Gettysburg Surgeons

“Gettysburg Surgeons is a deeply researched and powerful tribute to the medical officers who served at Gettysburg. It will stand alongside Gregory Coco’s A Vast Sea of Misery (1996) in helping readers understand the medical response to the human tragedy at Gettysburg. In shining a light on the humanity and professionalism of Civil War surgeons, Barbara Franco adds a vital chapter to the story of Gettysburg.”

“Special, unique, meticulously researched, substantively informative, exceptionally well written, and thoroughly ‘reader friendly’ in organization and presentation, Gettysburg Surgeons: Facing a Common Enemy in the Civil War’s Deadliest Battle is an essential and unreservedly recommended addition to personal, professional, community, and college/university library American Civil War History collections and supplemental curriculum studies lists.”

”…an interesting perspective on the role of doctors in the Confederate and Union Armies in general, and the Battle of Gettysburg specifically… Franco skillfully uses a combination of diaries, letters, and written reports to analyze an important moment in American history, with a compelling story.”

”…deserves a spot on any shelf dedicated to America’s most dissected war. Franco does more than raise up the narrative of the beleaguered surgeons and assistant surgeons who probed and sawed their way through the conflict, she opens a perspective rarely seen in histories of the period.”

“Using primary material from medical records, diaries, letters, army reports, and the like, Barbara Franco expertly tells the story of the challenges the surgeons faced in treating tens of thousands of casualties in a town with limited medical facilities… well-written and useful new addition to the burgeoning Gettysburg historiography”

Barbara Franco is an independent scholar and nationally recognized leader in the museum field. She has served as executive director of the Historical Society of Washington, DC, the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, and the Gettysburg Seminary Ridge Museum, where she was founding director and remains a member of the board of directors. She is past chairman of the American Association for State and Local History. A graduate of Bryn Mawr College and the Cooperstown Graduate Program, Franco lives in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.