civilwar052a.jpg

Friendly Enemies

Chattanooga To Union After Battle
'The bodies of the dead and wounded covered the battlefield for miles, after the Northern Army came storming into Chattanooga. Led by General Rosecrans, the Union Army gained control of the larger Southern city at the cost of many lives. Nurses and physicians were hard to recruit to the actual battlefront and often those who might have been saved bled to death. Since medical aid could not be administered to all, often two wounded soldiers would try to help and bandage one another. Shirt sleeves were applied as tourniquets to stop bleeding from wounds, and head-bandages were made from old handkerchiefs. Once wounded, the soldiers no longer thought of war, and only tried to help themselves survive.'