Customer Reviews

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

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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.

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.