NOT ONE AMONG THEM WHOLE A Novel of Surgeons and the Wounded at Gettysburg edition by Edison McDaniels Literature Fiction eBooks
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“An amazingly talented writer . . . NOT ONE AMONG THEM WHOLE is a magnificently harrowing trip into the bloody horrors of the battle of Gettysburg, populated with unforgettable characters and written with stunning precision and beauty.” -- Taylor Polites, author of THE REBEL WIFE
"At first glance it resembles THE KILLER ANGELS and COLD MOUNTAIN -- and its artistry rivals those great novels. But it explores a deeper heart of darkness than even the shambles exhausted surgeons have to deal with after Gettysburg. A terrific achievement . . . but not for anyone who faints at descriptions of the violence of battle or the sufferings of the wounded." -- David Poyer, author of A COUNTRY OF OUR OWN and THE SHILOH PROJECT
It is the summer of 1863, and the greatest battle ever fought on American soil is in full tilt. Southern Pennsylvania has become one great grinding stone and thousands of dead or dying are its grist. In this tilted landscape, reputations are made, careers are ruined, and men and women are driven to the brink in the wake of two armies intent on killing one another. Yet opportunity is everywhere...
For the privates and officers who fight the battle, it's a kill or be killed world, with salvation or damnation just a bullet away...
For the surgeons laboring over the many wounded, opportunity knocks at the bloody tables, where the price of a man's life is all too often an arm or a leg. The cost to the surgeons, however, will be even higher...
For one undertaker in particular, the dead are a canvas, and his ability to make a body reflect the living individual is nothing short of uncanny. For Jupiter Jones, the burgeoning dead themselves are the opportunity...
And finally, for one teenage former slave, alive only because his father had the courage to bury him, opportunity comes in the form of a ten-year-old boy with a creel and only one shoe, who may or may not be a ghost...
In the summer of 1863, humanity itself is under siege. What happens amid the carnage and human flotsam of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, will be unholy, unnerving, and all but unbearable, with only this certain not one among them will escape unscathed.
Here, for the living, hell is in session.
And for the dead, it's the devil's own day.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Edison McDaniels's writing is informed by medicine and the supernatural. His work received honorable mention in the seventeenth edition of The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror, and has been published in Paradox Magazine, The Summerset Review, The Armchair Aesthete, On The Premises Magazine, and others. McDaniels, a graduate of Stanford University, is board certified in adult and pediatric neurosurgery, with over 7,000 operations to his credit. Edison and his wife Jean collect historical etchings and attend at least 1-2 baseball games a week between April and October (more, if the Minnesota Twins are in town). Not One Among Them Whole will be followed by The Matriarch of Ruins, a novel of one woman's struggle to keep her family alive in the midst of the fighting at Gettysburg.
NOT ONE AMONG THEM WHOLE A Novel of Surgeons and the Wounded at Gettysburg edition by Edison McDaniels Literature Fiction eBooks
Let’s consider modern battlefield surgery. I don’t have a military background, but I am a former surgeon with an extensive trauma experience, so I can make an educated guess as to how our wounded soldiers are treated.First, conditions permitting, I would surmise that the wounded are removed from the field of battle as quickly as possible. Secondly, the medics are capable of treating life-threatening injuries, such as massive hemorrhage and sucking chest wounds, in the field. IV fluids can be infused at a rapid rate to replace blood loss until blood transfusions can be administered.
Once in the mobile surgical hospital, the surgeons would have an array of diagnostic tools including x-ray and ultrasound. They would also have the instruments they need and a way to clean and sterilize them. Access to blood for transfusion, antibiotics to treat infection, sources of nutrition and hydration for those patients who cannot eat or drink would also be available.
And finally, there is no body cavity or organ system that is beyond the reach of the surgeon’s scalpel. If a bone is shattered, it can be pieced back together with screws, plates, and pins. If a major artery is lacerated, it can be repaired with a Dacron interposition graft or a segment of cadaver artery. Non-lethal injuries to the brain, heart, lungs and any other organ can be surgically treated.
Now let’s take a look at the state of battlefield surgery during the Civil War as depicted in Edison McDaniels’ Not One Among Them Whole: A Novel of Gettysburg. First, it seems that many of the wounded languished on the field of battle until the fighting was over, which leads one to wonder how many soldiers died from wounds that could have been successfully treated with today’s techniques. Second, there were no blood transfusions or IV fluids at the time. If blood loss was significant, there was no way to replace it.
