In Hospital and Camp: The Civil War through the Eyes of Its Doctors and Nurses [Hardcover]

Harold Elk Straubing (Compiler)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 1, 1993

Includes first-person accounts by Louisa May Alcott and Walt Whitman.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Another eyewitness account from Straubing, noted for his highly regarded compilations of eyewitness narratives of the Civil War and World War I, this effort focuses on the thoughts and recollections of army physicians and nurses during the Civil War. The accounts range from the numbing surgical notes of a doctor to the forthright concerns of a dedicated nurse and even include some lyric lines from Walt Whitman. However, all accounts have been chosen with care to provide the reader with insight concerning the agony of the sick and wounded and the despair of those attempting to preserve lives under shockingly primitive conditions. Appropriate for general readers and a suitable choice for public and academic libraries.
- Lawrence E. Ellis, Newberry Coll. Lib., S.C.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 176 pages
• Publisher: Stackpole Books; 1st edition (February 1, 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0811716317
• ISBN-13: 978-0811716314
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.7 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.3 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #680,285 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A Marginally Useful Collection of Medical Memoirs, May 23, 2004

By 

Roger D. Launius "Historian" (Washington, D.C., United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: In Hospital and Camp: The Civil War through the Eyes of Its Doctors and Nurses (Hardcover)

There seems to be no end to the fascination the Civil War holds for modern Americans. "In hospital and Camp" capitalizes on some of that fascination by printing recollections about medical activities on both sides of the conflict. What results is a moderately interesting, marginally useful little book that will give readers something of the flavor of what it was like to deal with wounded and diseased soldiers in what many historians claim to be the "first modern war."

Straubing has strung together the memoirs of ten doctors, nurses, and medics who served in the war. All were previously published between 1863 and 1911, are readily available in any good university library, and are superior to the extracts published here. Some of the recollections were written by such literary luminaries as Louisa May Alcott, Walt Whitman, and Frederick Law Olmstead and have an elegance not present in most other writings about the war. Others were prepared by physicians who were probably more comfortable with a scalpel than a pen and have a clinical tone about them. The compiler provides a brief, mildly interesting introduction to the subject, short chapter introductions to set the tone for the excerpt, a slim bibliography, and an index.

From my perspective, there are three fundamental reasons for republishing primary source materials as done by Straubing: the sources are generally unavailable to potential users because of age or inaccessibility; they present a new and different perspective on the past; or they can be used to teach the historical method to neophytes. If this collection has a use, it is the last of these, and I can see "In Hospital and Camp" becoming a source for high school and some undergraduate term papers.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Insightful and inspiring, January 20, 2008

By 

Delicia (southwest usa) - See all my reviews

This review is from: In Hospital and Camp: The Civil War through the Eyes of Its Doctors and Nurses (Hardcover)

This is a much more interesting book than the previous, jaded, bored-sounding reviewer has inferred. Makes me wonder if that person is intentionally trying to cast this book in a dark light.
I found this book to be inspiring, insightful, and very informative. I'm an RN, as well as a writer, and found the descriptions of camp life very helpful.
Read it yourself and form your own opinion. I have no axe to grind.