Introduction: Empty sleeves in Civil War history and memory -- The surgeons : gray anatomy -- The patients : enduring the "fearfulest test" of manhood -- The women : reconstructing Confederate manhood -- The return : adjusting to dependency and disability -- The state : the politics of paying damages -- Epilogue -- Appendix A: Amputation statistics -- Appendix B: Prosthetic limb programs -- Appendix C: Pension programs.
Summary:
"This will be the first book about the Civil War to examine the meaning of amputation, and of amputees, in the U.S. South. Brian Craig Miller provides medical history of the procedure, looks at men who rejected amputation, and examines how Southern men and women adjusted their ideas about honor, masculinity, and love in response to the presence of large numbers of amputees during and after the war. While some historians have explored the lives of the wounded, disabled and amputated soldiers throughout the major military conflicts of the twentieth century, few monographs have returned to a time when medical care remained primitive at best in American history: the Civil War. While one recent article explored what amputation may have meant to Union soldiers returning from battle, the same has yet to be done for the losing side in the military conflict. The destruction of slavery, the perseverance of the Union and the triumph of liberty, freedom and equality ensured that the sacrifices of Northern men would be recognized, memorialized and cherished for generations beyond the battlefield. However, can the same be said for Southern amputated men, who returned from the war scarred, disillusioned and defeated? In his travels in the South over the past five years, Miller has combed through archives, producing a wealth of surgical and medical manuals, hospital records, surgeons reports, diary, letter and journal entries pertaining to amputation, legislative records, pension files and applications, newspaper reports and numerous anecdotes about what it means to lose a limb. These sources allow Miller to combine political, medical, military, social, cultural and gender history into a much-needed disability study of the Confederacy"--Provided by publisher.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.