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Gettysburg Surgeons: Facing a Common Enemy in the Civil War's Deadliest Battle
In the bloodiest battle of the Civil War, a thousand surgeons faced an unprecedented medical 25,000 wounded soldiers needing immediate care with only primitive tools and their own determination to save lives.
At Gettysburg's makeshift hospitals—set up in barns, churches, and blood-soaked fields—military and civilian surgeons from both North and South worked around the clock performing life-saving operations under fire. Drawing from a decade of meticulous research, historian Barbara Franco reveals how these courageous medical professionals revolutionized battlefield medicine and established principles still saving lives today.
Through vivid accounts and previously untold stories, readers will
How surgeons improvised new techniques that became standard trauma procedures The harrowing reality of Civil War field hospitals during the three days of battle How lessons learned at Gettysburg transformed American military medicine The lasting impact on modern emergency and disaster response
From the founding director of the Gettysburg Seminary Ridge Museum comes an unforgettable narrative of medicine, courage, and innovation that speaks to both history enthusiasts and medical professionals. This definitive account shows how the medical crisis at Gettysburg continues to influence how we treat mass casualties and train combat medics today.
At Gettysburg's makeshift hospitals—set up in barns, churches, and blood-soaked fields—military and civilian surgeons from both North and South worked around the clock performing life-saving operations under fire. Drawing from a decade of meticulous research, historian Barbara Franco reveals how these courageous medical professionals revolutionized battlefield medicine and established principles still saving lives today.
Through vivid accounts and previously untold stories, readers will
How surgeons improvised new techniques that became standard trauma procedures The harrowing reality of Civil War field hospitals during the three days of battle How lessons learned at Gettysburg transformed American military medicine The lasting impact on modern emergency and disaster response
From the founding director of the Gettysburg Seminary Ridge Museum comes an unforgettable narrative of medicine, courage, and innovation that speaks to both history enthusiasts and medical professionals. This definitive account shows how the medical crisis at Gettysburg continues to influence how we treat mass casualties and train combat medics today.
- GenresHistory
353 pages, Kindle Edition
Published July 1, 2025
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29 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
June 25, 2025
If any Civil War history book mentions battlefield surgeons, they’re usually portrayed in a somewhat negative light. Their knowledge is limited, their tools primitive, and their cursory diagnoses often end with them crudely hacking limbs off the wounded and tossing them into a ghoulish pile.
Barbara Franco has done extensive work researching, identifying and - perhaps most importantly - humanizing all of the surgeons who served at the Battle of Gettysburg. This book detailing her efforts is a scholarly one, with an emphasis on facts and figures and details. But Franco also incorporates personal reminiscences from some of the 1,200 Union and Confederate surgeons who worked during and after the battle, quoting many of them at length, which helps to turn all of the raw material she gathered into an actual narrative.
As she tells it, the battlefield surgeons were “far from the unskilled butchers of popular stereotypes.” While they still served a little too soon to benefit from advances like germ theory and antisepsis, they were far more organized and professionalized in 1863 than those who provided medical care in the early days of the war. Each of them had to pass a strict entrance exam to become a military surgeon, so while they may not measure up to our modern standards, they had far more expertise and knowledge for the time than they’re typically credited with today.
Before the battle, they’re portrayed here as doing much more than just waiting for combat injuries to treat. They pushed for medical supplies to be prioritized, when generals were more concerned about the flow and transport of food and weapons. They advocated for cleanliness and healthy rations in camp in order to prevent diseases. And with such a large army, they invariably had to tend to those who needed routine medical treatment. Yet with limited time and resources, the doctors often simply did the best they could. As one recalled, “Early in the morning we had sick-call… Diagnosis was rapidly made, usually by intuition, and treatment was with such drugs as we chanced to have.”
As the battle begins, Franco describes it from the perspective of the surgeons. The first day was relatively orderly, as they set up field hospitals and treated the wounded. But they soon became overwhelmed - not only because of the sheer number of wounded and the severity of the injuries they had to treat, but because they frequently had to move the location of their field hospitals in order to stay out of the way of the battle, they had to keep themselves safe while under fire, and they had to evade capture, as some surgeons would be taken prisoner along with their comrades and pressed into service by their captors (and there was disagreement over whether surgeons, as noncombatants, could be kept as prisoners at all).
