War Turning Point

The Civil War was a turning point in American history. If it had gone any different, times now would be very different as well. The root of the cause of the Confederacy seceding from the Union, or the South seceding from the North, was because they felt their way of life, which was based on slavery, was under threat from the presidency of Abraham Lincoln. Progressing medicine on the battlefield saved lives, but lost most. The under trained surgeons were not ready for the hordes of diseased and injured. Most “doctors” were physicians, and 500 of 11,000 Northern physicians had ever performed surgery. As for the Confederacy, only 27 of 3,000. Two thirds of the 620,000 casualties were of disease. This was due to unsanitary conditions in field
Although not very fond of African Americans, he found it unreasonable how people demean others for skin color. During the Battle of Gettysburg, he was shot twice in his arm during the Defense of Little Round Top, which was a brutal choke point for the Union since if they failed to hold off the Confederates, they would ultimately break through their lines. The mission was a success, but Kilrain had died of his injuries. Since he was shot twice in his upper arm, presumably, it would be hard to facilitate his recovery. Most bullet wounds to the extremities, and amputation was the most readily utilized medical procedure for treatment. The reason was the Miníe ball. It was fired from the standard infantry rifles, and was essentially a slow moving missile. It was a subsonic round, and once they made contact with human flesh, the wounds were usually severe and would require amputation to prevent gangrene. The Miníe ball usually shattered bone on impact and buried itself within the flesh of its victim. A mean of 24% of upper arm amputations resulted in death, and about ¾ of operations done on the field were amputations. Also, patients could wait up to two days for treatment. Since Kilrain was shot twice, he may have bled out before
Wounds to the stomach usually resulted in instantaneous or quick death. However, it seems the bullet may have grazed Henry’s lower abdomen, so only a flesh wound may have occurred. He is lucky to not have shattered bones. His surgery would consist of cleaning the area with an antiseptic (since it is prior to 1865, the publication of antiseptic surgery, this step would most likely be skipped, unless this was an early use), locating and extracting the bullet, dressing and sewing the rupture, and cleaning once more to prevent infections. Only 18% of wounds were to the abdomen, which is odd since now soldiers are trained to aim center mass. These wounds were more fatal compared to a wound in the limbs due to intestinal perforation in the pre-antibiotic era, and because smashed bones in the abdomen could not be