Re: gettysburg
at the battle of Wilderness a 22 inch THICK tree was whittled in two by rifle shot alone, a hail of lead. And talk about psychological warfare, albeit unintentional, the wildenesss conflict overspread the battle of chancellorville which was 2 years prior, many skeletons in the woods. Minnie balls had a nasty habit of always shattering when they hit bone, those that got hit in the arm and leg were the only ones to have a chance of surviving, if they could get the limb amputated in time and IF they survived the resultant infections. doctors knew nothing of microbes and the need for sterility, by wars end they were sterilizing the instruments. Imagine tho, you are in a woolen uniform, its 100 degrees and your arm or leg is blown off, and you have a raging fever, they put you in an "ambulance" - a buckboard driven as fast as horses could pull it over the rutted goat paths that were roads - gliding along the smooth tar in our air conditioned machines of today, where you open the door, go to a cannon and feel the heat pouring off of it just from the sun baking down, and decided to get back in the car, too hot! Hard to imagine marching at double and triple time in sweltering heat, in wool uniforms, then going directly into battle. or in freezing cold, or slogging thru mud on a shattered foot, ugh, bad bad bad old days<br />The guys in the ambulances didnt have it so easy, either, screaming in pain as the wagons bounced along, lifting stumps of arms and legs to keep the pain down, at least til they passed out<br />horror<br />then waiting to get chopped, surgeons drenched in blood, wiping off a knife and then its your turn, a sip of booze, a sniff of cloroform and then the sawing begins<br /><br />one good thing came of the war, the connection between sterility and infection was made<br /><br />revolutionized surgery<br /><br />but at a hell of a cost<br /><br />