When the battle ends, the book is only halfway over, as “the long arduous work of caring for the wounded was just beginning.” This is a part of the Gettysburg story that’s not often told - as the two armies left, they had to take many of their medical professionals and supplies with them, anticipating future battles and additional casualties, so they “left only the limited amount of surgeons and supplies that could be spared” to treat the many wounded who remained in Gettysburg.
A more permanent field hospital was established, and lasted for months after the battle. Volunteers stepped in to provide assistance to overworked surgeons who were often “criticized for lack of empathy and concern for the wounded.” The volunteer medical workers and nurses, in contrast, were able to sympathize with their patients “on a more personal and emotional level.”
Once the remaining patients were either discharged or transferred to established hospitals in nearby cities, the Gettysburg surgeons’ work was finally done. The narrative loses a little steam in tracking their postwar lives, as everyone’s story is different, and it becomes a collection of mostly unrelated anecdotes. Franco does her best in organizing these anecdotes by theme, but there’s no consistent through-line from their shared experiences at Gettysburg to their experiences after the war. “The sheer volume and severity of cases encountered in battlefield medicine” helped many surgeons become well-prepared for improved, more effective and advanced medical care in postwar private practice. But just as many seemed to leave the profession altogether, getting into business or politics or failing to successfully transition to civilian life at all.
As the book nears its end, the narrative becomes more poignant as, decades later, one surgeon who thought he and his colleagues were overlooked and forgotten gave a speech entitled “Why Is The Profession of Killing More Generally Honored Than That of Saving Life?” And soon after that, Franco describes how Gettysburg’s surgeons finally got a measure of respect and recognition when only a handful were left to appreciate it.
In her introduction, Franco explains that she set out to focus on “the experiences of individual physicians as members of a profession,” as opposed to the state of medical knowledge at the time or the impact of care. Focusing on the latter is what tends to reinforce the image of Civil War battlefield surgeons as uncaring, limb-hacking barbarians. Focusing on the former, as Franco does, helps us to understand and empathize with the surgeons who typically play little more than a supporting role in most battle histories. For that, whether you are a novice or an expert on the Battle of Gettysburg, this book is an important and enlightening read, proving that all of Franco’s research was well worth it.
Thanks to NetGalley and publisher Stackpole Books for providing an advance copy of this book for review, ahead of its July 1st release.
Barbara Franco has done extensive work researching, identifying and - perhaps most importantly - humanizing all of the surgeons who served at the Battle of Gettysburg. This book detailing her efforts is a scholarly one, with an emphasis on facts and figures and details. But Franco also incorporates personal reminiscences from some of the 1,200 Union and Confederate surgeons who worked during and after the battle, quoting many of them at length, which helps to turn all of the raw material she gathered into an actual narrative.
As she tells it, the battlefield surgeons were “far from the unskilled butchers of popular stereotypes.” While they still served a little too soon to benefit from advances like germ theory and antisepsis, they were far more organized and professionalized in 1863 than those who provided medical care in the early days of the war. Each of them had to pass a strict entrance exam to become a military surgeon, so while they may not measure up to our modern standards, they had far more expertise and knowledge for the time than they’re typically credited with today.
Before the battle, they’re portrayed here as doing much more than just waiting for combat injuries to treat. They pushed for medical supplies to be prioritized, when generals were more concerned about the flow and transport of food and weapons. They advocated for cleanliness and healthy rations in camp in order to prevent diseases. And with such a large army, they invariably had to tend to those who needed routine medical treatment. Yet with limited time and resources, the doctors often simply did the best they could. As one recalled, “Early in the morning we had sick-call… Diagnosis was rapidly made, usually by intuition, and treatment was with such drugs as we chanced to have.”
As the battle begins, Franco describes it from the perspective of the surgeons. The first day was relatively orderly, as they set up field hospitals and treated the wounded. But they soon became overwhelmed - not only because of the sheer number of wounded and the severity of the injuries they had to treat, but because they frequently had to move the location of their field hospitals in order to stay out of the way of the battle, they had to keep themselves safe while under fire, and they had to evade capture, as some surgeons would be taken prisoner along with their comrades and pressed into service by their captors (and there was disagreement over whether surgeons, as noncombatants, could be kept as prisoners at all).
