Table of Contents
Acknowledgements 9
Introduction 11
1 Let the Dead People Talk 13
2 Step Back in Time 16
3 Barroom Brawl, Death, Hanging 19
4 Diphtheria: Strangling Angel of Death 22
5 No Pension for Her Own Work 26
6 Quanah Parker and Peyote: Indigenous Cactus Medicine 29
7 A Young Boy Loses His Father 32
8 Frontier Military Women Sometimes Took Matters into Their Own Hands 35
9 Two More Women Who Took Matters into Their Own Hands 38
10 Magic Lanterns and Photography 41
11 The Runs: Diarrhea but No Issue of the Tissue (TP) 45
12 In the Line of Duty: Baseball Injuries 49
13 Not in the Line of Duty: Man Bite 54
14 Who Will Pay for Deceased Frontier Army Doctor's Casket? 55
15 Soldier Buried Headless 58
16 Texas Was a Good Place for Men, but Awfully Rough on Women and Oxen 61
17 Unfit for Military Service: Why Do We Call it 4-F? 68
18 Brandy, Whiskey and Opium to Treat Tuberculosis 71
19 How to Limit Family Size: Two Women's Dilemmas 74
20 Water: Where Will Our Next Drink Be? 78
21 You Were Bitten by What? 83
22 Surgery and Anesthesia 85
23 Camp Followers Came in a Wide Variety of Characters 89
24 Trials of a Frontier Army Officer's Wife 93
25 Where's the Dentist? 99
26 Your TB Treatment Is Scheduled for Two O'Clock in the Inhalatorium 102
27 Death Hovered Close for Women in Childbirth and for Children 104
28 Sudden Deaths 107
29 Medical Whiskey and Other Elixirs, Nostrums and Cure-Alls 110
30 Take a Photo of Our Beloved Daughter-She's Dead 113
31 Demon Whiskey 116
32 Children Died, Too-and There Were No Child-Proof Caps 120
33 Cocaine Toothache Drops and Other Remedies 123
34 Ice-for Fever, Weddings and Ice Cream 127
35 Scalps and Skulls 131
36 No Talking after Bedtime, 8½ P.M.: Army Hospital Rules 134
37 Female Army Surgeon Receives Medal of Honor 136
38 Dying Too Young 140
39 What Would You Name Your Horse? 144
40 What Did They Call PTSD? 147
41 Cemeteries: Fort Davis, Where Are Your Dead? 150
42 Scurvy: A Monstrous and Wicked Disease for Soldiers, Sailors and Pirates 154
43 Died of Softening of the Brain 157
44 Why Did the U.S. Army Deliberately Burn Down Its Hospitals? 160
Glossary of Old Medical Terms Used in the Nineteenth Century 165
Appendix: Excerpts from Fort Davis Military Death Records 169
Bibliography 173
Index 181
About the Author 189
