Frontier Medicine at Fort Davis and Other Army Posts: True Stories of Unglamorous Maladies

by Arcadia Publishing

Overview

From a headless burial to cocaine toothache drops, the true stories hidden in the Wild West's medical records are a match for its tallest tales.

In the 19th century, when dying young was a fact of life, a routine bout of diarrhea could be fatal. No one had heard of viruses or bacteria, but they killed more soldiers on the frontier than hostile raiding parties. Physicians dispensed whiskey for TB, mercury for VD and arsenic for indigestion. Baseball injuries were considered to be in the line of duty and twice resulted in amputations at Fort Davis. Donna Smith explains how an industrious laundress could earn more than a private, a female army surgeon won the Medal of Honor and a garrison illegally hung its bartender.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781467152464
Publisher:	Arcadia Publishing SC
Publication date:	10/24/2022
Pages:	192
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.50(d)

About the Author

Donna Gerstle Smith worked for the National Park Service for almost three decades as a park ranger and park historian. Her fascination with history began while researching for her master's degree thesis on nineteenth-century medicine at frontier military posts. Inspired by reading old letters, journals, army medical records and other primary source materials, she found them to be priceless windows for looking into the past.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements 9

Introduction 11

1 Let the Dead People Talk 13

2 Step Back in Time 16

3 Barroom Brawl, Death, Hanging 19

4 Diphtheria: Strangling Angel of Death 22

5 No Pension for Her Own Work 26

6 Quanah Parker and Peyote: Indigenous Cactus Medicine 29

7 A Young Boy Loses His Father 32

8 Frontier Military Women Sometimes Took Matters into Their Own Hands 35

9 Two More Women Who Took Matters into Their Own Hands 38

10 Magic Lanterns and Photography 41

11 The Runs: Diarrhea but No Issue of the Tissue (TP) 45

12 In the Line of Duty: Baseball Injuries 49

13 Not in the Line of Duty: Man Bite 54

14 Who Will Pay for Deceased Frontier Army Doctor's Casket? 55

15 Soldier Buried Headless 58

16 Texas Was a Good Place for Men, but Awfully Rough on Women and Oxen 61

17 Unfit for Military Service: Why Do We Call it 4-F? 68

18 Brandy, Whiskey and Opium to Treat Tuberculosis 71

19 How to Limit Family Size: Two Women's Dilemmas 74

20 Water: Where Will Our Next Drink Be? 78

21 You Were Bitten by What? 83

22 Surgery and Anesthesia 85

23 Camp Followers Came in a Wide Variety of Characters 89

24 Trials of a Frontier Army Officer's Wife 93

25 Where's the Dentist? 99

26 Your TB Treatment Is Scheduled for Two O'Clock in the Inhalatorium 102

27 Death Hovered Close for Women in Childbirth and for Children 104

28 Sudden Deaths 107

29 Medical Whiskey and Other Elixirs, Nostrums and Cure-Alls 110

30 Take a Photo of Our Beloved Daughter-She's Dead 113

31 Demon Whiskey 116

32 Children Died, Too-and There Were No Child-Proof Caps 120

33 Cocaine Toothache Drops and Other Remedies 123

34 Ice-for Fever, Weddings and Ice Cream 127

35 Scalps and Skulls 131

36 No Talking after Bedtime, 8½ P.M.: Army Hospital Rules 134

37 Female Army Surgeon Receives Medal of Honor 136

38 Dying Too Young 140

39 What Would You Name Your Horse? 144

40 What Did They Call PTSD? 147

41 Cemeteries: Fort Davis, Where Are Your Dead? 150

42 Scurvy: A Monstrous and Wicked Disease for Soldiers, Sailors and Pirates 154

43 Died of Softening of the Brain 157

44 Why Did the U.S. Army Deliberately Burn Down Its Hospitals? 160

Glossary of Old Medical Terms Used in the Nineteenth Century 165

Appendix: Excerpts from Fort Davis Military Death Records 169

Bibliography 173

Index 181

About the Author 189