Field Medical Services at the Battles of Manassas (review)

BOOK REVIEWS87 systems, adequate sewerage and sewage disposal systems, and by adopting regulations and providing regulatory bodies which are adequate to cope with the problems. The most heartening aspect of the book L· the devotion of New York reformers, John Pintard and especially Dr. John H. Griscom. They did make headway against health problems more serious than anything we know about in our present pollution crises. Brooke Hindle New York University Field Medical Services at the Battles of Manassas. By Horace H. Cunningham . (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1968. Pp. xii, 116. $2.50.) This brief narrative is concerned with the medical services provided on the battlefield during the first two years of the Civil War. The focus is on the battles of Manassas, and the general theme is that the field health services reflected in microcosm the disorganization of the "improvised war" of 1861-62. Within this seeming chaos, however, Professor Cunningham has detected a growing emphasis on the coordination of the military ambulance services. The progress from chaos to more efficient methods of distributing medical services on the battlefield is the central concern of his narrative. There were no professional ambulance personnel to speak of at the beginning of the war. In the Union army, the task was usually assumed by members of the regimental band. The field hospitals which they established were inadequately supplied and poorly coordinated. If field medical care was in fact a variable in the balance of the battle, the rout of the Federals at First Manassas is clearly understandable. Yet Cunningham's description of the medical services in the Confederate ranks points out that they were no better. They had "no genuine ambulance service," and, in many cases, the wounded relied largely on self-care. In the months following First Manassas, the Union army made a conscious , if somewhat futile, effort to systematize the facilities and improve the personnel of its ambulance corps. The Confederate leaders also confronted the problem, but less intensively. When the two sides squared off again in August, 1862, there were few basic changes in evidence . Certain crucial modifications were being advanced, however, especially in the Union army, and these were enlarged upon in later battles. The "ordeal" at Manassas, then, is seen as the arena for the reform of field medical services. Civil War buffs should not be frightened away by the title of the book. Although his primary interest is with medical services, Cujiningham rarely strays far from the concerns of military history. Battle plans are clearly drawn, regiments are in line, and exposed flanks are swiftly OOCIVIL WAR HISTORY assaulted! The social historian interested in medicine and public health, on the other hand, may also find something of interest here. For the simple fact is that this is a narrative in medical history which is not a panegyric to famous doctors—the usual fare for that field. Instead, the author is concerned with the distribution of health services, an approach broad enough to include other forms of health care in addition to those administered by the conventional physician. J. Thomas May University of Oklahoma Medical Center The Pinkertons: The Detective Dynasty That Made History. By James D. Horan. (New York: Crown Publishers, 1967. Pp. xii, 564. $7.95.) Civil War History's Intelligence issue ( Dec, 1964 ) was a sufficiently imposing a production to justify the hope that it would take root in the literature. What has come if it? Of a positive kind, very little; we certainly do not see its contents cited on every hand. On the negative side, the results may be a little happier. For example, the late Allen W. Dulles, in his collection published under the title Great True Spy Stories, omitted Civil War stories with the explanation that Civil War History's revelations of their lack of authenticity had warned him away. Another example may be James D. Horan's The Pinkertons, whose 97page Civil War section omits the wildest of the stretchers from Allan Pinkerton's war memoirs—those memoirs that have been a rich quarry of Civil War intelligence myths for these many decades. That said, one looks about for other favorable things to note about Mr. Horan's...