Repairing the "March of Mars": The Civil War Diaries of John Samuel Apperson, Hospital Steward in the Stonewall Brigade, 1861-1865

John Samuel Apperson

Jan 2001 · Mercer University Press

About this ebook

There are many collections of letters and Civil War memoirs available today, but very few offer in-depth information about the medical treatment of wounded soldiers. In Repairing the "March of Mars": The Civil War Diaries of John Samuel Apperson, Hospital Steward in the Stonewall Brigade, 1861-1865, editor John Herbert Roper provides an important supplement to this understudied aspect of the Civil War.

John Samuel Apperson was born in 1837 to a family of small freeholders who owned no slaves. Thus, when the war broke out in 1861, Apperson's choice to fight for the Confederacy reflected his loyalty to Virginia rather than his desire to protect and defend the slave system. Apperson enlisted in Company D of the First Virginia Brigade, and was initially assigned to the marching regiment. However, when it was discovered that in the two years prior to the war he had studied and apprenticed to a physician, Apperson was transferred to the field hospital unit. His experiences there form the substance of the diary here published for the first time.

Apperson's diary is a sensitive and painstaking observation of the details of medical treatment during and after battle. For all periods of the war, his detailed personal records supplement and correct official army hospital records, and for certain periods, his diary provides the only medical information available. For example, Apperson was present at the amputation of Stonewall Jackson's arm, and his diary shows that Jackson died of postoperative pneumonia, and not of a botched surgery.

This book is essential reading for anyone interested in the American Civil War and in the history of medicine.

Ratings and reviews

This is a valuable book for its content, particularly when read in tandem with the letters of Surgeon Harvey Black, his superior (see "A Surgeon with Stonewall Jackson: The Civil War Letters of Dr.. Harvey Black"; Glenn L. McMullen, editor; Baltimore, Butternut and Blue, 1995).. Unfortunately, what should be a 5 star book is ruined by one of the worst jobs of editing that I have seen. I first was irritated by his political correctness. His use of "CE" in lieu of the traditional "A.D." (page 376); his reference to Members of Congress as "Congresspersons" when there were no women in Congress whatever; his gender neutrality throughout; his use of his own version ("WVA" for West Virginia) of the USPS abbreviations for the states rather than the traditional ones used at the time. But all of that is superficial. The main problem is the inaccuracy of his bracketed insertions and footnotes. I'll give only a few of the many examples. On page 603, he footnotes information about Brig. Gen. John A. Wharton, when the Apperson was speaking of Brig. Gen. Gabriel C. Wharton. He places Shepherdstown, Va. (now W. Va.) in Maryland (page 565). He evidences an ignorance of military organization and Virginia geography. He has the irritating habit of inserting the same information, often incorrect, in brackets almost every time a man or place is mentioned. For the last year or so of the War, each time a dollar amount is mentioned in the diary, the editor inserts, in brackets, his estimation of its then equivalent in gold and greenbacks. In the period between May 1864 and March 1865, he tells us, bracketted in the narrative or in footnotes, at least 24 times, that Gen. Early's full name was "Jubal Anderson Early". Any intelligent reader does not need constant reminding. It is also puzzling why he used the 1870 census in his attempts to identify various civilians when the 1860 census was more timely. I could go on about the shortcomings of the editing but it would only revive the frustration of reading an important diary cluttered with so much wothless filler.