From Shenandoah, PA to a rain-soaked military hospital in France, Bugler Joseph A. Nicholas writes of a shattered leg, ether, exhaustion, and pride at going “over the top” in the Meuse-Argonne during WW1. He survived to come home, but his letter holds the war’s ache and grit in every line. Read the full story.
At just 18, Private James Kaercher left Pennsylvania’s Coal Region to fight for the Union at the Battle of South Mountain. A Confederate bullet cut short his service, leading to a five-month struggle before his passing. Read his story.
In July 1864, Union and Confederate troops clashed near Frederick, Maryland, at the Battle of Monocacy. In 2021, I recorded a series of videos at Monocacy National Battlefield highlighting the medical story of the battle in partnership with historians and park rangers for the National Museum of Civil War Medicine. Watch the videos and learn more of the story.