Modern Medicine

Dan Snow's History Hit

History Hit

History

4.7 • 12.9K Ratings

🗓️ 13 December 2022

⏱️ 34 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The American Civil War saw a transformation in medical provision on the battlefield. A loose grouping of medical practitioners was reshaped into a burgeoning, professionalised occupation. How did the medical profession rise to the challenge of treating thousands of wounded soldiers? What lessons were learnt about treating not just battlefield wounds, but infection and disease as well? Dan is joined by Carole Adrienne, author of Healing A Divided Nation to discuss the American Civil War, and the birth of modern medicine.

Produced by Hannah Ward and edited by Dougal Patmore.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello everybody, welcome to Dan Snow's History here. We're talking about the US Civil War
0:04.3	on the podcast today, not just the war itself, but the transformation that took place in
0:09.6	terms of medical provision on the battlefield. Start the war, there really only barely more
0:15.0	than a handful of medical practitioners available to either side. And by the end of the war,
0:20.4	there were tens of thousands of them. In fact, by the end of the war, there were almost
0:23.3	more military doctors than there had been soldiers on the outbreak of war. And it was a
0:29.1	particularly bloody and brutal war. It remains the bloodiest war in US history. Over 600,000
0:36.9	people killed. If you're looking at injured and mentally traumatized, probably three times
0:42.2	that number. By the end of the war, there were over a million men serving the US Army
0:45.8	on the northern union side. And there were some very, very bloody days indeed. But the
0:50.9	bloodiest day in US military history was the 6th of June 1944 at Deoday over 2000. People
0:55.7	killed in one day alone. But the 2nd bloodiest day in US history was the battle of Antietam.
1:02.0	Again, just over 2000 people killed that day. And there are dozens of these battles,
1:06.9	multi-day battles that see atrocious casualties. And that's before you even start talking
1:11.7	about the death and illness due to infection and disease. It was a terrible, terrible time
1:19.3	to be a soldier. And to talk to us all about that, we've got the very brilliant Carol
1:24.3	Adrian. She's a historian. She's made documentary on Civil War medicine. Now she's written
1:28.7	a book called Healing a Divided Nation on Civil War medicine and the transformation
1:33.1	that took place. It's an act of a story. Enjoy.
1:36.1	Carol, thank you very much for coming on the podcast. Oh, thank you so much for having
1:58.4	me, Dad. I'm pretty thrilled to be here. Well, it's an extraordinary subject. To
2:02.7	tell me more about, I think, the history of medicine. In 1861, what does military healthcare,
	...

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