Weird History
What It Was Like Working in a Civil War Field Hospital
2022 • E123 Oct 14, 2022 12m
At the time of the Civil War, battlefield medicine was still in its infancy. This led to many injuries becoming severely infected and many of the injured receiving hasty, dangerous surgeries. In fact, Civil War battlefield surgery was a major cause of death during the war. Many surgeons cared for the wounded right on the battlefield, and many Civil War medics performed amputations and open surgeries during the heat of battle. Furthermore, because field doctors were under massive amounts stress, they had to perform speedy surgeries that would never meet today’s medical standards.