Keefer Station Covered Bridge

Transcription

please welcome professor michael chesson to tell the experiences of doctor franklin dyer a civil war surgeon mr chesson is a founding professor and dean of the newly established american college of history legal studies located here in salem dr chesson has a degree in history from william and mary college and a phd in american history from john hopkins university dr chesson has received many honors in has long academic career besides writing books and memberships in fifteen historical societies i don't know how he does it all please welcome doctor and remember after the meeting to sign up for the tour next month we already plugged that's so we don't have to do it again so with that i give you our speaker thank you and actually my doctorate is from that little school in cambridge i did a year johns hopkins but i had to leave and I appreciate jonathan worth inviting me and i can't think of a more appropriate day than flag day to talk about doctor j_ franklin dyer the flag and that document the jonathan was paraphrasing from are what frank dyer was fighting for in new england history takes you by surprise and perhaps that's happened to some of you doing a research project your family genealogy some local history what have you years ago a student at u mass boston where i taught for thirty-two years approached me after class one day and he said would you like to look at some civil war papers by one of my ancestors and i said of course little knowing the treasure that was coming because i assumed that he would bring me a copy of the new york times from eighteen sixty one or perhaps some confederate currency or what i was really hoping to see was his ancestors compiled service record and in a few days the student brought me a thick volume bound in green leather and it was the surgeon uh... the the surgeons journal doctor j franklin dyer of the nineteenth regiment of massachusetts volunteer infantry written entirely in ink in his own hand beautiful script uh... and it contained the excerpts from wartime letters that he had written to his wife in gloucester massachusetts and i was impressed by the entries knowing a little bit about the civil war in the east and the army of the potomac and his service in the army from july of eighteen sixty one until august of eighteen sixty four when he was mustered out during the siege of petersburg and returned home my student said that his aunt had copies of family letters scrapbooks along with a variety of items relating to doctor dyer including his surgeons sword his green sash two medical kits that he carried on the field of battle uniform buttons and some other items and she controlled the manuscript and would decide who should edit it well some say this conflict is the war that never ended but i found out very quickly why i did not go into sales because when i made a cold call to missus wittmer i found her to be a proper new england lady but just a little bit on the frosty side she found my academic credentials acceptable the harvard degree helped but she had one big reservation i'm a white virginian a native southerner she did not believe that i could edit her ancestors journal fairly and objectively and i assured her that i respect physical courage and integrity regardless of the uniform and we reached an agreement as she loaned me several scrapbooks filled with family letters and i started the editorial process the letters which she loaned me were those that frank dyer wrote from just before gettysburg starting in june of eighteen sixty three through august of eighteen sixty four then is discharged from the army general franklin dyer was born april fifteenth eighteen twenty six in eastport maine he was the fourth of seven children of charles dyer who was a maine native and hannah snow of nova scotia his roots go back to the founding of new england he had military ancestors on both sides of his family captain jonah dyer his grandfather fought in the revolution was captured by the british and after his release settled in maine a more distant ancestors the quaker murray dyer was hanged as know on the boston common in sixteen sixty his maternal line descended from nicholas snow a passenger on the mayflower to plymouth plantation in sixteen twenty three he married constance hopkins the daughter of stephen hopkins he served under captain miles standish nicholas and constance had twelve children their descendants served in various wars against the indians and also the seven years war or french and indian war jonahs father charles dyer died in eighteen forty four when jonah was still fourteen charles henry dyer his oldest brother was starting a career that would eventually make him a prosperous merchant in eastport but at the time of their father's death he was still and apprentice he assumed the paternal roll as the oldest son he advised frank who by eighteen forty six preferred his middle name to jonah and he cared for their mother and their youngest siblings george and atealy william snow dyer had moved a few miles away to run a general store in one of the surviving letters he worried that charles appears to have the charge of all the family and it is a heavy burden he also joshed his the younger brother frank about being a pharmacist he'd recently apprenticed himself to a druggist he said rolling out pills i think you would queer doctor franklin dyer who would believe it in a letter written before the battle of the wilderness doctored dyer regretted that he had not yet been able to buy a pony for their son frankie he said I mean that he should have one sometime for i know how i wanted such things and couldn't have then and for that reason i want him to that's a doting father not a reflection of his own youth dozens of the family letters in the scrapbook showed me that franks childhood was of a middle status neither rich nor poor his mother took occasional trips back to new brunswick to visit relatives she hired a servant