Years of Change and Suffering: Modern Perspectives on Civil War Medicine

Introducing new primary source material from experts in the field, this thoughtful and detailed discussion covers the battlefields, hospitals, and laboratories of the Civil War period while also considering the effects of the war on the mental and physical health of veterans many years later. Turning conventional wisdom on its head, this collection discusses the advances made in the understanding and treatment of diseases and wounds to the nervous system by the end of the war along with the new surgical techniques that were used to treat battlefield injuries once thought to be fatal. Topics also discussed include how the Confederate army marshaled a wide array of resources, including plants from its rich fields and forests, to furnish its physicians with medicines needed to treat patients and how each year of the war saw improved survival and better recovery as surgeons learned how to treat destructive injuries of the kidneys, bladder, urethra, and genitals—injuries previously thought to be fatal. Perfect for Civil War enthusiasts, professional historians, medical professionals, or medical journals, this serious look at Civil War medicine is designed for a popular audience but filled with enough extensive research to be used in a classroom.