Medical Department #23 - "Private Parts"

As promised in my last post, I wanted to give a flavor of Dr. Harry Herr's chapter, "His Privates Were Shot," in our forthcoming book, Years of Change and Suffering: Modern Perspectives on Civil War Medicine, by posting my February 2006 "Medical Department" column for The Civil War News, which included an interview Dr. Herr.

PRIVATE PARTS
by James M. Schmidt
The Civil War News – “Medical Department” – January 2006

“Case 1060: Wounded by a ball in the left of the scrotum, passing backward and wounding the testis, urethra, and rectum. The man was taken from the field on the second day after the fight and a catheter could not be passed. The urethra, near the bulb was laid open, and urine escapes through the scrotum and a greater portion of it comes by the anus. Gum-elastic catheter finally passed into the bladder but dispensed with after fistula closed and some phosphatic deposition. Right testis gone; persistent urethral fistula; incontinence of urine and severe pain on exercise; occasional discharges of matter from urethra and rectum; disability total.”

The above reports, by Surgeon A.H. Agard and a pension examiner, on a 21-year old private from the 8th Ohio Infantry wounded during the Battle of Cold Harbor, June 3, 1864, give graphic and grim witness to the debilitating nature of urethral wounds suffered by soldiers during the American Civil War. Although generally not as fatal when compared to wounds of the chest or abdomen, urethral injuries were very troublesome for surgeons to treat and survivors dealt with serious and painful consequences – physical and emotional - for the rest of their lives.

The nature, care, and outcome of nearly 1,500 documented wounds of the genitourinary organs during the war are the subjects of two excellent articles in recent issues of the Journal of Urology: “Urological Injuries in the Civil War” (Nov. 2004, Vol. 172, pp. 1800-4) and “Urethral Injuries in the Civil War” (April 2005, Vol. 173, pp. 1090-3); both written or co-authored by Dr. Harry W. Herr. The authors drew on information in the Medical and Surgical History of the War of the Rebellion (MSH), case reports published in period medical literature, and pension records in the National Archives.

Dr. Herr is a board-certified urologist on the staff of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, Cornell University Medical College, in New York City, where he specializes in urologic oncology and bladder cancer. He received his MD from the University of California at Irvine, and did his residency at the University of California Medical Center. Dr. Herr was kind enough to answer my questions and provide some information and opinions not included in the journal articles.

“I have had a long interest in the Civil War – since I was a teenager. Why? Because the war defined our country. I’ve also long had an interest in Civil War medicine, for many reasons, but mainly because that time began the era of scientific medicine,” Dr. Herr told me. He is interested in all aspects of Civil War medicine, and since urological injuries had never been compiled before, Dr. Herr’s work definitely adds something new to our understanding in this area.

Indeed, one of the features of the 2004 article is the systematic compilation of 1,497 reported urological cases in the war as to frequency, type, site, and outcome, with a number of tables that break the data down into detail. Since soldiers sometimes fought kneeling, sitting, or lying prone, they were exposed to being shot in the buttocks or genitals. The illustration in this column, provided by Dr. Herr, demonstrates a number of the organs that could be affected, including the kidney, bladder, prostate, urethra, penis, testis, and spermatic cord. The organs could be penetrated by the bullet directly or be perforated indirectly by bone fragments.

The statistics demonstrate that injuries to the kidney and bladder were particularly serious, with mortality rates >50%, primarily due to sepsis caused by loss of urine into the surrounding tissue. Surgeons of the day recognized that patient survival often depended on the prompt drainage of urine to protect the body from infection. Unfortunately, Dr. Herr found that the average time from injury to receiving surgical care for urethral injuries was five days.

In his 2005 article, Dr. Herr describes the catheters of various materials (including silver, gutta-percha, gum elastic, and caoutchouc) and sizes that were included in surgical instrument field kits and routinely used for the purpose of diverting the urine. He also quotes extensively from the MSH with examples of at least a dozen specific cases that demonstrate the various strategies that surgeons used to deal with urethral injuries. Especially interesting are Dr. Herr’s comments after some of the case reports explaining how modern techniques may have saved some lives.

Injuries to the penis and testis were not rare. Dr. Herr found reports for more than 300 shot wounds to the penis (and at least one bayonet wound) and nearly 600 cases of testicular injury. A small number of the cases were fatal, usually from subsequent infection or associated wounds. Dr. Herr points out that erections hindered healing and in addition to the use of camphor enemas, patients were “exhorted to shun lascivious thoughts.”