girl to help around the house when she could find someone suitable and the boys got a good education george was learning latin in the eighteen forties and when frank finally decided to go to medical school william arranged to have his old texts sent to him more important for a man who would see three years of war franks family was a warm and loving the bond between the brothers was particularly strong they wrote regularly to each other they loaned each other money even when hard-pressed themselves frank benefited from his family's generosity but he was not the only one to do so william wanted to use young george in his store but thought better that george stay in school when his father died frank was already the editor of a small eastport weekly the sentinel in less than two years he was a was forced to abandon journalism for health reasons unspecified frank uh... wrote him did you did you give this or or or rather uh... william wrote him in eighteen forty six he said did you give up the newspaper business because of uh... because of smoking is is that why you quit the cigars frank didn't respond at least not directly charles warned frank about moving to new york city and going into what he called the rather uncertain business of daguerreotype and frank also thought of going to wisconsin with brother william who was who was going out west and william did go to milwaukee in eighteen forty seven he wrote back boasting of the opportunities in milwaukee compared with those in new england and when he returned to new england he found that he couldn't borrow the money that he needed to set up business for himself and compete with established firms in milwaukee and he soon went west with other forty niners frank meanwhile had decided to become an apothecary he apprenticed himself for three years to a druggist in south berwick maine his mother and the family physician thought it was the best of several options for his health he began working doctor charles t trafton and he studied medicine with him from august eighteen forty six until february eighteen forty eight while working in the pharmacy a friend wrote him since you concluded to go into the apothecary business that three years was too long to devote to the study of pharmacy this pal and a doctor parsons who they both knew told him that only a few months reading of medical books and a few months more of rudimentary practice sort of on-the-job training presumably some of the patients would recover and some might not but that was all you needed to set yourself up as a as a pharmacist fortunately for his army comrades and other patients frank was intent on more advanced studies he visited in eighteen forty seven with his employer augustus trafton the son of his boss who was graduating from the medical school of maine in brunswick co-located with bowdoin college and staffed by bowdoin faculty lacking money to pay for political lectures frank decided he wanted to go to medical school too his family sought loans his mother started calling in iou's and asking for favors and trying to mass the funds to pay for her sons medical school he began at brunswick in february of nineteen forty eight the same month that joshua lawrence chamberlain enrolled as a bowdoin freshmen a friend want to congratulate him you're now then fairly committed as a disciple of Asclepius and have taken a seat in the consecrated halls of bowdoin well go it and see that you go it thoroughly be not a superficial pretender pause not till thoroughly informed on every branch of your anticipated profession thats how they wrote back then and of course they wrote a lot documentation for future historians uh... good luck uh... documenting what we're doing today with twitter and uh... of social media and a lot of other conversations that aren't going to survive frank's money troubles continued before the start of his last term in february eighteen forty nine he asked to attend the medical election on credit the professors told him that wasn't possible only in extreme cases would that be allowed uh... one teacher told him to borrow the funds for the necessary lecture tickets another suggested he pay half the fee in advance if he couldn't come up with the entire amount somehow frank uh... got the money he finished his coursework in eighteen forty nine he concluded his thesis on acute hydrocephalus and was approved for the MD young doctor dyer moved to boston and continued his studies with an older physician that summer while waiting for his degree to be formally conferred older brother charles writing i feel very much pleased to think that you have succeeded in getting a situation and hope that you may do well franks diploma came in september but he found it hard to establish himself in the hub with its large medical fraternity he decided to relocate to annisquam a village in gloucester on the cape peninsula which may have lacked a resident physician but in any event he found it easier to establish himself there and build a practice that would support him he practiced medicine in annisquam and gloucester center the remainder of his life frank had a healthy interest in young women talk of them filed the letters between the brothers and other male friends charles told him be a good boy and keep straight william warned about young women especially factory girls meaning the mill workers near the pharmacy in south berwick a boston druggist who was a partner with doctor trafton frank's boss uh... wrote that women were a failing of young men a friend in eastport told of the sudden death of a wife commenting strange isn't it how many young married women die and brother charles wrote that william had had to testify in a trial of a man accused of murdering his wife william had sold him the poison then he told of two young men they both knew one asked the other how did you meet your wife and his friend responded i got acquainted with her permiscuously and that's how he spelled it p e r after charles married in