Horace Mann dissects the Civil War

Battlefield medicine during the Civil War led to a new era in emergency care, as an expert explained to a packed classroom of Horace Mann students during the school’s book day on April 9. But it still wasn’t pretty.

During a talk by George Wunderlich of the National Museum of Civil War Medicine, junior Raag Agrawal confidently volunteered to be in a demonstration about one of the most grisly practices of the day, amputation.

That’s when the attentive audience’s gasps and grimaces began.

“Let’s just say he’s come in and he’s taken a bullet through the wrist. The bones are shattered,” Mr. Wunderlich, the executive director of the Frederick, Maryland museum, said while Raag stood at his side. “How do I know the bones are shattered? What would I do today?”

“An x-ray,” answered one student.

“What is the x-ray machine of a Civil War surgeon?” the speaker continued.

“His eyes,” sophomore Henry Hunt suggested.

Mr. Wunderlich rejoined the student by holding up his index finger, indicating that Civil War-era surgeons poked inside wounded soldiers’ bodies to determine what was damaged and what intact.

A chorus of “ewws” filled the room.

The historian went on to explain more intricacies of amputation, dispelling some myths — like the idea that wounded soldiers would “bite the bullet” during surgery (in fact, they almost always received an anesthetic of chloroform or ether) — and describing the relevant anatomy in detail, enthralling the aspiring doctors and others in the room.

Mr. Wunderlich’s demonstration came down to three steps. Holding Raag’s extended right arm, the speaker showed how a small surgical knife called a catlin would make the initial cut. Then he brandished a broad, shining bone saw and described how many strokes it would take to remove the poor soul’s arm (about 10 for the ulna bone and seven for the radial). Lastly, Mr. Wunderlich detailed the tricky process of closing an artery with a hook-shaped tool called a tenaculum.

Throughout, a delighted smile flickered on Raag’s face.