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Friday, October 15, 2021

How were Napoleonic battlefields cleaned up?

Somewhere in the range of 3.5 million to 6 million people died as a result of the Napoleonic Wars, which lasted from 1803 to 1815. This includes both military and civilian casualties, and encompasses death from war-related diseases and other causes. Estimates of the number of soldiers killed in battle range from 500,000 to almost 2 million. What happened to all of those bodies? What did Napoleonic battlefield cleanup entail? 
-WiscoDave

5 comments:

  1. Pretty likely that Gates and Fauci have plans for cleaning the Covid battlefield. Bastards.

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  2. When I was in the Army, I was primarily stationed at the "Armed Forces Institute of Pathology" (AFIP) which, along with its sister organization, the National Museum of Health and Medicine (NMHM), was established during the Civil War as the "Army Medical Museum." The AFIP was shut down when Walter Reed was closed, but the NMHM is still up and running. One of the things the early folk did was go to battlefields of the war and pick up bones and remains to study war wounds. During the battle of Gettysburg, Major General Daniel Sickles, Commander of the Union Third Army, had his right leg blown off by a cannon ball. The leg was removed and sent to the Army Medical Museum. It is still on display at the National Museum of Health and Medicine.

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    1. Sickles was either the hero or the buffoon of Gettysburg, depending on your views. But by ignoring his orders to stay in line and advancing his men to engage the Confederates some distance ahead of the Union lines, he kept the entire Army of the Potomac from being completely surrounded.

      After the war, he would come and visit his leg

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  3. After the war Sickles would often come visit his leg.

    Depending on your viewpoint, Sickles was either the savior or the buffoon of Gettysburg. By ignoring his orders to stay in line, and moving his men forward to engage the Confederates at some distance ahead of the Union lines, he kept the entire Army of the Potomac from being surrounded and cut off from their road to DC.

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