New Civil War Era Medical Drama

For those who like historical shows lookout for this new Civil War drama called Mercy Street.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X993csz5_f8

 

Seems appropriate since more Americans died in the Civil War than in WW I, WW II, Korea, Vietnam, And The Gulf Wars combined



Hotwater

 

^

I wonder if that many deaths was connected to the medical level of the Civil War era? They mentioned in the video how most amputations were done without much painkiller medicines.

 

Ether was in regular use by 1861 but the military had very limited access. Most soldiers didn’t die from their wounds but from infection.



Hotwater

 

The amputations without anesthetic have been overstated by various authors trying to create as much drama as possible. They had no modern antibiotics, so infections were a huge problem. The most common way to die in the CW was from an illness, not from getting shot. Also, the death rate in POW camps was extremely high.

Great advances in medical treatment were made during the four years of the war, including the creation of the modern concept of triage, and the founding of the Red Cross. Artificial limbs were greatly improved.

There is a CW medical museum at the Sharpsburg / Antietam Battlefield in western Maryland. Lots of info there.

 

It was so weird that guerilla tactics weren't used. To see soldiers just standing in lines firing at each other over and over was almost suicide. Was it Antietam that resulted in 18,000 corpses strewn about after the battle? Karen?

 

At least that many. That battle had the highest single day death toll. More died at Gettysburg, but that was spread over three days.

 

The first episode is tonight on PBS.

I wonder if they will get the feel of these places right. It could be hard to do on TV, but not impossible.

A typical CW battlefield covered several family farms. Armies were looking for huge open areas with rolling hills where they could set up rows of cannons and infantry lines. These peaceful, isolated places were turned into hell on earth for a day or two, and the weeks that came after weren't much better. Barnes and farmhouses were burned or blown apart, crops ruined, fences down, farm animals roaming everywhere, fields full of the dead and dying, the smell of rotting flesh everywhere. Anything with a roof and walls became a temporary hospital. Shallow graves were dug to save time, but animals (especially stray pigs) often dug up the bodies to gnaw their bones, and even attacked men injured badly enough that they couldn't defend themselves.

Weeks later, some of the wounded were still physically unable to travel, but the numbers were smaller. Everybody had gotten moved by then from a barn or stable to a house. Some were visited by family members. Other family members were there to try to find and claim bodies, to have them moved from the temporary shallow graves to their hometowns. Because of this desire, embalming was widely used for the first time in US history. Many bodies could not be located or identified, so they ended up years later in military cemeteries, including Gettysburg and Arlington. Many farms were being run by women and children and elderly men because everybody else was in the army, so farm repairs were slow. Miles of fencing had to be replaced, but there were few surviving animals to be put back inside them.

The real heroes of this horrible situation were Clara Barton and her followers, who were figuring out under extreme pressure and personal risk how to best handle mass casualty events with limited medical resources, in ways that were as humane and ethical as possible. A lot of the standards they came up with are still in use today.

Most of the battlefields have returned to serenity for the past 150+ years, with the land rented out by the National Park Service to local farmers, and the original farmhouses and barns lovingly restored and preserved. They are great places to take a walk on a sunny summer day and think seriously about all the terrible things that the human race does to itself.

 

The military continued with the same tactics - frontal assaults on well defended positions - right through the first world war with well known consequences.

 

It looks even crazier in the american revolutionary war era when they had bright coloured jackets (esp. the brits in their red uniforms ). It's like waiting to die in line and praying you don't get shot when you are busy reloading your rifle in plain sight.

You have to fight honourably

 

Indeed. With mustard gas and serrated bayonets in that particular conflict.

 

Suicidal frontal attacks. By the footsoldiers of course. Generals generally stayed a bit behind (but got most of the credit when victory was declared)

 

None of the generals on any side came out of the first world war with much kudos. Too many men had died. 'The general sat and the lines on the map moved from side to side' as Pink Floyd put it.

In the case of the US CW, the opposite is true. Robert E. Lee remains about the best beloved general in US history to many, and Grant got to be president.

 

I recorded the first episode and finally got around to watching it last night. The show is quite gory, hard to watch at times, and very much in agreement with everything I've read and seen about the subject that's supposed to be factual. The plot also gets into differing points of view that caused so many arguments back then, with characters holding widely differing views on racial equality and respect, and others strongly disagreeing on whether or not the medical profession should treat soldiers from both sides the same.

This story takes place not at a battlefield but in downtown Alexandria, Virginia, under Union occupation throughout the war. They were receiving patients who were well enough to be moved a good distance from the battlefields, but bad off enough to require a long stay in a real hospital (though converted from a hotel). Most of the footage was shot in Petersburg, and some in Richmond, where buildings could be found that better fit the appearance of Alexandria in 1862. Petersburg is also a much quieter, less crowded place to close off some streets, cover them with dirt, and remove modern items like traffic lights and street signs, without too much disruption of real life for the public.

I think the producers did a great job showing one of the most profoundly unglamorous sides of the Civil War, but I'm not sure I want to sit through all seven hours of the miniseries. The first episode is must, if you're interested in a fast and efficient way of learning what went on in these places, and what the injured soldiers went through. It's written as a drama, not a documentary, so it's nowhere near as dry as the series Ken Burns did for PBS.

The medical professions were advancing so quickly during that time. One of the characters in the series is a nurse who had studied under Florence Nightingale, who defined the nursing profession as we know it today.

 

Yeah, but that nurse is a total bitch in this series... Maybe as the series progress she gets some humanity and softens a little bit but as she was in the first episode... Sorry, but "Pow... To the moon".

 

She's not the star, and it's the first episode. Maybe the Dorothea Dix recruit will win her over, with her professionalism and dedication.

I can't imagine getting to work with people who were destined to become famous leaders in their fields of expertise. Amazing to think about.

 

We're gonna have to amputate it..:The Show

 

I just downloaded it but I haven’ start watching it yet. The last think I watched was Ray Donovan, which was quite interesting and exciting. There are only 2 seasons available they should do 3rd in September.

 

I lost interest before the series ended. The first episode is quite good, and sufficient to give you a good idea of what these places were like. After that, it got highly repetitious.