From official records, personal letters, and postwar memoirs, Jack D. Welsh, M.D., has compiled the medical histories of 425 Confederate generals. The generals' early military experience, at West Point and in Florida, Mexico, or on the western frontier, meant that hundreds of them were exposed to and immunized against the diseases that killed so many soldiers in the Civil War, while many also were wounded or lost limbs. In addition, several survived street fights, duels, and shooting accidents-all before the war. Throughout the Civil War, most officers fought in spite' of illness or wounds...

During the Civil War, the majority of the 583 Union generals studied here were afflicted by disease, injured by accidents, or suffered wounds. Following the war, they often suffered lingering diseases and the effects of unhealed wounds. Medical Histories of Union Generals includes a glossary of medical terms as well as a sequence of medical events during the Civil War listing wounds, accidents, and deaths. With his earlier book on Confederate generals, Dr. Welsh has produced a "must have" reference for medical and military historians.