Sunday, May 7th, 2 PM at the Graffiti House, 19484 Brandy Road, Brandy Station, VA  Brandy Station Foundation Sunday lecture series. Dr. Michael A. Hill, M.D. on the topic Civil War Medicine. The lecture series is held at the Graffiti House beginning at 2 PM. Light refreshments are provided. Free, but donations to the Foundation are appreciated. 

Dr. Hill is a native Washingtonian, raised in Northeast D.C. He graduated in 1971 from Saint Andrew’s School in Middletown, DE. He was featured in the movie: Dead Poets Society. He graduated from Williams College, Williamstown, Massachusetts in 1975 and received his M.D. from George Washington University Medical School in 1979. He worked at a number of locations, but retired in 2019 after being a staff physician and Center Medical Director, Concentra Medical Center/Urgent Care, at various offices in the Baltimore/Washington area from 2003 to 2019. He has been a Civil War reenactor since March, 1989. He is a docent at The National Museum of Civil War Medicine in Frederick, MD and a member of the Society of Civil War Surgeons. He participated in the filming of the movies “Glory” and Sommersby”.

Dr. Hill says that considering the subject of Civil War Medicine, most people think of painful amputations and discarded limbs next to an operation “table”. In reality, 95% of all surgeries performed during the Civil War were performed under anesthesia. Also, about two-thirds of the over 700,000 Civil War soldier deaths were from disease, not battlefield wounds. The most dangerous place for the Civil War soldier was in camp, not the battlefield. Accordingly, most of the work of the Civil War surgeon was not surgery, it was the prevention and treatment of diseases and postoperative care of the soldiers. Modern day triage, medical evacuation, hospital systems, and standards of medical training are some of the legacies of Civil War medicine. Dr. Hill now serves on the Brandy Station Foundation Advisory Committee. 

Photo of Dr. Hill in his reenactor uniform. He has been a reenactor with the 54th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment.