Bleeding Blue and Gray: Civil War Surgery and the Evolution of American Medicine
Ira Rutkow, MD, DPH
Tuesday, May 3, 6:00 PM
Reception, 5:30PM

At the outset of the Civil War, the use of ether and chloroform remained crude, and they were often unavailable in the hellish conditions of the front lines. As a result, many surgical procedures were performed without anesthesia in the compromised setting of a battleground or field hospital.

Besides the substandard quality of wartime medical supplies and techniques, the combatants' utter lack of preparation greatly impaired treatment. In 1861, the Union's medical corps, mostly ill-qualified and poorly trained, lacked even an ambulance system. Fortunately, some of these difficulties were improved by the work of relief agencies such as the United States Sanitary Commission, led by Frederick Law Olmsted, and tens of thousands of volunteers, among them Louisa May Alcott and Walt Whitman.

From the soldiers who endured the ravages of combat to the government officials who directed the war machine, from the good samaritans who organized aid commissions to the nurses who cared for the wounded, Bleeding Blue and Gray presents a story of suffering, politics, character, and ultimately, healing.

Dr. Rutkow, a Fellow of the Academy, is a clinical professor of surgery at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey. He also holds a doctorate of public health from the Johns Hopkins University. His earlier book, Surgery: An Illustrated History, was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year. Dr. Rutkow is general editor of both the Norman American Civil War Surgery Series and the Norman American Civil War Medical Series.

This event is free and open to the public. For more information about NYAM programs in the history of medicine, visit our website at http://www.nyam.org/initiatives/im-histe.shtml, write history@nyam.org or call Christian Warren at the phone number provided below.

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