september eighteen forty seven he found that it agreed with him and me played matchmaker with frank the next year he told frank the correspondence you're carrying on with a particular local woman i think you and she or doing a great business but watch out that you do not get smashed with your pretty face friends wrote of women who wanted to meet him frank replied god keep me from all such things less two years after moving to annisquam frank had a practice that would support a wife on may fourth eighteen fifty three he married maria haskell french but whether it was in boston or back in eatport as suggested on ancestry dot com is uncertain like frank she was twenty seven and had only a month to live she died in annisquam on june sixth frank dyer had good relations with her parents even after he remarried following the customary period of mourning his second wife was mariah davis of hancock new hampshire two years younger than frank when they married september seven eighteen fifty four most of his wartime letters were addressed to this second mariah whose name the family pronounced with a long i frank dyer served from july eighteen sixty one till August twenty-eight eighteen sixty four he mustered into federal service on august third at thirty five he was one of the oldest officers in the nineteenth massachusetts he rose to become the third brigades surgeon the surgeon in chief of the second division and the acting medical director of the entire second corps army of the potomac he served on the staff of generals oliver o howard john gibbon and winfield scott hancock dyer developed a healthy respect for confederate infantry and a corresponding scorn for union cavalry he felt about the calvary sort of the way that infantry today feel about aviators dyer thought lee a dangerous opponent and he considered stonewall jackson a god-fearing man and his death a severe loss to the south here's how this yankee described the secession crisis not long after he came home from the war obedient to the will of their political leaders the south raised the standard of rebellion the people of the north rose to overcome it whatever errors may have been committed in the beginning and failing to appreciate the magnitude of the undertaking they were alike shared by all both north and south i consider this a just and righteous war on our part and i should not be doing my duty if i did not take part in it in july eighteen sixty one before bull run he offered his services to doctor william j_ dale surgeon general of the commonwealth of massachusetts and after a medical exam they gave him a test they gave him some questions they asked him about various operations he was accepted and appointed the acting surgeon of the nineteenth massachusetts regiment well frank survived ball's bluff that fall he's steamed down the chesapeake bay the following spring for mcclellan's peninsula campaign he described the virginians white and black physical surroundings various bottles as mcclellan's army moved slowly up of the peninsula toward richmond he withstood army brass and his medical superiors insisting that mcclellan's troops were suffering from scurvy their teeth were falling out and lack of fresh vegetables and they were showing other classic symptoms of scurvy everyone was saying you're wrong you're wrong keep quiet he would not keep quiet and finally medical inspectors were sent down from washington to shut him up and they concluded the men are suffering from scurvy this diagnosis was a brave act and it was praised by the compilers of the medical and surgical history of the war of the rebellion when they put that uh... collection of volumes together in the eighteen eighties uh... it's on the reading list that I distributed the MSH has details about many of his most difficult operations like most army surgeons of this war frank did not include the gore in his letters home to his dear wife you'd have to do read the medical and surgical history the twenty-six case reports that are cited by the compilers of this mammoth reference to learn that dyer had medical ability and knowledge well above the average his case reports are cited on wounds and injuries of the spine abdomen and hip joint lower and upper extremities rectum and testes he described amputations of the shoulder arm elbow and thigh and he wrote long reports on scurvy typhoid continued fevers and chronic rheumatism leaving the peninsula he was at second bull run in august eighteen sixty two and as john pope recruited dyer experienced friendly-fire i'll never know why they call it that because it can kill you just as dead a gun went off accidentally on the night march the cavalry panicked thinking they were being attack and they started galloping about chaotically and infantry started firing in every direction and doctor dyer mounted on horseback and his assistant surgeon also on a horse uh... the assistant surgeon was hit in the leg and doctor dyer could not find an ambulance for him so he sent the regimental chaplain the reverend ezra winslow while he tended his badly wounded colleague and of reverend winslow he remarked in his journal he did not see the chaplain again for three months he did not stop until he got to massachusetts frank dyer's scorn could be withering for those who showed what he called the white feather when the wounded doctor hill got to the lines around washington he was denied admission because of red tape and he died three days later of his wound a victim of paperwork and dyer warned him and he would miss him in the months ahead because this doctor from charlestown massachusetts was the only competent assistant he'd ever have his most starring language was about battles took possession near antietam creek monday night remained there all of tuesday the thirteenth and fourteenth of september eighteen sixty two the rebels through shot and shell at us from their position on the other side of the creek went up on a hill on our front and had a good view of their lines