Jonathan Letterman, the Civil War Doctor Who Pioneered Battlefield Care
April 29, 2013
2013 marks the 150th anniversary of the deadliest battle ever fought on American soil. At Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, over the course of three days in July 1863, both sides combined tallied nearly 50,000 casualties. But bloodshed isn’t the focus of this stirring tale. Instead, McGaugh (Battlefield Angels) focuses on Civil War surgeon Jonathan Letterman’s radical efforts to staunch the bleeding at Gettysburg, Antietam, Fredericksburg, and Chancellorsville. Union commander George McClellan called Letterman “the man for the occasion,” and McGaugh’s engrossing narrative bears this out. The innovative doctor devised an unheard-of approach to battlefield care that stressed organization and accountability, immediate evacuation for the injured, a healthy diet for convalescing soldiers, hygiene, and sharpening the skills and leadership of the medical corps in the heat of battle. In just 18 months, Letterman revolutionized battlefield medical care to cope with a new age of mass-casualty combat, and the legacy of the so-called “Letterman System” continues to inform battlefield care. In addition to being an incisive portrait of the great doctor and leader, McGaugh’s history is a testament to the brave men to whom Letterman dedicated his life. 30 b&w photos. Agent: Scott Mendel, Mendel Media Group LLC.
June 1, 2013
The first full treatment of the father of battlefield medicine. The carnage of the Civil War has been vividly rendered in the photography of Mathew Brady and the field-hospital writings of Walt Whitman. USS Midway Museum marketing director McGaugh (USS Midway: America's Shield, 2011, etc.) offers a solid, well-researched life of Jonathan Letterman (1824-1872), a Pennsylvania-born physician who, as medical director of the Army of the Potomac, instituted bold and far-reaching reforms to alleviate the suffering of men wounded in battle. At a time when Army medical care was chaotic and almost an afterthought--nearly 3,000 wounded lay unattended on the battlefield for three days after the Battle of Bull Run--Letterman provided "more humanitarian and effective care." He created a chain of command for medicine, established an ambulance corps, overhauled battlefield evacuation, and improved camp hygiene and diet standards. During three years of war, his medical corps treated more than 60,000 casualties in battles from Antietam to Gettysburg, introducing a new era in battlefield care. Against the moans, mangled bodies and putrid odors of the war, McGaugh shows how Letterman, a quiet, private man with an analytical mind, reformed his medical corps. Through systemization and accountability, he spurred his several hundred physicians and others to reliably deliver medical care and supplies where they were most needed. The author also details Letterman's earlier years serving on isolated outposts and his later careers as a failed wildcatter on California oilfields and a coroner in San Francisco. For all his medical acumen, however, Letterman misdiagnosed an illness that killed his wife. A nicely crafted biography that also offers Civil War buffs an unusual ambulance-wagon view of the great conflict.
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July 1, 2013
In the Civil War's first major battle, the First Battle of Bull Run on July 21, 1861, over a thousand Union soldiers were wounded, most with no way off the battlefield to medical care. The U.S. Army Medical Department had up till then faced incidents of injury and disease only from isolated skirmishes. McGaugh (marketing director, USS Midway Museum; Battlefield Angels) gives us a view of the era's medical limitations while offering a biography of the man who revolutionized battlefield medicine. Using Jonathan Letterman's Recollections of the Army of the Potomac, extant letters and orders, and secondary sources, McGaugh focuses on Letterman's time as medical director of the Army of Potomac (he was appointed in 1862) and the medical strategies needed for such battles as Antietam, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, and Gettysburg. The author shares stories of such colorful personalities as Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan and Surgeon General William A. Hammond, who appointed Letterman to his post. Letterman's legacy--the establishment of an ambulance service, a medical supply distribution process, a triage system for the wounded, and improvements to camp sanitation and soldiers' diets--is still with us. VERDICT McGaugh provides military history buffs, particularly those interested in military medicine, with a well-rounded picture of a man who greatly influenced our delivery of medical care for wounded warriors.--Rebecca Hill, Zionsville, IN
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