Academic literature on the topic 'United States. Army. Field Artillery, 149th'

AbstractBackgroundThe United States Civil War (1861–1865) pitted the more populous industrialized North (Union) against the mainly agricultural slaveholding South (Confederacy). This conflict cost an enormous number of lives, with recent estimates mentioning a total mortality greater than 700,000 combatants [1]. Although sulfuric ether (ETH) and chloroform (CHL) were available since Morton’s use of the former in 1846 and the employment of the latter in 1847, and even though inhalational agents were used in Crimean war (1853–1856) and the Mexican-American War (1846–1848), the United States Civil War gave military surgeons on both sides the opportunity to experience the use of these two agents because of the large number of casualties.MethodsResearch of historic archives illustrates the dramatic control of surgical pain made possible with introduction of two general anesthetic and analgesic drugs in 1846 and 1847.ResultsAn appreciation of the importance of anesthesia during surgical procedures can be noted in the poignant and at times hair raising cases of two left arm amputations carried out under appalling circumstances during the United States Civil War. In the first-case the amputation was delayed for nearly five days after the wounding of Private Winchell who served in an elite sharpshooter brigade and was captured by the Confederate Army during battle. The amputation was performed without anesthesia and the voice of the Private himself narrates his dreadful experience. The postoperative course was incredible as he received no analgesia and survived a delirious comatose state lying on the ground in the intense summer heat.Thomas Jonathan “Stonewall” Jackson was a famous ascetic Confederate General who helped defeat the Union forces at the Battle of Chancellorsville on May 2, 1863. In the ensuing near-darkness, Jackson was fired upon by his own friendly troops where he suffered multiple gunshot wounds on his right hand as well as a ball in the upper humerus of the left arm similar to that of Private Winchell. Transported to a field hospital about thirty miles away, the evacuation was carried out under artillery fire and the General dropped from the stretcher at least twice before arriving at the field hospital. There, a team of surgeons operated on “Stonewall”, using open drop chloroform, the surgery taking 50 min, anesthesia times of one hour with General Jackson awake and speaking with clarity shortly after the termination of the anesthesia. A brief explanation of the use of anesthetics in the military environment during the Crimean, Mexican American and the United States Civil War is also presented.Conclusion and implicationsTwo case stories illustrate the profound improvement in surgical pain made possible with ether and chloroform only 160 years ago. Surgeons and patients nowadays have no ideas what these most important improvements in modern medicine means, unless “reliving” the true hell of pain surgery was before ether and chloroform.

Each year the United States Army in-processes thousands of new recruits at training centers. Variations in the number of recruits who arrive for in-processing, particularly surges during summer time, cause problems that ripple throughout the entire Army training base. This thesis gathers and analyzes historical recruit and in-processing data for one Army training base: Fort Sill, Oklahoma. The recruit reception process is modeled as a network flow problem and analyzed through the use of computer simulation. Analysis of the problem using the model compares the status quo to various options for improving recruit "throughput." Policy options are explored on a cost and benefit basis. Recommendations improve reception battalion "throughput" by making better use of existing resources, and establish guidelines for allocating additional resources, thus contributing to solving a significant scheduling problem for the Army Training Centers.

In March 1942, the 2nd Battalion, 131st Field Artillery Regiment, 36th Division, surrendered to the Japanese Imperial Army on Java in the Dutch East Indies. Shortly after the surrender, the men of the 2nd Battalion were joined as prisoners-of-war by the sailors and Marines who survived the sinking of the heavy cruiser USS Houston. From March 1942 until the end of World War II, these men lived in various Japanese prison camps throughout the Dutch East Indies, Southeast Asia, and in the Japanese home islands. Forced to labor for their captors for the duration of the conflict, they performed extremely difficult tasks, including working in industrial plants and mining coal in Japan, and most notably, constructing the infamous Burma-Thailand Death Railway. During their three-and-one-half years of captivity, these prisoners experienced brutality at the hands of the Japanese. Enduring prolonged malnutrition and extreme overwork, they suffered from numerous tropical and dietary diseases while receiving almost no medical care. Each day, these men lived in fear of being beaten and tortured, and for months at a time they witnessed the agonizing deaths of their friends and countrymen. In spite of the conditions they faced, most survived to return to the United States at war's end. This study examines the experiences of these former prisoners from 1940 to 1945 and attempts to explain how they survived.

This thesis combines a traditional narrative history of a Confederate artillery battery with a socio-economic study of its members. A database was constructed using the Compiled Service Records, 1860 census, and county tax rolls. The information revealed similarities between the unit's members and their home area. Captain James M. Daniel organized the battery in Paris, Texas and it entered Confederate service in January 1862. The battery served in Walker's Texas Division. It was part of a reserve force at the Battle of Milliken's Bend and was involved in the battles of Bayou Bourbeau, Mansfield, and Pleasant Hill. The battery also shelled Union ships on the Mississippi River. Daniel's Battery officially surrendered at Natchitoches, Louisiana, in May 1865.