murder and mayhem with a touch of romance. Vault of Secrets, the first book in the Ingram series, was followed by Nymrod Resurrection, Blood and Gold, and The Lady of Corpsewood Manor. All have received national attention.  Hawk’s latest release in the Ingram series is due out this fall with another mystery-thriller work out in 2014. The Bleikovat Event, the first volume in The Cairns of Sainctuarie science fiction series, was released in 2012.

"Without question, Hawk is one of the most gifted and imaginative writers I have had the pleasure to represent. His reading fans have something special to look forward to in the Craige Ingram Mystery Series. Intrigue, murder, deception and conspiracy--these are the things that take Hawk's main character, Navy ex-SEAL/part-time private investigator Craige Ingram, from his South Carolina ancestral home of Moccasin Hollow to the dirty backrooms of the nation's capital and across Europe and the Middle East."

Barbara Casey, President

Barbara Casey Literary Agency

www.hawkmackinney.net

http://www.amazon.com/Moccasin-Trace-Hawk-MacKinney/dp/1595072608/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1400172529&sr=8-1&keywords=moccasin+trace

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/moccasin-trace-hawk-mackinney/1008084042?ean=9781595072603

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My Review:

Things I Liked:

I enjoyed a glimpse into everyday life in another century. We get to see the South both before and after the war. MacKinney carries readers to balls, masquerades, hunts, and other social events, even a honeymoon. We take a lot of things for granted today, but he showed how bad transportation was, and of course people couldn't listen to daily news to find out how the war was going. I was also interested in his description of the ladies' clothes. Making them by hand was much harder than going to the department store. 

Some things don't change, though. People still love their families, hold political opinions, and try to be true to their principles. 

I was interested in the characters' take on the war. They decided that slavery was not the real issue of the war, but it was a good excuse to rile people to action. 

And speaking of slavery, I'm not sure what to think about that. One of the slaves said she loved the white children of her masters as much as she did her own son, and when her son ran away, the master didn't put out any runaway slave notices. I'm just not sure that's realistic in most cases.

A couple of things irritated me. The dialect slowed the book down for me, and since presumably the rich plantation owners were educated people, I found their vocabulary to be somewhat lacking. I also don't know how closely young ladies of wealthy families were chaperoned, but these characters had the freedom to sneak off and share intimacy before marriage. 

Overall, though, I enjoyed this look into a vanished world and wouldn't hesitate to recommend it. This little snippet is a good example of what I'm talking about.

In the muggy morning bright sun Hamilton made his

way through the fragrance of steamy horse manure,

leaky turpentine kegs, open bales of mildewed cotton,

and the rankness of where dockhands and vagrants had

relieved themselves. The docks were one milling multitude

of shirtless, cussin’ teamsters off-loading cargo from

wagons onto several steamers, while a company of uniforms

boarded through one forward gangway.

Beautiful, isn't it?

Beyond the Book: The Battle of Gettysburg

Hello, readers.  My name is Clint Hayes.  Elaine told my story in her novel The Sentence.  The story’s fantastic, and if you’d like to read it, you can buy it for only $2.99 at  http://www.astraeapress.com/#ecwid:mode=product&product=10046831  Don’t take my word for it though.  For only $2.99 you can afford to check it out.

I don’t think Elaine mentioned it, but I’m a big Civil War fan so she asked me to tell you about the importance of the Battle of Gettysburg which happened July 1-3, 1863.  Are you ready?  Here goes.

The American Civil War was a bloody conflict that almost tore the US in two.  Historically speaking, the importance of the Civil War was that the US remained one nation and therefore was strong enough to become a super power in the 20^th century.  For Americans, we celebrate the war as a vindication of freedom for thousands of Americans held in slavery. 

The turning point of the war was the Battle of Gettysburg which was fought July 1-3, 1863 at a little market town called Gettysburg which is located in Pennsylvania.  Before Gettysburg, the South had a good chance of winning the war.  General Lee had taken his army into Pennsylvania with the purpose of capturing the capital.  Afterwards, he planned to negotiate a peace agreement from a position of power.  If he had won the battle, there’s a good chance that the South would be a different country today.

On Tuesday, June 30, a Confederate brigade looking for shoes marched toward Gettysburg, but they spotted a long column of Federal cavalry and withdrew, telling their superiors that they would go back tomorrow to get the shoes. 

On Wednesday, July 1, they did go back.  Two divisions of Confederates meet a Federal cavalry just west of town at Willoughby Run, and they skirmished.  Anticipating a battle, both Lee and his opponent General  George G. Meade raced to bring in reinforcements.