In addition to the consequences of pain, Dr. Herr told me of another unfortunate cost of these types of injuries: “Sexual dysfunction after pelvic injuries was undoubtedly common, but at that time, for many reasons, it was not widely talked about, and there were certainly no treatments. In the pension files of the National Archives one can find mention of impotence and depression related to loss of sexual function.”

Dr. Herr believes that European surgeons, reporting on their experiences in the Crimean War, had exaggerated the gravity of wounds to the pelvis. “In the Crimean War, urethral wounds were often regarded as hopeless, but the Civil War showed otherwise,” he told me. “Mortality and morbidity of these types of injuries was actually better in the Civil War than the Crimean War, so our surgeons, North and South, must have been doing something right.”

So what exactly did they do right? In the article, Dr. Herr points to a number of important lessons from the Civil War: surgeons learned when and how to débride devitalized tissue, control hemorrhage, and allow for drainage of urine using catheters; they experimented and perfected new urological surgical techniques; they questioned the wisdom of leaving a catheter in too long; and they recognized that castration and emasculation were often too hastily resorted to.

In the end, though, it was the surviving patient who carried the traumatic and devastating consequences – physical and psychological – of these wounds.

An exhibit on all aspects of Civil War medicine debuted at the American Urological Association’s (AUA) Annual Scientific Meeting in San Antonio, Texas, in May 2005. The exhibit is now on display at the William P. Didusch Center for Urologic History at the AUA headquarters building, just outside of Baltimore. The exhibit panels and the exceptional exhibit 22-page brochure can be viewed and/or downloaded (as a PDF) from the Center’s website.


Anatomy of the male urethra, with lines showing how bullets traversing the pelvis may injure the urethra. Illustration courtesy of Harry W. Herr, MD.

Years of Change and Suffering - Details on Contributors and Topics - Part II

Picking up where I left on my last post, here are additional details of contributors and their topics to our forthcoming collection of invited expert essays, Years of Change and Suffering: Modern Perspectives on Civil War Medicine (Edinborough Press, Fall 2009).

Chapter Five - “The Privates Were Shot” - Urological Wounds and Treatment in the Civil War - This chapter is contributed by Harry Herr, M. D. Dr. Herr is a urologic surgeon at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and Professor at Cornell Medical College, and has published numerous articles on medical care during the Civil War. Up to the time of the Civil War, pelvic wounds were considered to be mortal and in earlier wars, many men suffering pelvic injuries were left to die without receiving any surgical care. Despite the dismal prevailing attitude toward pelvic injuries at the start of the Civil War, surgeons learned how to treat destructive injuries of the kidneys, bladder, urethra and genitalia, and each year of the war saw improved survival and better recovery. Although urological injuries were less frequent than the number of amputations of shattered limbs commonly associated with Civil War medicine, they were no less significant. Veterans learned to function and even thrive after the loss of an arm or a leg, but imagine a young man facing life soiled in urine and in constant pain, lame from destroyed pelvic bones and nerves, and sexually impotent or mentally scared by disfigured genitals. More men survived their pelvic wounds, but sometimes at a terrible cost, leaving many to suffer dire and permanent consequences of their injuries. I interviewed Dr. Herr about his interesting work for a Civil War News "Medical Department" column a few years back and will post that interview here on the blog soon.

Chapter Six - "Southern Resources, Southern Medicines" - This chapter is contributed by Guy R. Hasegawa, Pharm.D. Dr. Hasegawa is a Senior Editor of the American Journal of Health-System Pharmacy, a published expert on Confederate pharmacy and other aspects of Civil War medicine, and a board member of the National Museum of Civil War Medicine and the Society of Civil War Surgeons. He is also co-editor of Years of Change and Suffering. Dr. Hasegawa should beno stranger to readers of this blog or my "Medical Department" column in The Civil War News, as he has been an interview subject several times, regarding his work on Civil War pharmacy, quinine substitutes in the Confederacy, and other interesting topics. In his chapter, he describes "how the Confederate army marshaled a wide array of resources, natural and otherwise, to furnish its physicians with the medicines needed to treat the vast numbers of sick and wounded soldiers." Dr. Hasegawa has an amazing penchant for finding and drawing on previously unpublished primary source material, and he carries that talent in to this chapter.