though not a safe position by any means next morning ordered to be ready at daylight without knapsacks and with eighty rounds cartridges our corps marched in three columns our regiment leading one column doctor willard and myself with our attendants went into the fight with our regiment as did most of the surgeons in our corps we forded the antietam advanced nearly a mile in the same direction through plowed ground corn fields and woods then faced to the front forming a line of battle in advance of the same kind of ground nearly a mile toward the rebel lines all this distance we were under the fire of rebel batteries a shell would plow through the ranks a break would be seen and as the line passed on one or more men would be seen lying on the ground the battle was actually fought on friday september seventeenth getting here we passed many wounded who have been lying there since the night before both rebels and our own while occupied in dressing wounds in the rear of the regiment just on the edge of the woods fire became pretty hot kirby's battery was ahead of us a little to the left about seventy yards distant rebels came up in heavy masses to take it pouring in in a regular but terrific fire the battery was well working through showers of canister regiment and support got up and fled past us through the woods the battery maintained its position however and drove off the assailants after which anticipating a more vigorous attack it moved to the rear when the fire slackened we were obliged to move our lines having fallen back our regiment to the right and rear and our whole corps having been considerably shattered at night the enemy held possession of a small part of the field but we held most of it next day little was done except to remove the wounded and the night following the rebels left I went over the battlefield on friday and even though all the wounded had not been removed many of them having been within the rebel lines the fight had raged over a space about three miles in length by two in width and in places where our own where the rebel line was formed a perfect row of dead was lined in one place behind a rail fence rebel dead were lying as closely as if their line had laid down for shelter i met the medical director of the corps who ordered me to go to the hoffman house and take charge the wounded were fast coming in and in an hour there were five hundred there i remained twenty four hours i got relieved to go and collect together some of the wounded of my own regiment there were in other place they were scattered in improvised hospitals all over the area colonel hincks with three other officers was at mister prize in valley mills found him severely wounded a ball having passed through the right forearm shattering the radius the radius is the arm to the front of your forearm the thicker or shorter of the bones in your arm passing through the abdomen it came out on the left of his spine surgeons who examined his wound consider his case quite hopeless very little had been attempted for his relief i cannot say how many thousand wounded are in this vicinity but every house and barn for miles is filled with them all the churches and school houses in sharpsburg are used as hospitals also those in keedysville and boonesboro the bloodiest day in american history the wounded are being removed from hospitals near the field as the odor is horrible hundreds of horses were killed they were generally burnt citizens have been flocking in by hundreds not to render assistance but to go over the battlefield and pick up mementos such as broken muskets etcetera and some to steal what they can find but there is nothing about the poor ragged rebels to covet many good-hearted men have come from a neighboring towns brought supplies and taken wounded to hospitals in frederick city and hagerstown surgeons have come from baltimore and other places but i'm sorry they do not care to stop and do the work frank often complained civilian surgeons would not do routine operations returning to virginia he watched the crossing the rappahannock in fredericksburg by burnsides army in december eighteen sixty two amphibious crossing led by the nineteenth massachusetts this hospital was at the lacy house vividly described by walt whitman civilian nurse from the north side of the river equipment first approached the lacy house you knew it was a hospital because outside the windows there were enormous piles of arms and legs after the defeat at fredericksburg and burnside's removal as the commanding general dyer had breakfast with joe hooker the morning of chancellorsville and the journal is filled with these kinds of details the first of his surviving letters to his wife was written in june eighteen sixty-three at the start of the gettysburg campaign and then this one one thursday near gettysburg pennsylvania july second midnight you have heard of the battle ere this reaches you it is over now now and thousands lay dead in the hospitals under the trees and about the barnes the fight was terrible we marched from our camp of last night about four miles to the front and took this morning the second day of gettysburg skirmishing and artillery firing occupied nearly all day until we found their position and the fight began at about four o'clock in earnest from that time till after eight the roar of battle was terrific they came down on our left with a large force and at first overpowered us we threw in more troops and they brought more column after column formed into the gap which they tried to force but they were baffled the gap of course had been created by that idiot dan sickles about dark sedgwick came up they were forced back several times my heart almost failed me as our men were forced back but when i sat uncle john sedgwick's flag advancing I knew we should check them or the sixth corps would not survive john sedgwick the union journal his men called him uncle john because they loved him he wasn't a very good general but he did have the loyalty and love of his troops and union corps had corps insignia and the insignia of the sixth corps army the potomac was a greek cross and when dyer in desperation is looking around for reinforcements to save his hospital and his patients and his part of the army what he sees coming across the field toward him is a large flag with the cross on it he knew he was going to be saved because the six corps had a good reputation we were nearly driven out of our hospital but held out and afterward were relieved by their being driven back i was so busy i could not indulge curiosity to watch more than i saw before me but i never saw or heard such fighting hour after hour the volleys poured incessantly i have about five or six hundred in hospital i had no knowledge of the number killed and wounded it is to be reckoned by the thousands in fact it added up the tens of thousands i've sat down in the kitchen of the little house where we are to write the family have fled and well they might all took their children and fled leaving their homes perhaps not to find them again as the rebels burnt several houses the fight will probably be renewed in the morning i hope we she'll be able to hold our position if nothing more but it is one o'clock I must get a little sleep and be up at daylight goodnight god help us and give us the victory our army has fought with desperation and will fight tomorrow we have done the best we could if we fail it is because we have not men enough or god it's not on our side next letter field hospital near gettysburg july fourth dear m about one o'clock the enemy fired its artillery one hundred pieces as we heard afterward and ours replied along the whole line there was a perfect roar we have probably more guns then they and the fire was so incessant that it blended together in one roar for at least four hours it continued without cessation batteries fired till all the men were disabled and infantry detailed to take their places guns and caissons were knocked to pieces wheels were replaced and knocked to pieces again guns fired til they were heated and taken off to cool and new batteries put into place horsed killed by the hundreds it seemed as impossible for one to escape as it would to escape a drop of rain in a shower generals hancock and gibbon wounded some generals killed zook of third division colonel cross who had just been promoted new hampshire and some officers and men by thousands then line after line of the enemy infantry came up in front of our division they broke through it at point where the second brigade were posted i rolled third brigade wheeled around and poured such a fire into them that today i saw the ground fairly covered with their dead here twenty one rebel colors were taken our regiment took four i saw a lots of them they were finally reposts from every point and hundreds of prisoners some say thousands remained in our hands with all their wounded we are victorious for three days they have attempted to force our lives and were three times repulsed the last assault pickett's charge was a desperate one never in the history war was known such a fiercely contested flight and such slaughter the second corps has lost probably three thousand in killed and wounded the nineteenth massachusetts at least sixty the nineteenth maine his brother george's regiment two hundred and twelve they did bravely colonel revere of the twentieth massachusetts is dead we have lost heavily the rebel army is in danger of destruction leaving behind surgeons to care for the wounded frank dyer rode south of meade's army and its pursuit of lee the rejoiced in the victory over A P Hill at bristoe station and he suffered the cold at run then got a furlough home to see his wife and son and family in hancock new hampshire he returned to camp just as grant began the overland campaign as soon as the snow melted the spring of sixty four frank rarely boasted he has all the usual yankee virtues and as far as i can tell none of the vices with frank dyer what you see is what you get so he rarely boasted but during the overland campaign he he said hancock and i run this machine by which he meant the second corps he is now the medical director of that legendary organization at spotsylvania's bloody end he saw hundreds of rebel prisoners taken including two generals and winfield scott hancock was cursing at the top of his lungs as only hancock could curse and demanding a pencil so he could write his after-action report and dyer handed him a stub and mariah wrote him did you get the pencil back as a souvenir frank growls in his response nobody ever gets anything back that they loan to hancock of the man now directing the war dyer wrote there's nothing very remarkable in general grants appearance he is a common size man looks tough and healthy but you would not pick him out of a crowd of officers as a remarkable man but then our magnificent men are not always the best soldiers grant rides a fine bay horse with a handsome embroidered saddle cloth and was well dressed gossip about his extreme simplicity is nonsense he dresses as becomes his position no more no less after cold harbor grant's stolen of march on lee dyer rejoiced that marsh robert had been outflanked as the army the potomac crossed the james river on the longest pontoon bridge ever erected in war time they put it up and took it down after their army crossed in four days but grant's subordinates including ben butler who buyer detested failed him petersburg was saved grant settled in for a siege dyer saw the crater explosion and witnessed a number of other fights the doctor's opinion of black soldiers evolved responding to mariah's home front news about draft resistance in the north he wrote her a few weeks after gettysburg those who cried out with horror when negro soldiers were talked of now cry out why don't you send the negroes to fight very well i would rather have a good hardy negro then twenty copperheads who lack courage to fight for their country or openly against it i have some respect for a good soldier if he is a rebel who's willing to fight for what he calls his rights but none for a sneaking traitor who dares do neither one thing or the other at petersburg he reported i find the colored troops are getting into favor among all they appear to be very soldierly looking and feel that they are quite elevated by being made soldiers i saw some fine looking colored soldiers bring in a miserable wretch of a rebel on a stretcher and i thought at the time they where the better men they could easily have saved themselves by putting a bayonet through it but they had brought a good many in franks opinion of women in army hospitals never changed the clearest sign of his innate conservatism and his adherence to military tradition assuming this Gettysburg comment most of the women quarreled with each other each whispering very quietly they didn't want to associate with some others on account of their reputation being not good it is singular that each one was the only truly pious and virtuous one in the whole lot the men wounded in the head wanted one to wash and fix him up a little as the blood had dried on his face of course the surgeons cannot go about washington mens faces and if these women can do anything that is what they can do my dear friend said she i will read you a chapter from the bible and that will do just as well rather doubtful these outsiders may have good intentions but they don't know how to do anything i've heard that one has been threatening to come here but i will not have her about very severe on the ladies i suppose but i've had enough of them about field hospitals i see that miss clara barton who was at the lacy house last december is now at morris island south carolina i hope she will stay there or not come here she plagued me so that i had to get her out of the cookhouse and put one of my own man in charge he grudgingly acknowledged the contributions of other civilians at petersburg he wrote there is no sanitary or christian commission that ever did or ever could do what many suppose in our field hospitals they have large numbers and full supplies at city point they do a great deal toward feeding and clothing the wounded but it a mistake to suppose that they go to the battlefield bring off wounded or do anything but the most insignificant share of work they do a great deal afterward though during his last week in the army he was almost captured and escaped death twice on the weldon railroaded reams station the first and second divisions of the second corps and gregg's cavalry division a total of nine thousand men we're tearing up lee's railway to wilmington north carolina the last blockade running port still open to the confederacy and they were overwhelmed by a confederate attack august twenty fifth eighteen sixty four the rebels first attacked us on the right then left and being repulsed both times brought a large force and attack us on all sides with great impetuosity this last charge was very obstinate and enemies fired from one side of our position reaching across to the other a part of our line had fire in both front and rear our lines finally gave way the nineteenth massachusetts and most of the twentieth were taken finding the lines broken and the enemy coming over our works i got the ambulance train started ahead and soon followed with several of the medical officers there being but one road to passover and the rebels having directed their fire toward that quarter it became quite dangerous to pass that way but the hope of coming home in two or three days on the one hand and the prospect of quarters in libby prison on the other being dually weighed i concluded to run the gauntlet the shot and shell from our captured batteries following us pretty fast and the last one a round shot solid iron ball throwing the dirt in our faces as we rode along congratulating ourselves on being out of range at dark we're on the road and before morning back in their own camp on the plank road i stopped with general gibbon along the road and one contributing a rubber coat and the other a cape we slept under a tree two or three hours next day picked up by stragglers established our hospital and took care of our wounded and began to reckon up our losses and gains the latter very small the former rather large the next day frank tied up loose ends for his successor got his mustering out papers and after a ceremony and banquet in his honor dyer left second corps headquarters writing on august twenty seventh from city point where he was about to get on a steamer and come back to massachusetts city point was a giant supply depot and it was grants headquarters we wrote my troubles were not yet over wishing to see my brother george who was in the eighteenth corps i follow the road up toward the city but few men have arrived to take the places of those that had left and the lines in some parts were unoccupied except by pickets there was silence all along the line the roads and fields through which we passed were quiet and unoccupied and the pleasant morning sun shown down on a scene of perfect rest while urging my horse to jump a gulley in the road zip came a bullet just before my eyes and in the second another at my orderly others followed in quick succession but generally too high finding ourselves unnecessarily exposed lots of yankee understatement in this journal we dismounted and found we were very near the enemy's lines with some of our men who were near concealed in gopher holes who had escaped our observation replied to the enemies fire while we walked across the field leading our horses sharp fire all along the line with artillery accompaniment was the consequence of our reconnaissance sergeant mehan his orderly remarked that we had raised the devil along the whole line guess the johnny's thought it was general grant i concluded that as i was out of the service i would mind my own affairs and go home well i still had a head on my shoulders in the military the first thing that they teach you is don't volunteer and the second thing is don't be a tourist don't go anywhere you don't have to go and trying to find his brother whom he loved he almost got himself killed frank got a joyous welcome from family and friends in gloucester but he returned to virginia in december to care for his badly wounded brother-in-law lieutenant kiefer james davis of the seventh new hampshire recruited in manchester served through the end of eighteen sixty five finding his medical practice gone he sought political appointments to support himself until we could attract new patients he discovered like many veterans that civilian memories fail once a war is over he was disappointed in his efforts to find a position despite glowing letters of recommendation for massachusetts governor john andrew major general alexander webb and other prominent men frank dyer finally managed to win the lucrative post of gloucester postmaster that appointment required that he support the policies of the new president andrew johnson and the ben butler wing of the state republican party and that he contribute to both which dyer refused to do he lost the job before he could fill it even though the news of his appointment had been announced in gloucester and boston newspapers finally he found a temporary job as acting surgeon at the local fort in cape anne dyer resumed his life with mariah and frankie a second son edward james was born in eighteen sixty nine but frankie died of consumption on july eighteen seventy five a month short of his nineteenth birthday before he could start his sophomore year at bowdoin frank held positions of increasing responsibility and beat his democratic opponent for a term in the legislature in eighteen sixty nine he really enjoyed that beating a democrat his greatest honor was being elected the third mayor of the newly incorporated city of gloucester in eighteen seventy eight though his official oil portrait later disappeared while i was working on the journal a volunteer on the city's archives committee made herself notorious with the custodians and the staff at the city hall and eventually unlocking many little cubby holes and closets she found the official portrait of mayor dyer under a tarp hidden in a broom closet there's a story there but we'll probably never know what it was his health not good as an adolescent had been ruined by three years of service especially the last winter of eighteen sixty three sixty four after a bout of pneumonia june eighteen seventy eight he developed active symptoms of tuberculosis frank dyer died at his annisquam home on february ninth eighteen seventy nine two months short of his was fifty third birthday when the nineteenth massachusetts regimental history finally appeared in nineteen o six more than forty years after he left the service the survivors of the regiment still remembered their surgeon his comrades called him one of the most skillful physicians in the army a man of gentle temperament but thorough in every detail of his position a quarter-century after his death the regiments rear-guard nearing their own end called him a great surgeon mariah raised ned with the aid of frank's brothers and her pension as a veterans widow when women won the vote mariah like frank a fervent republican was one of the first to register at the annisquam village hall active throughout her life in women's clubs she was the city's expert on rare flowers frank's early death and her extended widowhood were part of the cost of the preservation of the union a price paid by mariah and countless other women and like queen victoria after prince albert's death she never remarried perhaps she felt that no man could take the place of her major mariah died in june nineteen twenty five of a cerebral hemorrhage brought on by bronchitis gloucester daily times announced on its front page that the city's oldest resident was gone edward dyer followed his mother in nineteen twenty eight after years in the state hospital suffering from epilectic psychosis he was buried in oak grove cemetery with his parents and brother frank the inscription in the simple obelisk has only the dates and places of doctor dyer's birth and death there's no mention of his political roles in gloucester his generation of service as a physician or what he did in the war for the union perhaps frank dyer would have wanted it that way a maine man a massachusetts surgeon who'd only done what duty required Thank you yes sir you mentioned in several places where the doctors field hospital was about to be overrun by the opposition what was the usual outcome of that i mean this is clearly before the geneva convention of course this era was before the geneva convention but by of the summer of eighteen sixty two both sides had adopted a kind of protocol where they would not hold as p_o_w_s the other side's surgeons so if a hospital was overrun they might take your prisoners enlisted and officers i mean your patients enlisted and officers but they wouldn't take the doctors they wouldn't take the the surgeons they they would simply be left there or or returned to their side sent through the lines to to the army whose position had been overrun some of the officers not just medical officers but the line officers in mcclellan's army were accused of deliberately allowing themselves to be captured and then quickly exchanged knowing that they would not have to fight again until their opposite member a colonel or a major or lieutenant on the other side was exchanged and this would extend the time when you weren't being shot at dyer had scorn for them as well but uh... he operated on confederate wounded as well as union he saved lives on both sides his medical reports are extensive the actual manuscripts had long statistical appendices which the publishers chose not to print because they're so hard to format but you can watch dozens then hundreds then thousands of men marching across page