Based on extensive study of surgeons' reports, inspector's observations, soldier narratives and other first-hand materials, 'Doctors in Blue' fills a long glaring gap in the story of American medicine and the history of the American Civil War. Dr. Adams, already distinguished for research in Confederate experience, develops the subject of health and medical practice on the Union side with remarkable skill and balance. Disease, on the Northern side as on the Southern, was far more deadly to the fighting men than were the bullets of their opponents. Behind the sickness and mortality statistics of the Civil War lay ignorance, stupidity, inefficiency, and jealousy. But behind them also, are to be seen earnestness, cooperative spirit, and great strides of scientific knowledge. Many aspects of the Civil War have been written about profusely, but the important theme of medicine has never before had its general historian. In this book the reader will find a warm and human story of the contributions made by the great military medical men of the period and a compelling picture of the roles played by the hospital attendants, ambulance men and the army's first women nurses