When the battle ends, the book is only halfway over, as “the long arduous work of caring for the wounded was just beginning.” This is a part of the Gettysburg story that’s not often told - as the two armies left, they had to take many of their medical professionals and supplies with them, anticipating future battles and additional casualties, so they “left only the limited amount of surgeons and supplies that could be spared” to treat the many wounded who remained in Gettysburg.
A more permanent field hospital was established, and lasted for months after the battle. Volunteers stepped in to provide assistance to overworked surgeons who were often “criticized for lack of empathy and concern for the wounded.” The volunteer medical workers and nurses, in contrast, were able to sympathize with their patients “on a more personal and emotional level.”
Once the remaining patients were either discharged or transferred to established hospitals in nearby cities, the Gettysburg surgeons’ work was finally done. The narrative loses a little steam in tracking their postwar lives, as everyone’s story is different, and it becomes a collection of mostly unrelated anecdotes. Franco does her best in organizing these anecdotes by theme, but there’s no consistent through-line from their shared experiences at Gettysburg to their experiences after the war. “The sheer volume and severity of cases encountered in battlefield medicine” helped many surgeons become well-prepared for improved, more effective and advanced medical care in postwar private practice. But just as many seemed to leave the profession altogether, getting into business or politics or failing to successfully transition to civilian life at all.
As the book nears its end, the narrative becomes more poignant as, decades later, one surgeon who thought he and his colleagues were overlooked and forgotten gave a speech entitled “Why Is The Profession of Killing More Generally Honored Than That of Saving Life?” And soon after that, Franco describes how Gettysburg’s surgeons finally got a measure of respect and recognition when only a handful were left to appreciate it.
In her introduction, Franco explains that she set out to focus on “the experiences of individual physicians as members of a profession,” as opposed to the state of medical knowledge at the time or the impact of care. Focusing on the latter is what tends to reinforce the image of Civil War battlefield surgeons as uncaring, limb-hacking barbarians. Focusing on the former, as Franco does, helps us to understand and empathize with the surgeons who typically play little more than a supporting role in most battle histories. For that, whether you are a novice or an expert on the Battle of Gettysburg, this book is an important and enlightening read, proving that all of Franco’s research was well worth it.
Thanks to NetGalley and publisher Stackpole Books for providing an advance copy of this book for review, ahead of its July 1st release.
July 7, 2025
A fresh new take that gives the medical staff on Union and Confederate armies the attention they deserve for their experience at the Battle of Gettysburg.
May 4, 2025
Gettysburg Surgeons: Facing a Common Enemy in the Civil War's Deadliest Battle is based upon a ten year research study (prosopography) performed by the author, Barbara Franco, about the Surgeons of Gettysburg during the civil war including such information as where these surgeons came from, what challenges they faced, and what happened to them during and after the war.
Some of the things this extensive non-fiction work examines:
- The ages and qualifications of the surgeons such as what routes of study they had taken and where they studied.
- The medical treatments of the time.
- The prevailing approaches to medicine.
- The lacking resources available.
The types of issues dealt with such as:
- Health and disease: Chronic diarrhea, dysentery, scurvy, scabies, tetanus
- Gunshot wounds, secondary hemorrhage
- Alcohol and drug abuse
- Sickness from foods or lack of specific foods.
- The importance of clean water.
- Death.
It also includes excerpts from letters and diaries and examines their lives after the war.
As someone with a background in healthcare, and as someone who has visited Gettysburg Battlefield, I found it very interesting to read. The accompanying pictures also provided a wealth of information.
About the Author:
Barbara Franco, a nationally recognized leader in the museum field, has served as executive director of the Historical Society of Washington, DC, the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, and the Gettysburg Seminary Ridge Museum.
Globe Pequot Publishing Group, Inc.
