Civil War Medicine (part 2)

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:	6.71

Vocabulary

	challenging words:		chloroform, morphine, partially-healed, disposal, internal, battlefield, fatal, torso, camps, commission, wounded, better, filth, horse-drawn, rags, bullet
	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 spread to Europe and 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 to death. The four-wheeled kind were just a little more comfortable to ride in.

³     Next to the dressing stations, men were laid out in piles of straw, hay, or rags, waiting for their turn with the surgeon. Some of the more badly wounded died during the long wait.

Paragraphs 4 to 10:
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