Franklin Tennessee - November 30, 1864

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Battle of Franklin Scientist Page Environmental Conditions The monthly average temperature and precipitation for Nashville, Tennessee during November is 50 degrees and 4.1 inches. The annual total precipitation in rain and snow is 44.38 inches and 9.4 inches.   Topography  North- blue South- red   Weapons/Medical (medical conditions, equipment, and supplies) During the Civil War, there have been more deaths resulting from diseases such as typhoid, dysentery, and pneumonia than Minie ball, shell fragment, and bayonet wounds. The reason for this was that the doctors (who were called surgeons) did not know why wounds became infected or what caused diseases. At the time, sanitation was an elementary science. Antibiotics such as penicillin were unknown. Sterilized surgical dressing was not thought of or considered. A quick rinse in a barrel of water was all a surgeon did to clean his metal instruments. And if the water looked clean and smelled clean, the surgeons thought it was perfectly safe to reuse. Between operations, all a surgeon used to clean his hands with was a rag soaked in chloroform. Surgeons thought that the pus that formed in a wound was a sign of healing. This is incorrect because pus is actually a sign of massive bacterial infection. Nurses were soldiers or male civilian volunteers. Stretcher-bearers were musicians or rooks. From the battlefield, wounded soldiers were transported by horse-drawn, two-wheeled carriages, which served as ambulances. It was a very bumpy ride between the battlefield and the medical area, so many soldiers died before even reaching a surgeon.   The typical "operating room" was in open air, where surgeons received enough sunlight to see. Farmhouses, barns, and under trees were some other operating rooms, where a surgeon's assistant held a lamp. Kitchen and dining room tables, unhinged doors laid on sawhorses, and some boards set on barrels were used as operating tables.   Surgeons' instruments were not sterilized. A quick dip in a barrel of water was all that cleaned the tools. The instruments were made of the finest metals. The Confederates' instruments, however, were not as fine as the Unions'. Some tools that were used were bone saws, amputation knives, scalpels, clamps, tourniquets, sewing needles, sutures, bullet probes, extractors, lancets, mallets, rachitomes, bone crimpers, and forceps. Aside from these instruments, surgeons used herbal medicines, bandages, splints, narcotics, and dietary supplements. If a soldier's injury was bad enough, the affected body part needed amputation to prevent infection to the rest of the body. Anesthetics, such as chloroform, ether, whiskey, and morphine, were given to the patient. If the anesthetics ran out of supply, patients were given a wooden stick to bite on during the 15-minute process. The surgeon used a tourniquet to cut off the blood flow. Outlying tissue and flesh were sliced through with a scalpel. A hacksaw was used to saw through and cut away the bone. The major arteries were sewn together with sutures (silk sutures in the North and cotton sutures in the South). The limb was then dropped into a pile of other amputated body parts, which was discarded at the end of the day. After being fixed up by the surgeons, patients were sent to the general hospital in the city on train cars. Each car carried 33 passengers. Private homes and barns were turned into hospitals when the general hospitals filled up.

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