July 1, 2025
#arc #netgalley #BarbaraFranco
#Gettysburg #Gettysburgsurgeons #nonfiction
#Medicine #Civilwar #Disease #History #Doctors #Surgeons #Battlefieldmedicine #prosopography
#Brightbookreviews #facebook #Instagram #Goodreads
Some of the things this extensive non-fiction work examines:
- The ages and qualifications of the surgeons such as what routes of study they had taken and where they studied.
- The medical treatments of the time.
- The prevailing approaches to medicine.
- The lacking resources available.
The types of issues dealt with such as:
- Health and disease: Chronic diarrhea, dysentery, scurvy, scabies, tetanus
- Gunshot wounds, secondary hemorrhage
- Alcohol and drug abuse
- Sickness from foods or lack of specific foods.
- The importance of clean water.
- Death.
It also includes excerpts from letters and diaries and examines their lives after the war.
As someone with a background in healthcare, and as someone who has visited Gettysburg Battlefield, I found it very interesting to read. The accompanying pictures also provided a wealth of information.
About the Author:
Barbara Franco, a nationally recognized leader in the museum field, has served as executive director of the Historical Society of Washington, DC, the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, and the Gettysburg Seminary Ridge Museum.
Globe Pequot Publishing Group, Inc.
July 1, 2025
#arc #netgalley #BarbaraFranco
#Gettysburg #Gettysburgsurgeons #nonfiction
#Medicine #Civilwar #Disease #History #Doctors #Surgeons #Battlefieldmedicine #prosopography
#Brightbookreviews #facebook #Instagram #Goodreads
August 23, 2025
Gettysburg Surgeons by Barbara Franco
Facing a Common Enemy in the Civil War’s Deadliest Battle
History of medicine is something that I have found interesting over the years when researching for a high school history paper, reading about Florence Nightingale and other famous historical nurses, and listening to my father and brother discuss the history of resuscitation, anesthesia, and other historical medical events.
Based on information in journals, diaries, historical records, letters, and other documents, the author created an easy-to-read historical account that was informative, had me thinking and made me glad to live in the present rather than in a time when medical knowledge was not as it is now. Thinking about the lack of information on the cause of infection and that impact on surgical risk along with the lack of medications to treat medical conditions and injuries that are available now…well…it is amazing anyone survived long ago.
The book begins with the education surgeons received in both the North and the South. It was interesting to learn about expenses incurred, tickets purchased to attend lectures and validade education, how the system worked, the number of schools there were and that a college degree was not required to become a surgeon. Next a information on what was required financially and in regard to knowledge was described for those that decided to join the medical corps as an assistant or commissioned surgeon. Part one ended with a discussion of what housing and life was like in the field once inducted into the army.
The next section focused on Gettysburg with data and primary sources about the days of battle, the aftermath, relief for wounded, the move to Camp Letterman, and those left in the hands of the enemy. I knew that Gettysburg incurred many casualties and horrific injuries with piles of amputated limbs around but I didn’t realize that surgeons were not adequately prepared, supplied, or supported in tending the wounded. The decisions they had to make were triage based after battle but also included which men were able bodied enough to go back to the battlefield. Decisions like that would be difficult unless one was as some surgeons were described as callous brutes and often drunkards. That surgeons were considered to be neutral agents and not to be taken prisoner was not the case with both sides taking prisoners to swap for their own surgeons – with mixed results. Some descriptions of life in prison was also shared.
The final section discussed what surgeons did after the war with some staying in the army, some going into private practice or teaching, and others who were unwilling to live in a country without slavery leaving for Mexico, Brazil and other countries. An appendix with selected profiles of Union and Confederate surgeons is included.
Thank you to NetGalley and Stackpole Books for the ARC – this is my honest review.
5 Stars
Facing a Common Enemy in the Civil War’s Deadliest Battle
History of medicine is something that I have found interesting over the years when researching for a high school history paper, reading about Florence Nightingale and other famous historical nurses, and listening to my father and brother discuss the history of resuscitation, anesthesia, and other historical medical events.
Based on information in journals, diaries, historical records, letters, and other documents, the author created an easy-to-read historical account that was informative, had me thinking and made me glad to live in the present rather than in a time when medical knowledge was not as it is now. Thinking about the lack of information on the cause of infection and that impact on surgical risk along with the lack of medications to treat medical conditions and injuries that are available now…well…it is amazing anyone survived long ago.
