How did trauma and field medicine in the civil war revolutionize medicine?
Oh, it most definitely did! First off, the Red Cross has its roots in the Civil War relief organizations like the U.S. Sanitary Commission. That’s pretty important. Dr. Joseph Barnes was made famous for his battlefield medicine reforms, and developed the Army Medical Library. Dr. William Hammond was commissioned by General McClellan to oversee the building of government pharmaceutical laboratories, which was unprecedented. The ambulance system in the North was revolutionized by people like Dr. Johnathan W. Letterman. In the South, Dr. Samuel Preston Moore instituted examination boards for prospective surgeons. Dr. Joseph Jones studied and kept a journal of patients with diseases and strange wounds, which were later made into medical manuals. He was known for using a microscope in his studies, and noted the presence of bacteria. He was boggled by this, because medical knowledge of the time hadn’t discovered bacteria. Women’s role in the war was very important. In the early stages of the