Chapter Seven - "The Cradle of American Neurology - Silas Weir Mitchell’s Contributions During the American Civil War" - This chapter is contributed by D. J. Canale, M.D. Dr. Canale has had a distinguished career as a surgeon, including three years in the United States Air Force as a Flight Surgeon; in the past few years, he has contributed more than a dozen articles on the history of medicine, with a special regard for neurology. In the chapter, he describes the important contributions of S. Weir Mitchell - and his co-workers George R. Morehouse and W.W. Keen – and how they took advantage of an excellent and unique opportunity for the study of diseases and injuries of the nervous system during the Civil War. I interviewed Dr. Canale from my Civil War News "Medical Department" column several years ago regarding his interesting research and writing on the "phantom limb" phenomenon. You can read that interview here.

Chapter Eight - “Haunted Minds - The Impact of Combat Exposure on the Mental and Physical Health of Civil War Veterans" - This chapter is contributed by Judith E. Andersen, Ph.D. Dr. Andersen is an experimental psychologist with the Department of Veteran’s Affairs in New York; her groundbreaking and in-depth analysis of the mental and physical health of Civil War veterans, published in 2006 in the Archives of General Psychiatry, received widespread media attention. In the chapter, she reviews the mental health diagnoses observed and recorded during the Civil War. While anecdotal clues have suggested a link between war exposure and health, Dr. Andersen goes well above that with a systematic review of military and medical records of veterans from the Civil War to show the impact of war trauma on both the mental and physical health over the life-span. I interviewed Dr. Andersen several years ago for a "Medical Department" column about her interesting work. You can read that interview here.

As you can see, in the book we cover topics from secession to veterans affairs, with a good mix of topics regarding issues that faced the North or the South or both. Add in a Foreword by Dr. Thomas P. Lowry (The Story the Soldiers Wouldn't Tell) and the fact that all royalties from the book are being donated to the cause of Civil War heritage preservation, and I hope you'll agree it's a winning combination.

Stay tuned for additional details!

"Years of Change and Suffering" - Details on Contributors and Topics - Part I

As promised in my last post, I'm pleased to give some additional details regarding the contributors - and their topics - to our forthcoming book, Years of Change and Suffering: Modern Perspectives on Civil War Medicine (Edinborough Press, Fall 2009):

Chapter One - "Medical School for a Nation" - The Medical College of Virginia, 1860-65 - This chapter is by Ms. Jodi Koste. Ms. Koste holds an M. A. in History from Old Dominion University and is currently archivist for the Medical College of Virginia, where she is actively involved in promoting and preserving the heritage of the institution. Her work has appeared in American National Biography, Jewish Women in America, and Encyclopedia of the Confederacy. Drawing on a significant amount of material from the MCV archives, Ms. Koste describes the important role that MCV played in Civil War, beginning with with the "secession" of a large group of Southern medical students in late 1859, to the opprtunities in classroom and clinical instruction provided by the war, to the challenges that other medical schools in the Confederacy faced. You can learn more about Ms. Koste, MCV, and their collections here and their special guide to Civil War medicine, here.

Chapter Two - "A Multitude of Ingenious Articles" - Civil War Medicine and Scientific American Magazine - I have contributed this chapter. Having written about the general history of Scientific American in the Civil War as a chapter in my first book, Lincoln's Labels: America's Best Known Brands and the Civil War (Edinborough Press, 2008) (see previous blog posts here and here), in this chapter I concentrate specifically on the subject of Civil War medicine as revealed in the wartime pages of Scientific American. Just as it did for weapons, Scientific American played an equally important role in fostering the "healing arts" by advising soldiers and their leaders how to maintain the health of the army, urging inventors to give attention to unmet medical needs, and reporting on advances in medical technology. I also address recent historical scholarship in the economics and social impact of invention in the mid-1800s.

Chapter Three - "I Can See Now How Good Our Surgeons Were" - Amputations in the American Civil War - This chapter is contributed by Alfred Jay Bollet, M.D. Dr. Bollet spent his professional career in academic medicine and was recently Clinical Professor of Medicine at Yale. He is the author of the acclaimed book, Civil War Medicine: Challenges and Triumphs, which was a selection of the History Book Club. He is also the author of Plagues and Poxes: The Impact of Human History on Epidemic Disease and co-author of Images of Civil War Medicine: A Photographic History. In his chapter, Dr. Bollet considers and counters the widespread historiography criticizing the numbers of amputations performed during the Civil War, and concludes that too few amputations were done, not too many.

