Stonewall Could Jackson have Survived his Wounding?

[Luke Freet]

I will admit my knowledge of the exact medical nature of Jackson's wounding, and am too squeamish to look up details myself.
Here's what little I know:
On the evening of May 2nd, 1863, Jackson and his staff was riding back from a reconnaissance, when men from Major John Barry's 18th North Carolina mistook Jackson for a Union general and opened fire on him. The nature of his wound resulted in the amputation of his arm, and he would die of illness resulting from the operation on the 10th.
To anyone with medical knowledge of Jackson's wound: could he have survived and even gone on to recover and return to duty?

 

[WJC]

Actually, he did. He died of pneumonia.

 

[diane]

I don't have medical knowledge of Jackson's injuries, but he was shot three times - once in the right hand, twice in the left arm - the artery was severed just below the shoulder. He would have bled out if not for A P Hill, who knew how to use a tourniquet. Because of the bone damage in the arm, it had to be amputated but Jackson seemed to take this well. McQuire, his doctor, was optimistic of his recovery but then the following day Jackson told him of a pain in his side and said it had happened when he was dropped off his stretcher while they were removing him from the field. (He was dropped two or three times, none of them easy drops as the bearers were carrying him on their shoulders.) It was raining and wet, Jackson was recovering from one of his heavy colds - McQuire at first found nothing wrong, then diagnosed pneumonia. That was a very common cause of death. However, Robertson, Jackson's premier biographer, has said that were he to re-write his biography of Jackson he would change the cause of death from pneumonia to sepsis. Blood infections were very common after surgeries. Another author suggested the gut bacteria in Jackson's system - they were there due to poor water in the area he grew up in - were kicked into high gear and more or less exploded. Certainly a fertile ground for them.

All that said, if other infections had not occurred, Jackson very likely would have survived the amputation of his arm. Look at Hood - if anybody should have died of loss of limbs it was him! Jackson was young and had the will to survive. I've sometimes wondered if the real killer was his doctor and family telling him he would die. He had rallied and was looking to live, then he was told he would not. Given his firm belief in the will of God, he accepted this information and prepared to die since that appeared to be God's will for him that day.

 

[huskerblitz]

While I normally cringe at post-diagnosis of historical figures, especially those that center around mental health, medically there is more hard-and-fast evidence that can be used. This article gives another potential cause: thromboembolism.
"Although Stonewall Jackson's death was unpreventable, given the state of medicine at the time, it is more likely that he died from thromboembolism as a direct consequence of his wound and amputation, than from the indirect cause of pneumonia."

https://warfarehistorynetwork.com/daily/civil-war/how-did-stonewall-jackson-actually-die/

 

[Deleted User CS]

In my opinion, If the medical profession at that point in time had access to strong antibiotics, no doubt Jackson would have survived his wound as well as the pneumonia and any other complications as a result of his wound. David.

 

[JonnyReb_In_MI]

"Bud" Roberston believes Jackson died from sepsis.

If you have time I encourage you to watch his hour long presentation on the death of Jackson.

https://www.c-span.org/video/?312621-1/death-stonewall-jackson

 

[diane]

While I normally cringe at post-diagnosis of historical figures, especially those that center around mental health, medically there is more hard-and-fast evidence that can be used. This article gives another potential cause: thromboembolism.
"Although Stonewall Jackson's death was unpreventable, given the state of medicine at the time, it is more likely that he died from thromboembolism as a direct consequence of his wound and amputation, than from the indirect cause of pneumonia."

https://warfarehistorynetwork.com/daily/civil-war/how-did-stonewall-jackson-actually-die/

That's a very enlightening article. Blood clotting like that would be highly probable - hadn't heard it before.

An interesting thing about amputations in those days, and a few days earlier since the methods hadn't really changed much. Horatio Nelson's amputation went bump with infection and a permanently damaged major nerve due to poor sutures - always phantom limb pain thereafter. However, what he noticed as the worst part of the operation was the cold instruments. Really made a painful operation ten times worse! So, to prevent others from having the same ordeal, he ordered a pot of boiling water be kept in the surgeon's area to warm up the instruments before an amputation - which had the unknown result of partially sterilizing them. Amputees on board his ships had a 34 percent higher rate of survival because of this. Jackson was knocked out, so it wasn't necessary to do this to prevent further misery, but it would have been helpful. As it was, he had a heavenly experience! He told the doctors he'd been listening to the most beautiful angelic singing he had ever heard...which was the sound of the saw going through the bone. They decided he didn't need to know about it!

 

[Paul Yancey]

"Bud" Roberston believes Jackson died from sepsis.

If you have time I encourage you to watch his hour long presentation on the death of Jackson.

https://www.c-span.org/video/?312621-1/death-stonewall-jackson

Thank You for posting. Another excellent lecture by Robertson.

 

[davidh26]

He would have survived his wound. He apparently asked for a cold towel, and his servant, Jim, gave him one. The next day, doctors said he had pneumonia.

 

[diane]

He would have survived his wound. He apparently asked for a cold towel, and his servant, Jim, gave him one. The next day, doctors said he had pneumonia.

I don't think it was a factor in Jackson's death, even if the cause was really pneumonia. Hydrotherapy is an interesting thing regarding the Civil War and particularly after it. It ranged in everything from health spas located at natural mineral and hot springs, to public bathhouses and showers in asylums. Jackson had toured Europe before the war and became very intrigued with the ideas behind water treatments for health and mental issues - upon his return to Virginia he scoured the state for a hydrotherapist. None available until well after he remarried. He and Anna found a German immigrant who was proficient in this specialty and were regulars at his practice. After the war, many injured vets spent a lot of time and money at springs and hydrotherapy spas.