Medical Histories of Confederate Generals

MEDICAL HISTORIES OF CONFEDERATE GENERALS

by Jack D. Welsh, M.D.

Kent, OH: Kent State University Press, 1995. Introduction, Appendix, Glossary, Bibliography. Pp. xviii, 297. $35.00)

This book is basically a medical companion to Ezra J. Warner's 1970 Generals in Gray. Welsh provides the medical histories (accidents, illnesses, wounds, and causes of death) for the same 425 men in Generals. This might sound like a boring book to wade through, but it is not. One reason is that Welsh includes just enough anecdotal information to keep his readers absorbed. For instance, Welsh details two attempts to "fragg" Braxton Bragg during the Mexican War, although Bragg escaped injury both times. Another reason is that the medical histories themselves are interesting. For example, while inspecting the fortifications at Vicksburg, Martin Green was warned about sharpshooters. He boasted that the bullet was not yet molded that would kill him. Green had spoken his last words. He looked over the parapet, was shot in the head, and died instantly.

Those were violent times and many men were involved in street fights and duels before and after the war. For example, St. John Liddell killed two men in 1852 as part of a feud, but was acquitted of murder charges. Although he survived the war, the feud caught up with him in 1870. He was dining on a steamer when Col. Charles Jones and his two sons boarded. When Liddell stood up, Jones fired twice while Liddell's shot went wild. After he fell, Liddell was shot several more times. A doctor's examination showed that three of the seven hits could have been fatal.

In another illustration of those rough and tumble times, Thomas Hindman and Patrick Cleburne were both injured in the same 1856 street fight. Cleburne was hit in the back, but shot one of his attackers before collapsing. Later, physicians removed the bullet from Cleburne without an anesthetic. Hindman actually refused an anesthetic and calmly smoked a cigar while his doctor cut the bullet out from underneath the pectoral muscles. Typical of field commanders during the War, both Cleburne and Hindman had accidents, illnesses, falls from horses, and other varied injuries. Cleburne was killed in action at the Battle of Franklin in 1864. In 1868, Hindman was assassinated in his Arkansas home as he sat at his mother's bedside, giving her medicine. In his last words, he forgave his killer.

In spite of illness and injuries, more than half of the 329 generals who survived the war were seventy years of age or older at the time of death. A not too extreme example is Francis Nicholls. He had varicose veins at West Point, and was in poor health during the Florida Wars and while serving in California. He resigned from the U.S. Army in 1856 with chronic gastric problems. He was hit by a minie ball in the left elbow near Winchester in 1862. Efforts to save the arm failed and it was amputated six days later, with only whiskey for anesthesia. The next year, at the Battle of Chancellorsville, a shell fragment hit Nicholls about six inches above the ankle. He lay on the ground for a while, then was carried off the field under heavy fire to a tent where his leg was amputated. In 1876, his party "nominated all that is left of General Nicholls" for governor of Louisiana (p. 161). He served twice as governor, then as a justice on the Louisiana Supreme Court. He was seventy-one years old when his heart failed.

While interesting to read, there are some minor difficulties with this book. One is that the glossary should have included more medical terms for the benefit of the lay reader. Terms such as cystitis (p. 6), septicemia (p. 16), trochar (p. 28), albuminuria (p. 52), orthopnea (p. 242), and epigastic (p. 268) are not explained. The meanings of phthisis (p. 88) and fistula (pp. 35, 99, 108 and 197) are initially confusing. Another minor problem is that Welsh's primary reference is the War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies. Since these records are incomplete in many cases, he cites other sources. This raises problems of its own. For instance, the entry for Nathan Bedford Forrest does not include Jack Hurst's biography, while the cited pages 274-78 of Brian Wills' A Battle from the Start contain no medical information. Nevertheless, Welsh's book is well researched overall.

Welsh offers no thesis for this reference book, but when one finishes reading it, one understands only too well how the South "bled to death from the head."