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The Civil War
(1861-1865)

Civil War Medicine (part 2)



Civil War Medicine (part 2)
Reading Level
     edHelper's suggested reading level:   grades 6 to 8
     Flesch-Kincaid grade level:   6.74

Vocabulary
     challenging words:    chloroform, morphine, partially-healed, disposal, internal, battlefield, fatal, torso, camps, commission, wounded, better, horse-drawn, rags, bullet, death
     content words:    Geneva Convention, Clara Barton, Dorothea Dix, Washington D. C., Red Cross


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Civil War Medicine (part 2)
By Mary L. Bushong
  

1     The first line of help on the battle field were the stretcher bearers. Those giving medical aid were not to be targets, although mishaps happened. (This tradition was eventually written into the Geneva Convention rules.) Stretcher bearers would comb the battlefield looking for the injured among the dead. The walking wounded were often bandaged and sent to the field hospital.
 
2     If they were a long distance from the field dressing station, they would often load many men into horse-drawn ambulances. These were nothing like the modern ones we see on the road every day. Some were simple two-wheeled carts which bumped some wounded men so much that they bled to death. The four-wheeled ambulances were just a little better to ride in.
 
3     Next to the dressing stations, men were laid out on piles of straw, hay, or rags, waiting for their turn with the surgeon. Some of the more badly wounded died during the long wait.

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