Marrow of Tragedy by Margaret Humphreys

Author:Margaret Humphreys
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press
Published: 2013-08-14T16:00:00+00:00

Medical Research in the Confederacy

Moore’s broadest attempt at gathering information from his surgeons was to ask them to send reports of interesting cases to his office in Richmond, in addition to their required statistical reports about sick and wounded soldiers. Similar requests to Union physicians netted the hundreds of pages of case reports that filled the Medical and Surgical History of the War of the Rebellion. In the South, however, it is unclear how many surgeons ever returned these records to the central office, since it burned along with much of Richmond in 1865. Moore sent special medical diaries to his surgeons, to record special cases; one that survives in the Museum of the Confederacy contains regular entries for the first few weeks and then afterward is mostly just a roster of patients in the hospital.64 Another one, held by the Duke University Library, is as blank as the day that it arrived in surgeon James Tracy’s hands.65 Moore continually struggled to get his surgeons to file even routine reports properly. He chastised them with a circular letter in April 1863. (Circular letters served as memos to the entire medical corps, circulated either through printed copies mailed to the doctors or, as paper became scarce, via text printed in newspapers.) This one noted “the frequency with which Reports of the Sick and Wounded reach[ed] [his] office incomplete and defective, and wholly unsuited to establish accurate and reliable statistics concerning the prevalence of disease throughout the army” and expressed Moore’s disapproval. He then instructed his medical officers (again) on the proper ways to fill out the forms. If he could not get his men to comply with the basic reporting guidelines, it seems unlikely that he had much success in obtaining the special case reports.66

In September 1863 Moore organized the Association of Army and Navy Surgeons, with the purpose of gathering and sharing the wartime medical experience of Confederate surgeons. Moore was not particularly known before the war as a medical reformer or as a physician active in medical organizations; until 1861 he was, as mentioned, off on the frontier following his military surgical practice. So it is unclear whether the ideas for promoting medical research were his own or whether he was following the suggestions of other elite surgeons around him. In any event, he began by circulating questions about wound healing and later interrogated surgeons about chloroform use, hemorrhage, and other surgical topics.67 One related product of Moore’s zeal was a new journal, the Confederate States Medical and Surgical Journal (CSMSJ), which first appeared in January 1864.68 In an unsigned editorial either written by or approved by Moore, the author issued a clarion call for medical nationalism and research. “Amid the din of war’s wild alarms, when the shock of opposing armies is felt around us, while a new-born nation struggles for its breath, even then the calm, peaceful voice of Science is heard,” the editorialist reassured. “Let all who love her heed the call. …To do justice to

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