Civil War Hospital Sketches

Description

Then, as now, these chronicles revealed the desperate realities of battlefield medicine as well as the tentative first steps of women in military service.

Writing under a pseudonym, Alcott recounted the vicissitudes of her two-day journey from her home in Concord, Massachusetts, to Washington, D.C. A fiery baptism in the practice of nursing awaited her at Washington Hospital, where she arrived immediately after the slaughter of the Army of the Potomac at the battle of Fredericksburg.

Alcott’s rapidly paced prose graphically depicts the facts of hospital life, deftly balancing pathos with gentle humour. A vivid and truthful portrait of an often overlooked aspect of the Civil War, this book remains among the most illuminating reports of the era’s medical practices as well as a moving testimonial to the war’s human cost.

Reprint of the James Redpath, Boston, 1873 edition.

Table of Contents:

Obtaining Supplies
A Forward Movement
A Day
A Night
Off Duty
A Postscript