The science and grisly history of U.S. Civil War medicine, using actual medical cases and first-person accounts by soldiers, doctors, and nurses, is explored in this fascinating nonfiction book for young readers.
The Civil War took the lives of hundreds of thousands of Americans and left countless others with disabling wounds and chronic illnesses. Bullets and artillery shells shattered soldiers' bodies, while microbes and parasites killed twice as many men as did the battles. Yet from this tragic four-year conflict came innovations that enhanced medical care in the United States. With striking detail, this book by acclaimed writer Gail Jarrow reveals battlefield rescues, surgical techniques, medicines, and patient care, and celebrates the men and women of both the North and South who volunteered to save lives. The first title in the Medical Fiascoes series!Kirkus Reviews Best Book NCTE Orbis Pictus Recommended Book A Bank Street College of Education Best Book of the Year CCBC Choice Chicago Public Library Best Informational Book for Older Readers NSTA/CBC Outstanding Science Trade Book  Nominee, 2022 Garden State Teen Book Award
★  For those interested in the history of medicine or fascinated by the Civil War, Jarrow’s latest offering astutely combines both topics. Making outstanding use of period photographs, in-depth research, and firsthand accounts, this effort chronicles the inadequate, sometimes almost farcically deficient medical care delivered during the war. Highlighting primary topics in a series of brief chapters, it follows soldiers through the typical responses to being wounded (or falling ill), from frontline interventions through field hospitals, then, via torturous ambulance journeys, to immense pavilion hospitlC2
![Blood and Germs: The Civil War Battle Against Wounds and Disease [Hardcover]](/itemImage/2/3/9/3/2_4430996.jpg "Blood and Germs: The Civil War Battle Against Wounds and Disease [Hardcover]")