Davis to speak on human cost of Civil War

Press release from Western NC Civil War Roundtable:

The Western NC Civil War Roundtable will host Dr. Stephen Davis on March 11 for a presentation at the Waynesville Inn Golf Resort & Spa.  VP/Program Director Richard Smith booked Davis to discuss the topic of medicine during the Civil War. The evening’s agenda begins at 5:30 pm with a meet and greet dinner with the speaker at the Tap Room within the Waynesville Inn Golf Resort and Spa. Dinner will be followed at 6:30 with a social and then at 7:00 with Dr. Davis’ presentation, “Civil War Medicine: A Few Vignettes from Georgia.”

This will be Davis’ third appearance before the Round Table, first appearing December 2015 and then again in September 2017, both times the discussion centered around the Atlanta Campaign. For the presentation on the 11th, Davis will examine medicine as practiced in the Civil War.  While both sides were ill-prepared militarily at the beginning of the war, the situation was far worse regarding medicine and public health policy. This was evidenced with the fact that approximately 50% of the 660,000 deaths during the war were due privation, disease and sanitation.  Prevention and sanitation were improved during the war for the armies with the application of practical public health policy.  Changes in outcomes were necessary for the population of the young nation, many of whom had never previously travelled further than twenty miles from their homes. Davis will highlight how Atlanta hospitals handled the avalanche of Confederate wounded after Chickamauga; medical-surgical aspects of the Atlanta Campaign; a tale of the wounded: Union Brig. Gen. Manning Force; a review of several surgical cases treated at an Atlanta hospital during spring 1864; and a review of the war’s medical legacy.

Those who have yet to see or hear a Davis presentation are indeed in for an evening that entertains as well as informs.  His delivery can be described as manic, provocative, excitable, opinionated which seemingly would belie a man of letters, but make no assumptions of bias, he’s a well-informed scholar who backs his suppositions with research and facts.  As rambunctious as he is at the podium, he remains every bit a Southern gentleman, who is not only charming but self-effacing.

A longtime resident of Atlanta, Davis earned his Bachelors at Emory University, an MA at UNC-Chapel Hill and a Ph.D. at Emory. He is the author of four books on American history, and editor of a fifth. He has written more than a hundred articles for such publications as Civil War History and the Georgia Historical Quarterly. Now retired, Davis stays out of trouble by serving as Book Review Editor and regular columnist for Civil War News, the nation’s monthly newspaper for enthusiasts. His forthcoming book on Civil War history is scheduled for publication later this year by Mercer University Press. More information can be found at http://wnccwrt.blogspot.com