We all know the Napoleonic Wars from the beautiful paintings including charges from numerous regiments / armies on the battlefield. But as with every war, it has it's downsides. I've always been interested in surgery during the Napoleonic Wars and i thought i'd share some sources if anyone would want to read up on it. I'm in no way a professional so i'm not sure if the sources i'll provide are historically accurate (in a way that EVERYTHING of the articles is correct) but i tried to put as many useful links as possible.
A video showing some of the surgeries performed during the Napoleonic Wars;
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ctKKpBTWwwo[/youtube]
A small article on Surgery during the Napoleonic wars (Includes Larrey);
http://www.napoleonicwarsforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=22&t=443
Above you see one of the famous first ambulances used on the battlefield, invented by the young French surgeon Dominique-Jean Larrey (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dominique_Jean_Larrey).
Inspired by horse-drawn "flying artillery" he developed a "flying ambulance." This ambulance volante combined with Larrey’s development of the concept of triage became integral to Napoleon’s army.
A small article about the ''Flying Ambulances'';
http://www.acep.org/About-Us/The-Revolutionary-Flying-Ambulance-of-Napoleon-s-Surgeon/
A small biography of Dominique Jean-Larrey;
http://www.arcdetriomphe.info/officers/larrey/An article about medicine in the Napoleonic Wars (includes Percy);
http://www.napoleonicsociety.com/english/riaudwars.htmA very useful research into both Percy and Larrey;
http://urgentologue.free.fr/dmdocuments/histoire/Larrey/Larrey%20-%20Percy.pdf
A very small biography of Percy, it's in English but if you can read French click the French tab for more information;
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre-Fran%C3%A7ois_Percy (English Version)
http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre-Fran%C3%A7ois_Percy (French Version)
The other troopers – not from the Imperial Guard – were cared for by the less well known Pierre-Francois Baron de Percy. He became chief surgeon of the Grande Armée in 1807. He is also known for having invented the “chirurgie mobile” where surgeons, their instruments and stretch bearers were brought close to the front from where they would jump off their “wurst” – a large and long 4 wheel carriages- to take care of the wounded in their immediate sector. These surgeons carried all of their medicine and instruments with them in their “wurzt”, making them better equipped for handling the wounded. (
http://www.armchairgeneral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=85193)
Hope this provides some information on surgery/battlefield medicine during the Napoleonic Wars. If anyone has some useful links post them here so i can add them to the OP.
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