Comments on: Civil War Saturday: The Father of Battlefield Medicine

By: Grey

Grey — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 18:48:32 +0000

Neat article Tim.

By: John F. MacMichael

John F. MacMichael — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 00:14:05 +0000

Thank you. Always interesting to have what one thinks he knows corrected.

By: AW1 Tim

AW1 Tim — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 00:34:31 +0000

John,

No, it was Letterman who first introduced the practice into the Army of the Potomac. The problem(s) arrived shortly after the Civil War when many of his practices were scaled down, and as you mentioned, institutional memory lapsed and the lessons needed to be relearned.

The Army-wide medical system was set up to treat large volumes of casualties but by 1870, there were few campaigns that used more than a Brigade-sized unit, and so many of the best and brightest had either been let go, or returned to civilian life after the war. Those left had to make do with a down-sizing of the force, with all that that entails, and it would not be until 1898 and the Span-Am war that large numbers of casualties would be seen again.

Same with WWI. The Army had to once more dust off it’s planning for medical units when America mobilized and try and ramp up production on equipment, having sold off what remained after the last war through surplus channels or donations.

An excellent treatment on CW period medicine (pardon the pun) may be found at the National Museum of Civil War Medicine in Frederick, Maryland. Their website is pretty good as well, and if you can ever visit, it is well worth your time to do so.

By: John F. MacMichael

John F. MacMichael — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 00:01:14 +0000

I found your crediting of Letterman with introducing the concept of triage to casualty management very interesting. Previously, I had read that triage was something that came out of WWI. Was this something that carried over or was it another example of the lack of institutional memory forcing a reinvention of the wheel?

By: AW1 Tim

AW1 Tim — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 20:03:05 +0000

Kevin,

Heh. Fortunately, the DNA shows that all my kids are, actually, my kids. :)

By: Kevin

Kevin — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 19:22:59 +0000

AW1 Tim? I HATE AW1 Tim! He stole my wife and made my children hate me, after he ruined my practice with a silly malpractice suit. There’s no way I’m ever reading anything by that scuzzbucket AW1 Tim.

Oh wait, I meant AW2 Tim. AW1 Tim’s probably pretty cool. Nevermind.

By: AW1 Tim

AW1 Tim — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 19:08:33 +0000

Bfalcon,

Thanks. Be sure to tune in next week… :)

By: Bfalcon

Bfalcon — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 18:47:06 +0000

Great article Tim!