after page of course many of them died chances of being killed by uh... huh a microbe or an infection at least three times that of being killed by a bullet the rate of infection is just incredible diseases of some kind they had no knowledge of sanitation or sterilization or the germ theory and the surgeon that is performing these operations he saws off a leg he wipes it on his bloody apron and then saws off an arm and then repeats the process and it would take about three minutes to saw off a leg but anesthesia was widely available particularly on the union side almost nothing they had what they called uh... wholesome puss that wasn't the exact term they used but it was a sign that the infection was cleansing itself when this puss was exuted they would use maggots to eat the decaying flesh to try and clean the the decaying or dead flesh away that was a constant danger trying to amputate that limb before it set in and to amputate high enough so you're cutting off good flash and not flesh that was already infected with gangrene they did't give you liquor as an anesthetic because its a depressant not a stimulant and the last thing you want to give a man in that shape is a depressant and they wouldn't give them bullets to bite on there was too much danger they might swallow them they might give you a leather strap or a piece of rope something that can be pulled out if the man in his paroxysms in his spasms started trying to swallow it you go to the medical and surgical history which is about seventy five hundred pages they have lithographs they have detailed drawings of wounds to every part of a man's body showing the most horrible injuries that you can imagine and dyer's writing detailed case reports like many other surgeons north and south for a generation after the war the most skilled surgeon they said you would find in boston or chicago or atlanta were army surgeons who had served on one side of the other the founders of the american medical association many of them were civil war surgeons you know within a few years after the war's end we've got lister we've got sterilization and we begin to have some some new drugs some new discoveries some new inventions if some of those things had come just a few years sooner the casualty rate would have been much lower well mrs whitman and the family asked me to check out various archives in the area that they might donate them to because her mother had passed and she didn't want the responsibility for them and she wanted them to go to a a reputable archive and i investigated a number of places and the one that i thought was probably the best and the most appropriate was the peabody essex museum in salem so she and her husband took all the manuscripts uniforms the sword the medical kits there are pictures in the book of all of those things she took them to salem and they donated them and it wasn't too long thereafter that i guess they got a new director or a new board and they decided to downsize the archives and deemphasize research and build this big new museum and bring in tourists and lots of tourist dollars so the last time i was there you could visit the archives maybe two-and-a-half days a week very very abbreviated research hours if you're trying to write the next big book on the civil war you better be prepared to spend a long time in salem uh... because you're only going to be able to get in there about two-and-a-half days a week most of the archivists and the librarians were fired institutional decision you just don't know when those things are going to happen so i thank all of those manuscripts and the uniforms and the sword i'm sure they're locked up safe somewhere but uh... I don't know how you would get to see them you'd probably have to make an appointment they used laudanum they used ether they used uh... they had a variety of they had morphine sure for pain that produced addictions in some men and some men brought home social diseases to their wives and girlfriends the rate of sexual infidelity was just uh... extraordinary i mean nothing compared with the current congress but (laughter) yes sir just to give you a little info i belong to a civil war group and some of our people portray surgeons and I believe that one of the knives thats in their surgeons kit is about this long even though they had an assistant with them the tendency is for them to have two free hands to work so they put the knife so now you know how they transmitted a lot of things to their patients and they never knew it there's a collection of letters from a union color seargent from new york he came up to boston visit its called irish green and union blue published by fordham university press and while he was in boston he had a wee nip or two and spent all his money and didn't have enough fare to get back to new york city to rejoin his wife so he enlisted in the union army in massachusetts and her wrote all these letters to his wife during the war and during the overland campaign whether at the wilderness or spotsylvania the sergeant was wounded in the tip of his finger minor wound flesh wound i don't think it took any of the bone he was dead in six weeks infection his wife didn't understand why he fought didn't understand why he staid in the army didn't understand what it was all about but she saved the letters so now there's another account of the war that transformed our country shelby foote famously called it the crossroads of our being it changed everything for better or worse we are not what we would have been without that war i don't know how it would have turned out without the war counterfactual scenarios the best historian in the world couldn't prove that something would or would not have happened we we just don't know what would have happened but the war did happen and we are still studying the consequences and the significance and how it was fought how it was won why it was lost to me its a never-ending story well thank you again copies of the book are for sale