Posted on 11/08/2003 12:01:18 AM PST by SAMWolf
The numbers of Americans killed and wounded in this war never ceases to amaze me. What a terrible time for all the families and the country as a whole.
Thanks SAM, it was long but it was a good read.
I posit whether one fights it or writes it, there is about that war something which effects the gaze.
Major General Winfield Scott Hancock was reported to have used this flag. He had a mounted enlisted man carry this guidon so that he could be easily located on the battlefield.
General Winfield Scott Hancock, a lesser known but highly competent Union general, almost defeated Republican candidate James A. Garfield, also a Union general. Hancock was remembered in the South for his considerate behavior during Reconstruction.
Maj. Gen. Winfield Scott Hancock equestrian monument. East Cemetery Hill.
Remembrance Day Flowers 1999
Winfield Scott Hancock 1824 - 1886,David Bell Birney1825 - 1864, and their staffs
Winfield Scott Hancock: A Soldier's Life by David M. Jordan
by B. J. Miller, Assistant Surgeon
Often we learn best from our mistakes. Our predecessors in the science of medicine have provided us with an invaluable tool in the form of "case histories." One particularly interesting case history is that of the wounding of General Winfield Scott Hancock.
During the height of Pickett's Charge at Gettysburg, General Hancock had unduly exposed himself on horseback. Just as he was coming near Standard's Vermont regiment, Hancock was hit in the front of the right thigh, near the groin, by a rifle ball. As the bullet entered, it carried with it a large, bent iron nail and bits of wood thought to have come from the pommel of his saddle. After being assisted to the ground by members of General Standard's staff, Standard himself improvised a tourniquet from his handkerchief and used his pistol barrel to tighten it, thus preventing further shock and even death. Dr. A. N. Doughterty, Surgeon and Medical Director of the Second Corps, was immediately summoned. The surgeon probed the wound hastily, as well as he could under the circumstances. He found a bent wrought iron nail, some splinters of wood, and small fragments or pieces of lead which had been carried into the wound by the bullet which had first passed through the saddle. General Hancock was moved by an ambulance to the rear field hospital of the Second Corps, located at the intersection of Rock Creek and White Run on the George Bushman farm. After having his wound dressed, he was moved to the Daniel Wills House in town. Mrs. Wills, the former Jennie Smyser, was a native of Norristown, PA, as was Hancock, so it may be that they knew one another. Within a week, Hancock was moved to Philadelphia where he remained for three weeks. His wound was probed several times to the point of complete intolerance. It was his desire to return to his home in Norristown. After a few days, he was visited by Louis W. Read, Surgeon-in-chief of The PA Reserves. The General asked Dr. Read to examine his wound, after which the doctor procured a very long, improvised probe. Thereafter, he placed the general in the position that he had been in, in the saddle, when he received the wound. Dr. Read then probed the wound and found the ball at the depth of 7-8 inches (too long for fingers to reach) and imbedded in the ischium of the pelvis. The next day, Dr. Read extracted the ball by first cutting open the wound from the point at which the ball had entered the body. The ball bore upon it the marks of the nail which Dr. Doughtery had extracted.
The wound of General Hancock remained unhealed and fell far short of his desire to rejoin his corps in two weeks. At the end of the year 1863, he returned to his command of the Second Corps. The wound gradually improved, but he never fully recovered. The wound re-opened in November of 1864 when another fragment of bone was sequestrated (when a fragment of dead bone becomes separated from surrounding tissue) from the wound. The wound abscess and persistently draining sinus (a canal or passage leading to an abscess) with bone sequestrations were telltale signs of what we now know as chronic osteomylitis (inflammation of and infection of bone, especially the marrow) which followed the comminution, or fragmentation, caused by the bullet striking the pelvis. The multiple probings undoubtedly introduced another then unknown entity now known as staphylococcus bacteria, resulting in a severe infection. One can easily speculate how much easier it would be today to care for and treat surgically such a wound.
General Winfield Scott Hancock was a true hero of the Civil War and especially notable was his performance at Gettysburg. He was in every sense a fine soldier and he looked very much the part. He was indeed "Hancock the Superb."
Chamberlin..a man of the Bible..and new age thinking of his day,....yet from him..was a Stonewall Jackson type.
Unafraid to lead...and very prominent in the key moments of battle.
How many with failing sense looked up..and saw his stature...drew from the scene what was needed inside to carry the day.
Sherman....hard..yet a councellor.
How many times did he *keep Grant together..and inspire a man struggling with his inner thoughts.
Grant...from Galena Illinois prior to the civil war,
How prophetic....Galena in Greek means *Lead.
Grant..given to depression..and withdrawl..and the bottle.
Yet..he kept himself..and wore his outfit of a taskmaster made to send men to their deaths.
Washington derided Grant for the casualty count..especially after Spotsylvannia and the final leg period to Appomattox.
Hancock...of all the above named..knew the enemey's command and potential.
Hancock knew to be with his officers..and then to be near the men...and as Phil marks in his post...the Flag of His corp allways near him..and near the line.
The highest notation I can see that all these greats had..was Faithfullness to the task at hand.
Sherman..how many times did Washington lose track of him and his Army on the Atlanta march.
Sherman would show up..then disappear..correspondence was late.
Yet Sherman thoroughly completed his task to the letter.
Grant....given the impossible jobs..and then told to get the enemy out.
Chamberlin..His Maine boys continually in the thick of many fights..like the Irish Brigade...command could guage the days fight by how it went with these regiments.
Like the famous leaders of the South..these Federals carried an aura about them were ever they went.
The Joshua's and King Davids of their time.
Now we have the pygmy Bolshevik Howard Weenie blathering about the Confederate flag--
How sweet to hear Zel Miller declare, "Dean knows about as much about the South as a pig knows about Sunday."
Character always comes to the fore.
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