After fierce fighting, the Federals were driven back into Gettysburg where they regrouped beside a cemetery that stood on high ground.  This was a good chance for Lee to end the war because he outnumbered the Federals, and the retreat had disorganized them.  Lee ordered Confederate General Ewell to attack if possible, but Ewell hesitated and gave the Federals a chance to dig in along Cemetery Ridge and bring in some cannon and reinforcements. 

Confederate General James Longstreet told Lee that there was no way they could win now.  He suggested moving east between the Union army and Washington, establish a strong defensive position, and force the Union troops to attack them.

But believing his army could win, Lee ordered the attack to proceed.  He decided to attack the southern end of Cemetery Ridge which he believed was less well defended.  He might have made a different decision if Jeb Stuart and his cavalry had been around to scout for him, but he had sent Stuart to harass the Union troops, so Lee was blind until Stuart returned.

Around ten the next morning, July 2, Lee ordered Longstreet to attack, but Longstreet delayed and gave even more time for the Union to bring in troops and guns.  He attacked around four.  Some of the bitterest and most deadly fighting of the war took place, and names such as Little Round Top, Peach Orchard, and the Wheat Field became synonymous with both carnage and courage.

About 6:30 p.m. Gen. Ewell attacked the Union line from the north and east at Cemetery Hill and Culp's Hill. The attack lasted until around 10:30 but was finally unsuccessful at Cemetery Hill, although the South seized some trenches on Culp's Hill.

Both sides withdrew to regroup.  There was a full moon, and all night long the wounded and dying lay on the battlefield filling the night with their cries. 

Lee decided on a big gamble.  He planned for General Pickett to attack the Union troops front and center on Cemetery Hill, the last thing the Union would expect.  At the same time General Ewell would try to take Culp’s Hill again.  Around 8:00 fighting broke out, but it stopped around 11:00.

General Longstreet again begged Lee not to attack, saying it was impossible to win, but Lee didn’t listen.  The battle began around 1:00.  Twelve thousand Confederates marched in an orderly row up Cemetery Hill, and then the slaughter began.

A fierce battle raged for an hour with much brutal hand to hand fighting, shooting at close range and stabbing with bayonets.  Briefly, the Confederates almost took their objective, a small clump of Oak Trees on Cemetery Ridge, but Union reinforcements swarmed in and repulsed the Confederates.   Pickett's Charge began to recede as the men drifted back down the slope.  Lee's army had been beaten back, leaving 7,500 of his men lying on the battlefield.   Confederate wounded and missing were 28,000 out of 75,000. Union casualties were 23,000 out of 88,000.

That night and into the next day Lee took his wounded and began a retreat into Virginia.  If General Meade had followed and attacked, he could have ended the war, but he didn’t.  President Lincoln was very angry about it and wrote a scathing letter to Meade about his conduct.

The tide of the war turned at Gettysburg.  Lee never again moved North, and from that time on, a Union victory was virtually assured.  Months later President Lincoln gave the Gettysburg Address on the battlefield.  It was so short nobody thought it was any good, but over time our opinions have changed.  We now realize how truly inspiring the address was.  Click here to read it. 

The picture source is: http://www.fieldandstream.com/blogs/gun-nuts/2011/06/civil-war-where-did-we-find-such-men

The Battle of Gettysburg

2011 is the 150^th anniversary of the beginning of the Civil War, a bloody conflict that almost tore the US in two.  Historically speaking, the importance of the Civil War was that the US remained one nation and therefore was strong enough to become a super power in the 20^th century.  For Americans, we celebrate the war as a vindication of freedom for thousands of Americans held in slavery. 

The turning point of the war was the Battle of Gettysburg which was fought July 1-3, 1863 at a little market town called Gettysburg which is located in Pennsylvania.  Before Gettysburg, the South had a good chance of winning the war.  General Lee had taken his army into Pennsylvania with the purpose of capturing the capital.  Afterwards, he planned to negotiate a peace agreement from a position of power.  If he had won the battle, there’s a good chance that the South would be a different country today.

On Tuesday, June 30, a Confederate brigade looking for shoes marched toward Gettysburg, but they spotted a long column of Federal cavalry and so they withdrew, telling their superiors that they would go back tomorrow to get the shoes. 

On Wednesday, July 1, they did go back.  Two divisions of Confederates meet a Federal cavalry just west of town at Willoughby Run, and they skirmished.  Anticipating a battle both Lee and his opponent General  George G. Meade raced to bring in reinforcements.

After fierce fighting, the Federals were driven back into Gettysburg where they regrouped beside a cemetery that stood on high ground.  This was a good chance for Lee to end the war because he outnumbered the Federals, and the retreat had disorganized them.  Lee ordered Confederate General Ewell to attack if possible, but Ewell hesitated and gave the Federals a chance to dig in along Cemetery Ridge and bring in some cannon and reinforcements. 

