Civil War Medicine and the Battle of Cold Harbor
The Civil War was a seminal event in American history as combatants decided whether or not the United States would ultimately become a great nation. The death and destruction was horrific, a large part of the problem being that very few physicians had any surgical training at the beginning of the war. The Union had only 30 surgeons and 83 assistant surgeons, and when the war started, 3 surgeons and 21 assistants resigned to join the South.