Chapter Four - "J. J. Chisolm, M.D. - Confederate Medical and Surgical Innovator" - This chapter is contributed by F. Terry Hambrecht, M. D. Dr. Hambrecht retired after thirty years from the National Institutes of Health, where he directed the NIH's international program for developing implantable neural prostheses. He is a co-founder of the National Museum of Civil War Medicine. Dr. Hambrect is an expert on Confederate surgeons and has published several articles on Civil War medicine. Most students of the Civil War are aware of Chisolm's Manual of Military Surgery and the pocket-sized anesthesia inhaler that he invented to conserve scarce chloroform and ether during the war. In this chapter, Dr. Hambrecht describes contributions of Chisolm's that are less well-known: as a practicing surgeon, an organizer of Confederate hospitals, the designer of a Confederate medical laboratory, and an improver of medical devices, including tourniquets, medical knapsacks, and litters. Chisolm also found time to teach his fellow physicians on the proper way to treat sick and wounded soldiers, both medically and surgically. Dr. Hambrecht's chapter is based largely on previously unpublished material, especially letterbooks that Chisolm used: one in Charleston, SC, from Nov. 19, 1861 to June 5, 1862, and another in Columbia, SC from May 24, 1862 to November 14, 1862.

I'll post details on the remaining four chapters later this week.

Putting a Face to a Name: A Cover for a New Book!

Readers of the blog will recall that I announced my second book project - a collection of invited expert essays on Civil War medicine - way back in November 2007 with an update over the last year or so.

Well, things are moving right along with an expected publication this Fall. Today, my co-editor Guy Hasegawa and I received the cover artwork for the book from our publisher, Dan Hoisington, at Edinborough Press. The title - Guy's inspired brainchild - comes from lines in an Emily Bronte poem, "Remembrance,":

Faithful, indeed, is the spirit that remembers
After such years of change and suffering!

We thought the title captured the advances made in medicine and surgery during the Civil War, without minimizing the tremendous number of casualties, as well as the pain involved, from the time of the wounding to many years later.

Later this week I will post more specific details about the contributors and contents. To borrow a phrase: "This is not your father's Civil War medicine book." While some very good books on Civil War medicine have been published in recent years, especially Dr. Jay Bollet's Civil War Medicine: Challenges and Triumphs [Jay is a contributor to Years of Change and Suffering (YOC&S), by the way], they have necessarily been surveys. The format of YOC&S allows for in-depth analyses of topics from secession to surrender, North & South.

Let us know what you think of the cover - and stay posted for additional details!

Medical Department #22 - Civil War "Snake Oil" (Part II)

About a month ago I posted Part I of my planned-for three-part series on the interesting and important role that "patent medicines" played in the American Civil War for my "Medical Department" column in The Civil War News.

Part II has now appeared in the Feb/March 2009 issue and is re-printed below for your enjoyment. Part III - regarding Abraham Lincoln's association with patent medicines - will appear in the April 2009 issue and will be posted here in a couple of months.

I stated "planned-for" 3-part series, because I actually think it may be 4 parts. In researching this interesting story over the past few months, I've actually come to see that the story doesn't end with the surrender at Appomattox. In fact, patent medicine manufacturers marketed their nostrums specifically to veterans many years after the war. Stay Tuned!

PATENT MEDICINES AND THE CIVIL WAR
PART II - "THE SOLDIER'S TRUE FRIEND"
By James M. Schmidt
"Medical Department" - The Civil War News - Feb/March 2009

The history of the use of patent medicines in America actually begins in Britain. As early as the 12th century, “spicers” – retail sellers of spices – compounded and sold medicines. The “spicers” joined forces with the “pepperers” (wholesalers) to form the “apothecaries.” The 1700s saw the genesis of chemists and druggists, who sold medicines and dispensed prescriptions. Soon, English patent medicines began to show up in America, where they remained popular up to (and well past) the American Civil War.

The story of the British tradition of nostrums, from “Singleton’s Eye Ointment” (first made in 1596 during the reign of Elizabeth I) to Zam-Buk ointment of the early 20th century is told in a lively fashion in the lavishly illustrated Popular Medicines: An Illustrated History (Pharmaceutical Press, 2008) by Peter G. Homan, Briony Hudson, and Raymond C. Rowe. The book contains the histories of more than twenty well-known branded medicines, several of which were familiar to Americans – including soldiers - of the Civil War era.
Each chapter is dedicated to a particular medicine and includes a biography of the inventor, the origins of the medicine (a number of which were actually American institutions), its history, details of the medicine’s formula, and – especially – a wealth of illustrations including period advertisements, and photographs of the medicines themselves. Several useful appendices include a bibliography, a glossary of period medical terms, a list of substances used in the various remedies, and a guide to pharmaceutical weights and measures.