Confederate General James Longstreet told Lee that there was no way they could win now.  He suggested moving east between the Union army and Washington, establish a strong defensive position, and force the Union troops to attack them.

Believing his army could win, Lee ordered the attack to proceed.  He decided to attack the southern end of Cemetery Ridge which he believed was less well defended.  He might have made a different decision if Jeb Stuart and his cavalry had been around to scout for him, but he had sent Stuart to harass the Union troops, so Lee was blind until Stuart returned.

Around ten the next morning, July 2, Lee ordered Longstreet to attack, but Longstreet delayed and gave even more time for the Union to bring in troops and guns.  He attacked around four.  Some of the bitterest and most deadly fighting of the war took place, and names such as Little Round Top, Peach Orchard, and the Wheat Field became synonymous with carnage and courage in equal measure.

About 6:30 p.m. Gen. Ewell attacked the Union line from the north and east at Cemetery Hill and Culp's Hill. The attack lasted until around 10:30, but was finally unsuccessful at Cemetery Hill, although the South seized some trenches on Culp's Hill.

Both sides withdrew to regroup.  There was a full moon, and all night long the wounded and dying lay on the battlefield filling the night with their cries. 

Lee decided on a big gamble.  He planned for General Pickett to attack the Union troops front and center on Cemetery Hill, the last thing the Union would expect.  At the same time General Ewell would try to take Culp’s Hill again.  Around 8:00 fighting broke out, but it stopped around 11:00.

General Longstreet again begged Lee not to attack, saying it was impossible to win, but Lee didn’t listen.  The battle began around 1:00.  Twelve thousand Confederates marched in an orderly row up Cemetery Hill, and then the slaughter began.

A fierce battle raged for an hour with much brutal hand to hand fighting, shooting at close range and stabbing with bayonets.  Briefly, the Confederates almost took their objective, a small clump of Oak Trees on Cemetery Ridge, but Union reinforcements swarmed in and repulsed the Confederates.   Pickett's Charge began to recede as the men drifted back down the slope.  Lee's army had been beaten back, leaving 7,500 of his men lying on the field of battle.   Confederate wounded and missing were 28,000 out of 75,000. Union casualties were 23,000 out of 88,000.

That night and into the next day Lee took his wounded and began a retreat into Virginia.  If General Meade had followed and attacked, he could have ended the war, but he didn’t.  President Lincoln was very angry about it and wrote a scathing letter to Meade about his conduct.

The tide of the war turned at Gettysburg.  Lee never again moved North, and from that time on, a Union victory was virtually assured.  Months later President Lincoln gave the Gettysburg Address on the battlefield.  It was so short nobody thought it was any good, but over time our opinions have changed.  We now realize how truly inspiring the address was.  Click here to read it. 

The picture shows a view of Little Round Top.

Can You Identify This Flag?

Can you identify the flag on the left? You can’t? Don’t feel bad. Not too many people would guess that that flag is the first official flag of the Confederacy. It was used from March 1861 to May of 1863.

The color choice was significant. Many Southerners still felt a lingering affection for the American flag so the committee charged with selecting a flag felt using red, white, and blue would made the transition to a new flag easier. The seven stars represented the original Confederate states. Can you name them without looking? They were South Carolina-December 20, 1860, Mississippi-January 9, 1861, Florida-January 10, 1861, Alabama-January 11, 1861, Georgia-January 19, 1861, Louisiana-January 26, 1861, and Texas-February 1, 1861. After Lincoln called for volunteers four more states seceded. They were: Virginia, Arkansas, North Carolina, and Tennessee. Eventually the number of stars increased to thirteen.

But hold on. There were only eleven Confederate states, so why were there thirteen stars? That’s because even though Missouri and Kentucky never seceded they held slaves and had some local Confederate governments.

The stripes in the American flag were replaced by two red bars and one white bar which is why people called the flag the stars and bars. This flag was first used at the inauguration of President Jefferson Davis.

As time went on, though, problems developed with this flag. When a battle was going on there was a lot of smoke and confusion on the field. In that confusion it was hard to tell exactly who you were shooting at. Many times all the soldiers could see was red, white, and blue. Sometimes they inadvertently fired on their own men.

After the battle of Bull Run General P.G.T. Beauregard suggested changing the flag to avoid confusion. Nobody wanted to do that, so he persuaded them to have a special flag that they carried only on the battle field. That flag is the one beside the first official flag, and I know you’ve seen it before. Interestingly enough, the flag was supposed to be square, but in many illustrations of the period it looks rectangular in shape. At any rate, everyone loved it. It was called the Confederate Battle Flag, the Southern Cross, or the Battle Flag Of The Army Of Northern Virginia.

