Author:
Fulton, James (U.S. Civil War surgeon)
ImprintBloomington, Indiana : Indiana University Press, [2019]
Descriptionxi, 393 pages : illustrations, maps ; 24 cm
Note:Introduction: Becoming a Military Doctor -- Part I -- To Virginia, Measles and Typhoid (Diary, August 18, 1862 to February 19, 1863) -- Chancellorsville and "a Spiteful Morose Scamp" (Diary, February 22, 1863 to June 28, 1863) -- Searching for Flour at Gettysburg (Diary, June 29, 1863 to July 4, 1863) -- Return to Virginia and Christmas with Secesh (Diary, July 5, 1863 to December 25, 1863) -- "To bring man in communion with his God" (Diary, December 26, 1863 to January 29, 1864) -- Dr. Fulton after 1864 -- Commentary -- Part II -- "Examined at the University of Pennsylvania": Dr. Fulton, his Professional Milieu, and Military Medicine 1862-64 / Shauna Devine -- "We Got Up and Began to Pack our Medicines": What Dr. Fulton Prescribed / Guy R. Hasegawa -- "We Soon Concluded to Operate": Dr. Fulton's Tools and Methods / James M. Edmonson -- "The Christian Commission also Brought in a Wagon Today": Dr. Fulton, Voluntary Relief Associations, and Women in Hospitals / Barbra Mann Wall -- "We Made Up Soup as Fast as Possible": Nutrition and the 19th Century Male Body / Margaret Humphreys -- "Such is the Character of Many Men": Dr. Fulton's Politics and the Moral and Political Consciousness of Soldiers / Randall M. Miller.
Bibliography Note:Includes bibliographical references (pages 375-384) and index.
Note:"In this never before published diary, 29-year-old surgeon James Fulton transports readers into the harsh and deadly conditions of the Civil War as he struggles to save the lives of the patients under his care. Fulton joined a Union army volunteer regiment in 1862, only a year into the Civil War, and immediately began chronicling his experiences in a pocket diary. Despite his capture by the Confederate Army at Gettysburg and the confiscation of his medical tools, Fulton was able to keep his diary with him at all times. He provides a detailed account of the next two years, including his experiences treating the wounded and diseased during some of the most critical campaigns of the Civil War and his relationships with soldiers, their commanders, civilians, other health-care workers, and the opposing Confederate army. The diary also includes his notes on recipes for medical ailments from sore throats to syphilis. Editor Robert D. Hicks and experts in Civil War medicine provide additional context and information on the practice and development of medicine during the Civil War with chapters on the technology and methods available at the time, the organization of military medicine, doctor-patient interactions, and the role of women as caregivers and relief workers. Civil War Medicine: A Surgeon's Diary provides a compelling new account of the lives of soldiers during the Civil War and a doctor's experience of one of the worst health crises ever faced by the United States." --Back cover.
