The Sable Arm of the Civil War - New Medical Research

I have posted previously about some excellent books on medical aspects of African-Americans in the Civil War, including Dr. Robert G. Slawson's short - but informative - Prologue to Change: African Americans in Medicine in the Civil War Era and Margaret Humphreys' excellent Intensely Human: The Health of the Black Soldier in the American Civil War.

There has been some great new scholarly work published recently (or forthcoming) on the topic that deserve attention:

1) Sven E. Wilson - "PREJUDICE & POLICY: Racial Discrimination in the Union Army Disability Pension System, 1865-1906," American Journal of Public Health, April 1, 2010; Vol. 100, Suppl 1, pp.S56-65.

You can read an informative press release here and the abstract here.

2) Stephen C. Kenny, "'A Dictate of Both Interest and Mercy'? Slave Hospitals in the Antebellum South," Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences, January 2010, Vol. 65, No. 1, pp. 1-47. You can read the abstract here.

3) Available now is Practicing Medicine in a Black Regiment The Civil War Diary of Burt G. Wilder, 55th Massachusetts edited by Richard M. Reid.

4) Coming soon - and related to Dr. Wilson's article above - is: Race, Ethnicity, and the Treatment of Disability in Post-Civil War America by Larry M. Logue and Peter Blanck. You can read my previous interview with Dr. Blanck here.

Look for more information on these titles in my "Medical Department" columns in The Civil War News!