Since people liked it so much the government decided to change the official flag. The second official flat is the one with the white field. It was called the Stainless Banner and went into usage on May 1, 1863. The problem was, it looked too much like a white flag of surrender, especially if the wind wasn’t blowing.

That wouldn’t do so the government commissioned a third flag which was adopted on March 4, 1865. It’s the one with the red bar at the end of the white field. This one didn’t last long because the war ended. It was called the Last Confederate Flag, and in my opinion it was the best one.

My sources for this post are:

http://www.sonofthesouth.net/leefoundation/Confederate_Flag.htm
http://americancivilwar.com/south/conflag/southflg.html
http://arebelflag.net/

It Makes Me Shiver To Think About It

If you think medical procedures are unpleasant today, you’d better thank your lucky stars you weren’t born in the Civil War Era. And you’d really better be grateful that you weren’t a Civil War soldier.

During the 1860’s doctors didn’t know about germs or what caused diseases, and they had very little medical training. Harvard Medical School didn’t even own a stethoscope or microscope until after the war. Most Civil War surgeons had never treated a gunshot wound, and many had never performed surgery. Still, they did the best they could with what they had to work with.

The Union Army had about 10,000 doctors and the Confederate army had about 4,000. The doctors used bloody fingers as probes. Bloody knives were used over and over without washing or sterilizing. Doctors operated in pus stained clothes or sometimes shirtless. Blood poisoning, sepsis or Pyemia-pus in the blood-was quite common and often deadly. Surgical fever and gangrene were constant threats. This is the way one witness described amputation, the most common surgery:

“Tables about breast high had been erected upon which the screaming victims were having legs and arms cut off. The surgeons and 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.”

A good surgeon could remove a limb in ten minutes or less. If it took much longer the man would probably go into shock and die. Most of the time the doctors used chloroform as an anesthetic. They soaked a cloth in the chloroform and held it across the man’s face until he fell unconscious. Surprisingly enough, 75% of amputees did survive. Have you heard the term “sawbones?” The surgeons bone saw is where the term came from.

Why was amputation the most common surgical procedure? Because so many people were wounded or killed! More men were killed in the Civil War than in all previous American Wars combined! More men died at the Battle of Antietam than any other day in American History. The casualties at Antietam were twice the casualties suffered at D-Day.

Why were so many people wounded or killed? It was because the armies still were using Napoleonic tactics. They were still using frontal assaults where the men would run across open ground to engage the enemy, but during the Civil War the soldiers used guns with rifled barrels. This meant they were more accurate at longer distances. As men raced across the field it was easier to pick them off.

When the wounded were brought to the field hospital a triage system sent only those wounded in the extremities to the surgeon. A torso or head wound was considered a fatal wound, and the doctor didn’t have time to spend on men whom he couldn’t save. He didn’t have time to try to save splintered arms and legs either-too many men to see to. Therefore, amputation was the only real treatment.

Surprisingly, though, for every soldier who died in battle, two died of disease. Diarrhea and dysentery alone claimed more men than battlefield wounds. Measles, smallpox, malaria, pneumonia, or camp itch claimed many more. You’d have thought the camps were safe, so what was the problem? A heck of a lot!

First, new recruits weren’t given thorough physical exams. Men went to fight who weren’t healthy enough to do it, and of course they were more susceptible to disease than healthy men. Second, troops from rural areas were in the same units as men from cities. Often the rural men had never been exposed to come of the germs carried by the men from the cities, so they got sick.

Third, camp hygiene was dreadful. One federal army inspector who visited a camp said the camps 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 with heaps of manure and offal close to the camp.”

Fourth, soldiers suffered from exposure and the lack of protective clothing. Colds often turned into pneumonia, the third leading killer disease after typhoid and dysentery. And fifth, poor food and water often weakened a soldier and made him susceptible to disease. Next week we’ll talk about what the soldiers ate. I promise you it wasn’t anything too tasty.

Sometimes the cures the doctors offered sound almost as bad as the disease itself. For open bowels the patient was treated with a plug of opium. For closed bowels the doctor prescribed a mixture of mercury and chalk. Respiratory problems were treated with opium or sometimes quinine and muster plasters. Bleeding was also used. That’s when doctors nick a vein and let blood flow from the patient.

It was easier for the Union army to get medicines than it was the Confederate army. A large percentage of the medicine used by the Confederates was captured from Union supplies.

The picture on the left at the top of the page shows a Civil War field hospital after the Battle of Savage Creek. Notice that the men have no shelter from the elements. The other picture is of an original Civil War amputation kit.

Information for this post came from the following sources:

http://www.sonofthesouth.net/leefoundation/civil-war-medicine.htm
http://ehistory.osu.edu/uscw/features/medicine/cwsurgeon/