The Mostly True Adventures of Homer P. Figg
Page 16
Did you know that many sick and wounded soldiers preferred to stay away from war hospitals than be treated by doctors?
Because medical knowledge was nowhere near as comprehensive as it is today, Civil War doctors were often unable to treat many gruesome wounds and illnesses that soldiers from both sides experienced. The concept of “germs” had not been discovered yet, so doctors and nurses often operated with dirty tools and without washing their hands. Their actions spread infection from one patient to another, often resulting in death. It’s no wonder many soldiers thought the doctors did more harm than good. Many soldiers died from the subsequent infections that ravaged their bodies. And when it came to wounds in the soldiers’ arms and legs, doctors almost always chose amputation because other ways of treating gangrene had not yet been developed.
The camps and field hospitals that were set up to house the sick and wounded became cesspools of infection and disease. Crowding and uncleanliness led to deadly illnesses such as measles, mumps, tonsillitis, typhoid, diarrhea, and smallpox. Today we can effectively treat soldiers with these sicknesses, even vaccinate them. Because the doctors of the Civil War were unable to, they had to see many of their patients and comrades die as a result.
Did you know that the word shoddy used to mean a type of cloth?
From the very beginning of the Civil War, Union and Confederate soldiers were often lacking important supplies like food, shoes, horses, tents, uniforms, and guns. For the South, it was hard to find supplies because the South was far less industrial than the North, which had always manufactured the weaponry, clothing, and other equipment the South needed. The North, on the other hand, couldn’t make supplies fast enough and couldn’t afford to supply its army with equipment. To keep up with the demand for uniforms and blankets, northern textile factories would often produce a fabric called shoddy which was made of recycled wool fibers. The quality of shoddy was very poor, and it frequently fell apart or disintegrated after just a few weeks of use. Thus, the adjective shoddy came to describe things of inferior quality.
Did you know that the first African American soldier to be awarded the Medal of Honor was Sergeant William H. Carney of the Union Army?
In May 1900, Sergeant Carney of the Union Army was given the Medal of Honor in recognition of his valiant acts at Fort Wagner, South Carolina, on July 18, 1863. While other African American fighters — such as Robert Blake, who fought bravely in a naval engagement on December 24, 1863 — received the Medal of Honor as early as 1864, Sergeant Carney was the earliest African American to be recognized. Carney and Blake are just two examples of the hundreds of thousands of African Americans who fought bravely in the Civil War.
At first, African Americans were barred from serving in either army, but due to troop shortages, the Union began to give African American civilians informal responsibilities. With the Emancipation Proclamation of January 1863, African Americans were allowed to enlist in the Northern army and were soon sent to the front lines to fight. It wasn’t until late in the war that the Confederate Congress asked slave owners to sell their slaves to the army for its use.
Civil War Spy Ink
In The Mostly True Adventures of Homer P. Figg, Professor Fleabottom (aka Reginald Robert Crockett) was a Confederate spy traveling through Northern towns and cities disguised as a caravan leader to gain information about the enemy. Similarly, Mr. Bobbins’s hot-air balloon, Tilda, is an example of Union air balloon surveillance against the Confederates. Often women would act as spies, too, gaining and trading secret information or conducting espionage missions. A female leader of a Confederate spy ring was caught with eighty-two letters sewn into her undergarments. Secret plots were employed by both sides and played an important role throughout the Civil War.
Here is a way to make invisible ink so you can send secret letters to your friends!
Step 1: Write the secret letter. Using lemon juice as the ink and a toothpick, cotton ear swab, or quill as your writing tool, write a secret message on a piece of paper. After the lemon juice dries, you shouldn’t be able to see the message you wrote just moments ago.
Step 2: Uncover the message. With the help of an adult, hold the paper near a non-halogen lightbulb (about four inches away) and heat the paper evenly. Be careful not to burn the paper — or your fingers! Slowly, your once-invisible message will start to turn brown and show itself. Ironing your paper may also reveal the secret note.
Step 3: Have fun! Write invisible messages to your friends and family, trade them, and share secrets!
Sources
Congressional Medal of Honor Society, Full Archive, http://www.cmohs.org/recipient-archive.php (accessed July 21, 2010).
Gorrell, Gena K. North Star to Freedom: The Story of the Underground Railroad. New York: Delacorte Press, 1996.
Keegan, John. The American Civil War: A Military History. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2009.
McPherson, James M. Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era. New York: Oxford University Press, 2003.
National Park Service, “Civil War Food,” Gettysburg National Military Park Kidzpage, http://www.nps.gov/archive/gett/gettkidz/hardtack.htm (accessed July 21, 2010).
Silvey, Anita. I’ll Pass for Your Comrade: Women Soldiers in the Civil War. New York: Clarion, 2008.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT:
With thanks to Richard Adams, veteran, scholar, and gentleman, for gently pointing out the author’s many errors and persuading him to correct some (but not all!) of the most egregious whoppers.
This book was originally published in hardcover by the Blue Sky Press in 2009.
Copyright © 2009 by Rodman Philbrick. All rights reserved. Published by Scholastic Inc. SCHOLASTIC, AFTER WORDS, and associated logos are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Scholastic Inc.
Cover art by Ryan Wood
Cover design by Steve Scott
This edition first printing, January 2011
e-ISBN 978-0-545-37087-5
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. No part of this publication may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of the publisher. For information regarding permission, write to Scholastic Inc., Attention: Permissions Department, 557 Broadway, New York, NY 10012.