The book begins with the education surgeons received in both the North and the South. It was interesting to learn about expenses incurred, tickets purchased to attend lectures and validade education, how the system worked, the number of schools there were and that a college degree was not required to become a surgeon. Next a information on what was required financially and in regard to knowledge was described for those that decided to join the medical corps as an assistant or commissioned surgeon. Part one ended with a discussion of what housing and life was like in the field once inducted into the army.
The next section focused on Gettysburg with data and primary sources about the days of battle, the aftermath, relief for wounded, the move to Camp Letterman, and those left in the hands of the enemy. I knew that Gettysburg incurred many casualties and horrific injuries with piles of amputated limbs around but I didn’t realize that surgeons were not adequately prepared, supplied, or supported in tending the wounded. The decisions they had to make were triage based after battle but also included which men were able bodied enough to go back to the battlefield. Decisions like that would be difficult unless one was as some surgeons were described as callous brutes and often drunkards. That surgeons were considered to be neutral agents and not to be taken prisoner was not the case with both sides taking prisoners to swap for their own surgeons – with mixed results. Some descriptions of life in prison was also shared.
The final section discussed what surgeons did after the war with some staying in the army, some going into private practice or teaching, and others who were unwilling to live in a country without slavery leaving for Mexico, Brazil and other countries. An appendix with selected profiles of Union and Confederate surgeons is included.
Thank you to NetGalley and Stackpole Books for the ARC – this is my honest review.
5 Stars
July 19, 2025
I live in Gettysburg, so it's always nice to find a book that makes you see a familiar story in a whole new way. Instead of focusing on generals and battle strategy, Barbara Franco dives into the world of the surgeons who worked nonstop to save lives during the Battle of Gettysburg. With barely any tools and thousands of wounded soldiers, these men (and some brave civilians) had to get creative—and fast.
The stories are intense, sometimes heartbreaking, and totally eye-opening. I had no idea how much of today’s emergency medicine started right there on those bloody fields. Franco’s writing is clear and vivid, and you really feel like you’re there in the chaos.
If you love hidden history or want a new take on Gettysburg, this book is absolutely worth the read. As an author myself, I appreciate the level of research that went into this book.
The stories are intense, sometimes heartbreaking, and totally eye-opening. I had no idea how much of today’s emergency medicine started right there on those bloody fields. Franco’s writing is clear and vivid, and you really feel like you’re there in the chaos.
If you love hidden history or want a new take on Gettysburg, this book is absolutely worth the read. As an author myself, I appreciate the level of research that went into this book.
July 6, 2025
I really enjoyed Gettysburg Surgeons by Barbara Franco. Her comprehensive research opened my eyes to the plight of the medical personnel who were at the side of the wounded, during and after the battle. The information that the author gave the reader covered everything that a person would want to know about these men. I found their educational histories particularly interesting. It made me glad that I live in the twenty-first century and not the nineteenth. Most importantly to any reader who loves Gettysburg history, she puts us in the hell that was battle time medicine.
Thank you to NetGalley and Stackpole Books, for the opportunity to review this book. I received a complimentary copy of this book, and I freely left this review.
Thank you to NetGalley and Stackpole Books, for the opportunity to review this book. I received a complimentary copy of this book, and I freely left this review.
May 28, 2025
This was an interesting historical book with lots of details, dates and information about the surgeons of Gettysburg. Viewing the battle of Gettysburg through the viewpoint of the surgeons was exactly as I hoped it would be. Informative experience through the surgeons lens. I did find it hard to follow at times. I am very happy to have this advance copy opportunity from Net Galley.
November 26, 2025
Tbh started to skim half way through. Good reference book but for such an incredibly interesting topic, the narrative was dry... in some places, just a listing of doctors at various places and times. And the accompanying maps were not great as the labels did not correspond with the text and they were hard to read.
October 17, 2025
Interesting new look at Civil War surgeons, an essential part of the military that often gets overlooked due to the more limited medical knowledge that was available back then. They were doing the best they could within their means, often under fire despite never firing any shots themselves.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews