Reviews
"One of the very few who had ever seen Grant tearful, Brinton left us an appraisal of his close friend that has lasting significance and appeal."-- John Y. Simon , from the Foreword, "[Brinton] recalled an Illinois surgeon who, being at a loss as to how to perform an amputation, asked for instructions. . .Later, on hearing from hospital stewards of a 'great surgeon' working in one of the rear field hospitals, Brinton found this same man busy at work. . . with amputated arms and legs littering the floor, a pool of blood beneath the operating table, and the room 'ghastly beyond all limits of surgical propriety."-John S. Haller, Jr.,from the Preface, "[Brinton] recalled an Illinois surgeon who, being at a loss as to how to perform an amputation, asked for instructions. . .Later, on hearing from hospital stewards of a 'great surgeon' working in one of the rear field hospitals, Brinton found this same man busy at work. . . with amputated arms and legs littering the floor, a pool of blood beneath the operating table, and the room 'ghastly beyond all limits of surgical propriety."- John S. Haller, Jr., from the Preface, "[Brinton] recalled an Illinois surgeon who, being at a loss as to how to perform an amputation, asked for instructions. . .Later, on hearing from hospital stewards of a #145;great surgeon' working in one of the rear field hospitals, Brinton found this same man busy at work. . . with amputated arms and legs littering the floor, a pool of blood beneath the operating table, and the room #145;ghastly beyond all limits of surgical propriety."-- John S. Haller, Jr., from the Preface, "One of the very few who had ever seen Grant tearful, Brinton left us an appraisal of his close friend that has lasting significance and appeal."--John Y. Simon, from the Foreword, "[Brinton] recalled an Illinois surgeon who, being at a loss as to how to perform an amputation, asked for instructions. . .Later, on hearing from hospital stewards of a ‘great surgeon' working in one of the rear field hospitals, Brinton found this same man busy at work. . . with amputated arms and legs littering the floor, a pool of blood beneath the operating table, and the room ‘ghastly beyond all limits of surgical propriety."— John S. Haller, Jr., from the Preface, "[Brinton] recalled an Illinois surgeon who, being at a loss as to how to perform an amputation, asked for instructions. . .Later, on hearing from hospital stewards of a ‘great surgeon' working in one of the rear field hospitals, Brinton found this same man busy at work. . . with amputated arms and legs littering the floor, a pool of blood beneath the operating table, and the room ‘ghastly beyond all limits of surgical propriety."--John S. Haller, Jr.,from the Preface, "One of the very few who had ever seen Grant tearful, Brinton left us an appraisal of his close friend that has lasting significance and appeal."- John Y. Simon , from the Foreword, Behind the Front Lines John Hill Brinton, of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, applied for a commission as a U.S. Army surgeon in September 1861. Although he desired to serve with his cousin General George McClellan, he was sent to Cairo, Illinois, where he met General Ulysses S. Grant before being assigned to establish a hospital at Mound City, Illinois. Brinton was then appointed as Medical Director of District of Southeast Missouri in time to join Grant''s campaign that culminated with the battles of Fort Donelson and Shiloh. He was then ordered back east to Washington, D.C., to serve in the office of the Surgeon General. Surgeon General William Hammond appointed him to the first curator of the Army Medical Museum, where he would collect pathological specimens of wartime trauma and diarrheal diseases along with their case histories, compile information for a medical history of the war, and establish a medical school, all of which to train military surgeons on the lessons learned during the war. He was sent to collect specimens in the aftermath of the battles of Antietam, Fredericksburg, Gettysburg, and the early stages of General Grant''s Overland Campaign that ended the war. After Hammond was court-martialed in 1864, Brinton was sent west, where he became the superintendent of the Nashville General Hospitals until he resigned his commission in March 1865. This is not the typical wartime career and, consequently, not the typical Civil War memoir. While the reviewer has an obvious interest since he is employed by the museum that was founded by Brinton, now the National Museum of Health and Medicine of the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology, what interest would a typical Civil War historian have in this account? The answer is that this is a well-written first-person account. Since his intended audience was his family in 1891, Brinton did not attempt to try to write a definitive account, but to write his impressions of what was happening. The result is an engaging anecdotal description of the life of a staff officer during the war, with all of its glory, intrigue, and irony. Brinton turns out to be a keen observer. "As I saw our troops in front of Fredericksburg, there was little shelter for them, except in their distance from the enemy''s guns, and our advance lines and pickets were flat on the ground, covered by such scanty protection as they could scrape together, yet exposed to the fire of the enemy from their well-constructed rifle pits, on higher ground. As a consequence of their supine position, some of our men received strange ranging wounds, with remote and singular points of entrance and exit" (pp. 219-220). Another example is the recounted description of responding to a challenge by a sentry (instantly recognizable to anyone who has served in the army or watched many war movies) with the password of the day: "All of this is simple enough on paper, but when the challenge was emphasized with the sharp click of the musket lock, there is a reality about it, which is unpleasantly startling. I can well remember how cautiously the ''Friend'' (that is myself) used to advance, dodging the bayonet and that confounded muzzle, which seemed to glitter so brightly, no matter how dark the night, and which seemed to be pointing in every direction at the same moment, and how carefully, how distinctly I would whisper ''Banks'' and then hear the sentry''s answer, ''Correct, pass on.'' Such was the formula every time I went to my hospital at night: Banks, Halt, Anderson, Grant, Concord, Wool, and the like were the favorite words" (p. 51). Brinton also had his share of intrigue. While he was serving in the western theatre, he was asked about General Grant''s drinking habits by an investigating officer who did not want to harm Grant''s career and who was relieved when Brinton reported that he saw no evidence of alcoholism. Another time he was sent by Secretary of War Edwin Stanton and Surgeon General Joseph, "One of the very few who had ever seen Grant tearful, Brinton left us an appraisal of his close friend that has lasting significance and appeal."-John Y. Simon, from the Foreword, "[Brinton] recalled an Illinois surgeon who, being at a loss as to how to perform an amputation, asked for instructions. . .Later, on hearing from hospital stewards of a 'great surgeon' working in one of the rear field hospitals, Brinton found this same man busy at work. . . with amputated arms and legs littering the floor, a pool of blood beneath the operating table, and the room 'ghastly beyond all limits of surgical propriety."-- John S. Haller, Jr., from the Preface, "One of the very few who had ever seen Grant tearful, Brinton left us an appraisal of his close friend that has lasting significance and appeal."— John Y. Simon , from the Foreword
