Medical Department: Who Shot J.L?
By Jim Schmidt
One of the turning points of the Battle of the
Wilderness, fought May 5-6, 1864, was the wounding of Confederate
Lt. Gen. James Longstreet by his own troops on the second day
of the battle. Drs. Robert Steckler and Jon Blachley, Medical
City Hospital, Dallas, Texas, reach new conclusions about the
incident in their recent article, "The Cervical Wound of General
James Longstreet."
On May 6, 1864, Longstreet utilized an unfinished
railroad bed to launch a surprise assault on the Union left
flank. The Southerners rolled up Union Maj. Gen. Winfield Hancock's
unwary troops "like a wet blanket."
As Longstreet trotted eastward with his staff
on the Plank Road in the wake of the splendid attack, shots
rang out from across the road. Longstreet reeled in his saddle,
the victim of an errant volley fired by his own troops. He re-membered
feeling "a severe shock from the Minie ball passing through
my throat and right shoulder...and my right arm dropped to my
side."
With a bloody discharge bubbling at his mouth
and throat, Longstreet whispered to Maj. Gen. Charles Field
to "assume command and press the enemy." Longstreet would survive
his wound, but the tragedy arrested the Rebels' momentum.
Drs. Steckler and Blachley researched firsthand
accounts of the wounding, the medical literature describing
the general's care, Longstreet biographies, and narratives of
the battle.
They agree that Longstreet was wounded by "friendly
fire," that he received appropriate care from the Army of Northern
Virginia's First Corps medical director, Dr. John Syng Dorsey
Cullen, but they reach new conclusions on the route of entry
of the bullet and the soldiers responsible for the accident.
Most historians (and Longstreet himself) have
been of the opinion that the entry wound was frontal. Indeed,
differentiating entry wounds from exit wounds is not always
straightforward (the authors point to the continuing argument
surrounding John Kennedy's assassination as an example).
Drs. Steckler and Blachley conclude that "given
the trajectory of the bullet, slightly upward from posterior
to anterior, it is more likely that the cervical wound was an
exit wound or Longstreet would have had to have been leaning
far forward in the saddle, which is unlikely."
The doctors explain that a rear entry wound would
account for the paralysis of Longstreet's right arm, his weak
voice (which persisted for the rest of his life), and the bloody
froth.
The posterior entry of the bullet points to a
regiment north of the Plank Road as likely responsible for Longstreet's
wounding, rather than south of the road as has generally been
reported.
Drs. Steckler and Blachley place Confederate Brig.
Gen. William Mahone's 12th Virginia north of the road, forced
there by one of many brush fires started by the fighting. The
12th, seeing mounted troops in dark uniforms, fired at the unidentified
forms. The remainder of the brigade south of the road returned
the fire, assuming it came from the enemy.
Dr. Steckler was kind enough to share with me
some additional insights regarding his interest in Civil War
era medicine Ü an interest prompted by the personal narratives
and detailed treatment records left by some of the war's physicians.
"General Longstreet's case was of particular interest
to me because I'm a practicing head and neck surgeon," he said.
"The exact course of the missile wounding General Longstreet
could be predicted accurately because of the anatomic structures
injured," and the result of the injuries.
The most challenging aspect of the study for Drs.
Steckler and Blachley was determining the location of the units
involved at the time of the wounding, and determining which
unit(s) most likely fired the shot based on their suspected
course of the bullet. Dr. Steckler said that history-related
studies are very well received by medical journals, and especially
at medical conferences: "They often serve as a change of pace,"
admitting that the routine scientific presentations become monotonous
after awhile.
The article includes a brief biography of Longstreet,
an account of his wounding and care, a meticulous medical description
of the wound, and a detailed bibliography. The paper is well-illustrated,
with photographs of Longstreet and Cullen, and excellent maps
by noted cartographer George Skoch. Most interesting are the
anatomical diagrams (in color!) and simulated magnetic resonance
imaging (MRI) scan showing the passage of the bullet through
Long-street's neck and shoulder.
The results of the investigation were originally
presented at the 1999 annual meeting of the American Head and
Neck Society. The paper was published in the March 2000 issue
of the journal "Archives of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery"
(Vol. 126, No. 3, pp. 353-359). You may obtain a copy of the
article by contacting your local public or university library,
or online at http://archotol.ama-assn.org/issues/v126n3/full/ooa90271.html
Jim Schmidt is a research and development chemist
for a major pharmaceutical company near Chicago. He is a member
of the McHenry County (Illinois) Civil War Roundtable and The
Friends of Wilderness Battlefield. He can be reached by e-mail
at: hallowed-ground@att.net