Briony Hudson, Keeper of the Museum Collections at the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain, and one of the co-authors of Popular Medicines, was kind enough to answer some questions about the book, the RPSGB collections, the influence of English patent medicines in America, the role of Thomas Holloway, inventor of “Holloway’s Pills and Ointments” (which were advertised heavily to Union soldiers and their families), and the importance of military testimonials in medical advertising.

“I was brought up in Ross-on-Wye, a small town on the English-Welsh border, and studied History at Clare College, University of Cambridge,” Ms. Hudson told me. Following a period of voluntary work at Hereford Cider Museum and the Metalwork Department at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, she returned to study at the University of Leicester where she did a Masters degree in Museum Studies. “After a short period of time back at the V&A, I moved up to West Yorkshire as the Assistant Keeper of Social History for Wakefield Metropolitan District Council, splitting my time between Wakefield City Museum, and the smaller community museum at Pontefract,” Ms. Hudson added. She moved to her current job at the Museum of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society in September 2002.

Ms. Hudson’s historical interests are very wide ranging. “Even within medicine my interests range from ceramics to women’s history,” she told me, adding, “I’m an avid museum and gallery visitor and particularly enjoy historical costumes, jewelry and graphic design. I’ve also got a fascination for 19th century social history and have recently researched the history of our Victorian terraced house.”

Indeed, Ms. Hudson confessed that she actually had no specific interest in medical or pharmacy history when she took the position at RPSGB. Still, she was quick to add, “My interest in pharmacy history has developed with the job, and that is my favorite part of the role.” With a collection of around 45,000 objects, Ms. Hudson and her team work on a combination of exhibition, publication and education projects coupled with an incredibly wide range of inquiries that they receive from around the world (including mine!). “That inevitably means that every day is different, and a learning experience,” she told me.
“Popular Medicines started as an idea from Ray Rowe, one of the co-authors,” Ms. Hudson told me, adding, “His enthusiasm, coupled with the rich collections of the Museum that we could draw on meant that the project was possible.” Peter Homan, a retired community pharmacist and Honorary Secretary of the British Society for History of Pharmacy, has written and published extensively on proprietary medicines and was an ideal third author.

One of the most interesting stories in Popular Medicines is that of Thomas Holloway, in no small part because of his association with the American Civil War. Holloway was born in Devonport, Devon, in 1800. The family moved several times, finally settling in Penzance, Cornwall, where they ran an inn. After a stay of a few years in France where he worked as an interpreter, Holloway set himself up as a foreign commercial agent in London. Inspired by an Italian friend who manufactured and sold a general purpose ointment, Holloway set up a similar business himself in 1837. He used his mother's pots and pans to manufacture the ointment in the family kitchen and later added pills to his range of products.

The pills and ointment were said to be able to cure a whole host of ailments, from “A to Z” (or at least “Y”): from asthma to jaundice to “youthful indiscretion.” Chemical analysis of the products demonstrated that they did not contain ingredients of any significant medical value. In the main, the pills contained aloes and rhubarb, with small amounts of saffron and pepper; the ointment was principally olive oil, lard, and waxes. Still, the products were enormously successful, making Holloway a multi-millionaire.

“The resources that Holloway ploughed into promotion - well beyond his means at some points in his life - seems to have been the factor that made the difference alongside so many other similar products on the market at the time,” Ms. Hudson told me. Indeed, Holloway’s first newspaper announcements appeared in 1837 and by his death in 1883, Holloway (who also added “Professor” to his name as a gimmick for a time) was spending over £50,000 a year on advertising his products.

Holloway advertised heavily to American soldiers, sailors, and their families during the Civil War. Posters and broadsides – include some in full color – declared that his products were the “Soldier’s True Friend.” One poster showed a Union officer carrying a box of the remedy to an ailing sergeant; another had Moses handing out Holloway’s pills and ointment to soldiers, civilians and freed slaves. A typical newspaper advertisement stated that the soldier would find “muddy water and the damp night water” a more deadly foe than “the most determined enemy,” but promised that Holloway’s pills would “so purify the blood and strengthen the stomach…that the soldier can endure these hardships.” Other advertisements included testimonials from satisfied Union soldiers.

