2026/03/02 by Lindsay Rae Smith Privette · 1 voice
Medicine · Social Sciences · Arts and Humanities · #Historical Medical Research and Treatments #World Wars: History, Literature, and Impact #Medical History and Innovations
paper · doi:10.1080/14664658.2026.2578061
openalex publication_date 2026/03/02 · openalex created_date 2026/03/06 · openalex updated_date 2026/06/15
Between 1861 and 1865, hundreds of thousands of Union soldiers received traumatic injuries in service to their country and suddenly found themselves classified as casualties. They witnessed firsthand the ghastly sights and sounds of the field hospital, endured the torturous journey from the front lines to a general hospital miles away, and suffered through agonizing procedures. Cast into the custody of the army's medical corps, wounded soldiers often found themselves stripped of their ability to make even the basic decisions regarding the care and comfort of their broken bodies. Instead, the systematized nature of the field medical service, coupled with the sheer number of casualties produced in each engagement, threatened to supplant wounded soldiers' individual identity with stoic descriptions of their wounds, treatment, and prognosis. Consequently, there remained a tension between soldiers, who desired to retain autonomy over their medical care and the military surgeons who were bound by the regulations and expectations set before them by the Surgeon General and United States Medical Department.