Cannonball

Stackpole Books has recently published a fascinating new book written by well-respected author and researcher Barbara Franco.  Gettysburg Surgeons: Facing a Common Enemy in the Civil War’s Deadliest Battle is the first full-length book of which I am aware that dives into the lives and activities of the surgeons who served the Union Army of the Potomac and Confederate Army of Northern Virginia during the 1863 Gettysburg Campaign.

In the initial three chapters that comprise Part 1, Franco deftly covers the backstory of the general training and education process (or lack thereof in some cases) that a typical surgeon or assistant surgeon undertook before becoming a physician. She uses examples from dozens of doctors who served at Gettysburg to illustrate the diversity of medical expertise and training prior to the men joining the respective armies. Some continued their educations while in the field, learning “on the job” from more experienced and better trained surgeons.

Part II covers the battle of Gettysburg day by day in the first two chapters, and then the subsequent relief efforts in Chapters 6-9, Using primary material from medical records, diaries, letters, army reports, and the like, Barbara Franco expertly tells the story of the challenges the surgeons faced in treating tens of thousands of casualties in a town with limited medical facilities (the nearest army hospital was in York, PA, some 30 miles to the east of Gettysburg). Patients arrived with gunshot and artillery injuries of all sorts; some requiring immediate, life-saving medical care while others were left waiting until an opportune time to treat their less serious injuries. Many of these physicians left written accounts of their experiences; Franco has mined these to provide a solid overview of what the surgeons (and those soldiers under their care) went through.

The final section of the book deals with a selection of surgeons and how they progressed through the war and in civilian life the rest of the century. Some faced difficulties adjusting to routine medical practice; others flourished. A few made the army their career.

The book has a scattering of photographs of selected surgeons. The footnotes and citations are valuable to researchers wanting more information and details from the source material.  To learn more about this well-written and useful new addition to the burgeoning Gettysburg historiography, please visit the publisher’s website.