This is going to sting a bit

major bill

Brev. Brig. Gen'l
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Aug 25, 2012
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Whose description was it. Sophronia Bucklin's maybe? Where she arrived at one of the hospitals and walked past a huge pile of amputated limbs on her way to report to the head surgeon.

Does anyone have a post-war memoir by one of these incredible docs? By incredible I mean HOW did they DO it? I know we've had discussions about PTSD and soldiers- no one can tell me surgeons didn't have it, too. @lelliot, if anyone knows, you would, or @John Hartwell ?
 
Lieutenant Colonel William L. Brandon of the 21st Mississippi Infantry was wounded in the leg at the battle of Malvern Hill, Virginia, and had to have his leg amputated. He later wrote this account of the operation:

examining the wound, he said there was no doubt of the propriety of an immediate amputation. I asked if he had chloroform, he said yes and proceeded. When I felt the tourniquet tighten on my leg, I called to him, I was not under the influence of chloroform. He said he had no more, & asked should he proceed? I replied ‘off with it!’ I supposed I could stand it. The operation was performed in an inconceivable short time, but the pain was horrible, particularly the tying up the arteries.” – Military Reminiscences of William L. Brandon, Southern Historical Collection, University of North Carolina.

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Lieutenant Colonel William L. Brandon of the 21st Mississippi Infantry was wounded in the leg at the battle of Malvern Hill, Virginia, and had to have his leg amputated. He later wrote this account of the operation:

examining the wound, he said there was no doubt of the propriety of an immediate amputation. I asked if he had chloroform, he said yes and proceeded. When I felt the tourniquet tighten on my leg, I called to him, I was not under the influence of chloroform. He said he had no more, & asked should he proceed? I replied ‘off with it!’ I supposed I could stand it. The operation was performed in an inconceivable short time, but the pain was horrible, particularly the tying up the arteries.” – Military Reminiscences of William L. Brandon, Southern Historical Collection, University of North Carolina.

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*shudder* I can’t imagine the pain this person endured. And it must have been awful for the surgeon as well.
 
Whose description was it. Sophronia Bucklin's maybe? Where she arrived at one of the hospitals and walked past a huge pile of amputated limbs on her way to report to the head surgeon.

Does anyone have a post-war memoir by one of these incredible docs? By incredible I mean HOW did they DO it? I know we've had discussions about PTSD and soldiers- no one can tell me surgeons didn't have it, too. @lelliot, if anyone knows, you would, or @John Hartwell ?
I think the PTSD for doctors, and nurses and aides, must have been terrible. To go in with a mission to help and to find your self so helpless in the face of the awful injuries and disease. It's amazing they didn't all become roaring drunks.
 
William McKinley recalled seeing piles of arms, legs, etc. outside a tent. He said "I've seen one war, I don't want to see another one". (And then we had the Span-Am War!) And I recalled one memoir where the amputated limbs were being eaten by hogs. The stench and filth, screams of the wounded, flies and other horrors are hard to imagine.
 
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