Members of the Prattville Dragoons SCV Camp 1425 met on Thursday evening November 9th at the Masonic Lodge in Prattville for their monthly meeting. Compatriot Rob Schwartz entertained everyone with some songs on his guitar prior to the meeting. Chaplain Brantley opened the meeting with an Invocation and Color Sgt Dennis then led everyone in the pledges and salutes to the flags followed by the SCV Charge recited by Commander Waldo. Upcoming events were highlighted including all those for the Thanksgiving and Christmas season. The camp has a number of veterans and a thanks for their service and wishes for a Happy Veterans Day was expressed by the commander.
Col. Paul Whaley, a member of Camp 1524 was the speaker who discussed medical conditions and practices during the War Between the States. Paul passed around a minie ball, a modern example and a period artifact as well as a grape shot round and a fractured piece of an artillery shell. These emphasized the size and heft of these lethal projectiles used during the War. Paul reiterated the expression "War is hell" expounding that the depravation, poor food and disease during the WBTS was terrible but if one was injured like hundreds of thousands were, it was worse. The War was the first with modern weapons but Napoleonic tactics which led to massive casualties while there was little knowledge of medicine including infection and disease prevention and few skilled surgeons. One on four soldiers would die of their wounds. Laudanum, opium, morphine and alcohol were the primary painkillers utilized for surgery and post-op but these led to an epidemic of addictions. Surgeries were more often than not performed with the patient fully awake, witnessing the removal of their arm or leg.
620,000 men dies in the WBTS but actually only 200,000 in battle or from wounds, the balance from disease. There were only a few thousand surgeons in the country at the time of the conflict. Abdominal wounds and compound fractures were almost always fatal due to infection. Fractured bones resulted in amputation of the limb. Removed limbs were thrown into piles sometimes reaching window height at the hospitals where blood stained the floors, still visible hundreds of years later. Amputations were performed in just a few minutes as surgeons moved from patient to patient, often working on their feet for up to 36 hours straight following battles. Often, subsequent amputations were necessary to remove dead bone and flesh and these resulted in even higher mortality rates, around 60%. Gangrene, rotting of the tissue followed many operations due to lack of sterilization of instruments and bandage materials. Arteries in the severed limb area would sometimes fail weeks after the surgeries and the soldiers would bleed out then. Up to 90% of surgeries resulted in eventual death. One story was conveyed of a surgeon who was injured, with his intestines literally hanging from his open abdomen; he assisted a nurse in rinsing off his intestines and sewing himself back up. He actually lived til his death decades later.
An understanding of germs and disease prevention was totally lacking and latrines were often situated in close proximity to kitchens and living quarters. Soldiers would sometimes just step outside their tents to defecate. Food was often spoiled as preservation using drying, salting or pickling was sometimes not performed properly. Decomposing meat was sometimes served to and consumed by the troops. Pork was the most common meat but it was sometimes undercooked. Bacon grease was the staple for cooking so diets were high in fat and not very nutritious. Diarrhea was common due to the poor food and many died as a result of dehydration - there were no effective treatments and the only option to foregoing poor food was starvation.
On this Veterans Day weekend, Paul reminded everyone in somber terms of the sacrifices and suffering our Confederate veteran ancestors made during their struggle for independence. He illustrated the brutality of conflict citing the casualties at Franklin TN in 1864 where over 7000 Confederates were killed or wounded in the eight hour long battle and compared that to the 3500 incurred during Pickett's charge at Gettysburg.
No comments:
Post a Comment