Amputations  "Saved By The Saw"

The trademark of Civil War surgery, amputations accounted for 75 percent of all operations performed by Civil War doctors. More arms and legs were chopped off in this war than in any other fought by this country. Three out of every four wounded soldiers were hit in the extremities, and at that time, amputation was the only proper medical treatment for a compound fracture or severe laceration of a limb.

Surgery had not yet progressed to an understanding of antiseptic conditions. A doctor would use the same knife and saw all day, wiping his hands and instruments on his apron when they became too slimy. Most surgery was performed outside on operating tables made of doors laid upon boxes, with tubs underneath to catch the blood. An experienced surgeon could remove a limb in a few minutes; some surgeons at Gettysburg did nothing for an entire week but cut off arms and legs from dawn until twilight.

Ether and chloroform were commonly used as anesthetics, but supplies could not keep up with demand. Surgery was but a prelude to the horrors a soldier would face. Gangrene and other little-understood infections swept through hospitals with deadly results. Surgical fevers (infections), routinely treated with yeast poultices and charcoal dressings, were responsible for most of the deaths of amputees. Primitive as the conditions were, it is likely that the majority of amputees were saved by the saw. Amputations performed within 48 hours of a wound were twice as likely to be successful as those performed after that length of time.
 

While most Confederate records were lost or destroyed, it is believed that Confederate fatality rates would not differ markedly from those listed above
 
 

Fascinating Fact:  The governor of Louisiana, Gen. Francis R.T. Nicholls, lost one arm, one leg, and one eye during the war.


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