About this item
Jonathan Letterman was an outpost medical officer serving in Indian country in the years before the Civil War, responsible for the care of just hundreds of men. But when he was appointed the chief medical officer for the Army of the Potomac, he revolutionized combat medicine over the course of four major battlesAntietam, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, and Gettysburgthat produced unprecedented numbers of casualties. He made battlefield survival possible by creating the first organized ambulance corps and a more effective field hospital system. He imposed medical professionalism on a chaotic battlefield. Where before 20 percent of the men were unfit to fight because of disease, squalid conditions, and poor nutrition, he improved health and combat readiness by pioneering hygiene and diet standards.
About the Author
New York Times bestselling author Scott McGaugh is the founding (2004) marketing director of the USS Midway Museum in San Diego. He has played a key role in making the Midway the most-visited historic naval ship museum in America. His Civil War biography, Surgeon in Blue, was a New York Times bestseller. His latest book, Honor Before Glory, is a riveting rescue mission by Japanese American soldiers in rugged French mountains in World War II. Remarkably, they were volunteers from internment camps and Hawaii. Scott is a master storyteller, profiling American heroes in the finest American Spirit.