Indeed, one of the interesting themes borne out in Popular Medicines is the use of military testimonials in advertising of patent medicines, with examples from the late 1700s through World War I. “I definitely think that promoting a medicine by illustrating its military use brought a credibility and authority to the preparation in question,” Ms. Hudson told me. She pointed to a number of possible factors: the idea that the military would only spend money on high quality products; the fact that use in the army and navy would mean that the medicine had effectively been tested on a large number of people; and the patriotic kudos that a medicine had treated “our boys.”

Ms. Hudson also concluded that military imagery is very strong in graphic terms for use in advertising. “Military metaphors are also really useful to copy writers conveying the idea of ‘battling’ germs or a ‘war” against viruses,’” she told me.

Holloway died in 1883, leaving the formulas and business to his nephew. In 1931, Beecham’s Pills acquired the licenses to the products. Production finally ceased in the early 1950s. Despite the overwhelming popularity of Holloway’s products, he – like all “snake oil” salesmen - did come in for criticism for his ubiquitous advertising and dubious claims. When the famous British satirist William Thackeray met Holloway, he purposely addressed him as a military officer. When the confused Holloway clarified that he was not a “general,” Thackeray protested, “I made a very natural mistake, for you, too, must have killed thousands of people!”

Book Review - This Republic of Suffering

I may be late to the game, but I'm in it: the hardcover edition of Drew Gilpin Faust's This Republic of Suffering has been out for more than a year - indeed it's now in a softcover version - but I've only recently had a chance to read it...I'm quite glad I did. In fact, though I had it on my shelf for several months, I had delayed reading it, being somewhat put off by both negative and fawning reviews. After reading it, I find that the "truth" is somewhere in between.

In short, I enjoyed the book very much. Having previously commented on the subject of death and dying on this blog and in my "Medical Department" column for The Civil War News, I found her first chapter - "Dying" - familiar territory. The rest of the book, though, was a revelation; still, I found a few faults and "missing pieces" which I'll point to later in this post. Highlights for me included her expositions on:

a) Spiritualism - a subject I'd like to look into further...her description of period journals such as Banner of Light - which printed purported "Personals" from soldiers beyond the grave - was very interesting.

b) I especially enjoyed the explanation of the importance of published funeral sermons...it really added to my understanding of a previous post of mine on the drowning of Dr. James M. Newell. That column was based largely on the text of a funeral sermon for Newell that was published shortly after his memorial service in the Fall of 1862.

c) Look, I'll admit I don't "get" poetry - I never have...nevertheless, Faust's description of the effect of the Civil War - and its attendant suffering - on the writing of Whitman, Melville, Dickinson, and Bierce, and the "battle" between sentimentality and irony, was very enlightening.

I did find a few areas that were ignored but that I think would have really added to the subject and the book:

a) Life Insurance - as a financial or practical matter, it may seem too mundane for a "high brow" work to consider the role of life insurance policies in the war...in fact, several well known extant firms - especially New York Life - have a fascinating and well-preserved war story, and a review of soldier letters in their files - of which I've seen a few - would reveal another of the ways in which they faced and planned for their deaths.

b) Gallows Humor - given the subject, the book has been understandably described by several reviewers as sad...others have criticized the author for purposely appealing to emotion...as either a counter-balance to the misery and/or to encompass more emotion, I would have liked Faust to discuss how soldiers used "gallows humor" in their letters and/or memoirs. I'm reminded of a wonderful anecdote in one of my favorite post-war memoirs: Eugene Ware's The Lyon Campaign. In speaking of the prelude to the 1861 Battle of Wilson's Creek, Ware wrote:

"the marching was anything but a funeral procession. The boys gave each other elaborate instructions as to the material out of which they wanted their coffins made, and how they wanted them decorated. Bill Huestis said he wanted his coffin made out of sycamore boards, with his last words put on with brass tacks, which were: "I am a-going to be a great big he-angel."

c) Spiritualism - Faust does a great job in addressing the rise and influence of the Spiritualist movement; still, she missed a great opportunity by ignoring post-war charlatans such as William Mumler who took advantage of people's mourning and suffering.

d) Invention - In the chapter "Burying" Faust touches only briefly on some of the advances made in coffins, etc. In fact, there were dozens of wartime patents for improvements in coffins, caskets, biers, embalming implements, "body bags," and more.

I highly recommend the book to serious readers of Civil War history.

IDE Disk S/N WXE606741635 - RIP

Well, the hard drive crashed on my computer, so it may be a week or so before I'm back up and posting again...and just when I had something to talk about!