Frontier Medicine at Fort Davis and Other Army Posts

True Stories of Unglamorous Maladies

Donna Gerstle Smith

• Publisher: The History Press
• Year: 2022
• ISBN:
  9781439676530
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: North American History
• Index: History

From a headless burial to cocaine toothache drops, the true stories hidden in the Wild West's medical records are a match for its tallest tales.

In the 19th century, when dying young was a fact of life, a routine bout of diarrhea could be fatal. No one had heard of viruses or bacteria, but they killed more soldiers on the frontier than hostile raiding parties. Physicians dispensed whiskey for TB, mercury for VD and arsenic for indigestion. Baseball injuries were considered to be in the line of duty and twice resulted in amputations at Fort Davis. Donna Gerstle Smith explains how an industrious laundress could earn more than a private, how a female army surgeon won the Medal of Honor and how a garrison illegally hung the local bartender.

Table of contents

• Front Cover
• Half Page
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• 1. Let the Dead People Talk
• 2. Step Back in Time
• 3. Barroom Brawl, Death, Hanging
• 4. Diphtheria: Strangling Angel of Death
• 5. No Pension for Her Own Work
• 6. Quanah Parker and Peyote: Indigenous Cactus Medicine
• 7. A Young Boy Loses His Father
• 8. Frontier Military Women Sometimes Took Matters into Their Own Hands
• 9. Two More Women Who Took Matters into Their Own Hands
• 10. Magic Lanterns and Photography
• 11. The Runs: Diarrhea but No Issue of the Tissue (TP)
• 12. In the Line of Duty: Baseball Injuries
• 13. Not in the Line of Duty: Man Bite
• 14. Who Will Pay for Deceased Frontier Army Doctor’s Casket?
• 15. Soldier Buried Headless
• 16. Texas Was a Good Place for Men, but Awfully Rough on Women and Oxen
• 17. Unfit for Military Service: Why Do We Call It 4-F?
• 18. Brandy, Whiskey and Opium to Treat Tuberculosis
• 19. How to Limit Family Size: Two Women’s Dilemmas
• 20. Water: Where Will Our Next Drink Be?
• 21. You Were Bitten by What?
• 22. Surgery and Anesthesia
• 23. Camp Followers Came in a Wide Variety of Characters
• 24. Trials of a Frontier Army Officer’s Wife
• 25. Where’s the Dentist?
• 26. Your TB Treatment Is Scheduled for Two O’Clock in the Inhalatorium
• 27. Death Hovered Close for Women in Childbirth and for Children
• 28. Sudden Deaths
• 29. Medical Whiskey and Other Elixirs, Nostrums and Cure-Alls
• 30. Take a Photo of Our Beloved Daughter—She’s Dead
• 31. Demon Whiskey
• 32. Children Died, Too—and There Were No Child-Proof Caps
• 33. Cocaine Toothache Drops and Other Remedies
• 34. Ice—for Fever, Weddings and Ice Cream
• 35. Scalps and Skulls
• 36. No Talking after Bedtime, 8½ P.M.: Army Hospital Rules
• 37. Female Army Surgeon Receives Medal of Honor
• 38. Dying Too Young
• 39. What Would You Name Your Horse?
• 40. What Did They Call PTSD?
• 41. Cemeteries: Fort Davis, Where Are Your Dead?
• 42. Scurvy: A Monstrous and Wicked Disease for Soldiers, Sailors and Pirates
• 43. Died of Softening of the Brain
• 44. Why Did the U.S. Army Deliberately Burn Down Its Hospitals?
• Glossary of Old Medical Terms Used in the Nineteenth Century
• Appendix: Excerpts from Fort Davis Military Death Records
• Bibliography
• About the Author