The Confederate Navy's medical service is usually overlooked in histories of the Civil War, yet it was vital in maintaining the fighting strength of the South's navy and marine corps. Confederate medical officers not only manned war vessels, they staffed navy yards and land-based hospitals, gathered supplies, participated in raids, examined recruits, and even served at defensive shore batteries. Many such officers had served in the United States Navy, while others were recruited from civil life. Enlisted personnel and civilian physicians also helped the navy provide medical care--used in managing battle wounds and other injuries but more often devoted to preventing and treating disease. Malaria was particularly common among sailors and marines stationed in the swampy regions of the South. This book, the first devoted entirely to the medical corps of the Confederate navy, provides a carefully researched look at the men, structure, facilities, and activities of the organization. A complete list of men known to have been commissioned as naval medical officers is included.

“H. H. Cunningham’s Doctors in Gray, first published more than thirty years ago, remains the definitive work on the medical history of the Confederate army. Drawing on a prodigious array of sources, Cunningham paints as complete a picture as possible of the daunting task facing those charged with caring for the war’s wounded and sick. Of the estimated 600,000 Confederate troops, Cunningham claims the 200,000 died either from battle wounds of from illness—the majority, surprisingly, from illness. Despite these grim statistics, Confederate medical personnel frequently performed heroically under the most primitive of circumstances and made imaginative use of limited resources. Cunningham provides detailed information on the administration of the Confederate Medical Department, the establishment and organization of Confederate hospitals, the experiences of medical officers in the field, the manufacture and procurement of supplies, the causes and treatment of diseases, and the beginning of modern surgical practices.” - Print ed.

Dealing with the civil war, this title takes a close look at the battlefield doctors in whose hands rested the lives of thousands of Union and Confederate soldiers. It also examines the impact on major campaigns - Manassas, Gettysburg, Vicksburg, Shiloh, Atlanta - of ignorance, understaffing, inexperience, and overcrowded hospitals.

"'Matchless Organization' describes the operations of the Confederate Army's Medical Department as managed by its successive surgeons general, especially Samuel Preston Moore"--

The Confederate Navy's medical service is usually overlooked in histories of the Civil War, yet it was vital in maintaining the fighting strength of the South's navy and marine corps. Confederate medical officers not only manned war vessels, they staffed navy yards and land-based hospitals, gathered supplies, participated in raids, examined recruits, and even served at defensive shore batteries. Many such officers had served in the United States Navy, while others were recruited from civil life. Enlisted personnel and civilian physicians also helped the navy provide medical care--used in managing battle wounds and other injuries but more often devoted to preventing and treating disease. Malaria was particularly common among sailors and marines stationed in the swampy regions of the South. This book, the first devoted entirely to the medical corps of the Confederate navy, provides a carefully researched look at the men, structure, facilities, and activities of the organization. A complete list of men known to have been commissioned as naval medical officers is included.