Antibiotics had not been discovered yet (in fact, bacteria as an infectious agent hadn’t even been identified), so for those soldiers fortunate enough to survive their acute injuries many went on to die from infection. Postoperative nutrition and hydration was limited to what the patient could eat or drink. Pain medication consisted of shots of whisky and sips of opioid elixirs. Many Civil War era soldiers–who today would be saved by simple means such as proper nutrition, hydration, blood transfusion and IV antibiotics–went on to die from postoperative infection, malnutrition, dehydration and dysentery.
And lastly, what did the surgeons of the day have in their armamentarium? Not much. If a bone in the arm or leg was shattered by a steel ball—amputation. If a major artery or vein was lacerated—amputation. A gunshot or bayonet wound to the abdomen with perforation of the gastrointestinal tract and/or major bleeding—death, most of the time. And forget about penetrating injuries to the chest or cranium. Very little, if anything could be done to treat these wounds.
And now let’s get to the heart of the matter. We all know that war is Hell, but think about how hellish it was to be a wounded soldier, or a surgeon treating that soldier, during the Civil War. That’s what Not One Among Them Whole offers the reader: a chance to get inside the minds of the soldiers, surgeons, and other ancillary individuals who were swept up by the Gettysburg conflict. Edison McDaniels does a stunning job of portraying the human carnage that was Gettysburg, and he chronicles the loss–of life, of limb, and sanity–of those involved. And he does all this with an elegant prose style, dialects that ring true for time and place, and characterizations that would impress Mark Twain.
My only complaint, and the reason this is a four and not a five star review, is the lack of a greater context. The subtitle--A Novel of Gettysburg--seemed to promise at least a glimpse into the Gettysburg conflict proper. Not possessing an intimate knowledge of the war, I didn't know the battle depicted early in the story was actually part of the Gettysburg conflict. I thought the story was going to slowly lead me there, building tension as it neared. It wasn't until page 295, when a wounded soldier said he'd been shot a week ago at Gettysburg, did I realize we'd been there the whole time. Because of this, I came away from the story without feeling the full weight of the cataclysmic event that was Gettysburg.
Nonetheless, I enjoyed the story very much and highly recommend it.
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NOT ONE AMONG THEM WHOLE A Novel of Surgeons and the Wounded at Gettysburg edition by Edison McDaniels Literature Fiction eBooks Reviews
Language/time/scene-setting-appropriate - a thoroughly well-written book
Though some of the scenes (and therefore the mental-imagery they conjured) were sometimes stomach-churning, it was still a pleasure to read this book. And that's the essence of a well-written, well-punctuated book its graphicness may shock but the beautiful writing lures you, pulls you in and keeps you glued to the pages until the very end.
A little aside, though...unless Mr McDaniels intends there to be a sequel, I did feel that there were a few loose ends that were not satisfactorily tied; and considering how well-written this book is, I can't help hoping these loose ends were intentional.
One of best lines, by the way (in my opinion), `What was it the squirrel said to his doctor? I done all this, accomplished all this, and for what? Nuts, that's what.' beaaauuutiful writing☺
Having said all these, though, I have to add an aside, am afraid. Reading this work has made me appreciate anew the evilness that was slavery. I mean, here in the book one encounters certain characters who are considered decent men by their compatriots (and going by the author's description of their persons they could indeed be considered decent by any standard). However, their decency was apparent until they turned to speak to a black person - at which point their entire personality changed. Faster than quicksand, the tones of these same `decent men' go from pleasant to derogatory - almost as if the speaker has just adopted a different mask to suit with the kind of personality he believes he ought to have when speaking with a blacks. This leads you to wonder what we as human beings truly understand by the word `decent.' What is decency, and by what yardstick should this word be measured? How do we ascertain that a human being is decent? Is it by the way he treats people of his own race or those with whom he is well acquainted? Or by the way he treats every being, whether or not they be of his own race or dear to his heart? It is worth a ponder.
An undertaker with more than a touch of flim-flam, an opiate-addicted surgeon and two soldiers--Union and Confederate--wounded and stranded side by side on the battlefield for 3 days Not One Among Them Whole. That’s the cast and the title of the novel in which Edison McDaniels captures all of the themes that played out so epically at Gettysburg tragedy, sacrifice, heroism, suffering, futility, dumb luck (or lack thereof). If you have walked the Gettysburg battlefield--the peach orchard and devil’s den areas in particular--and if you have the haunting photos of battlefield dead etched in your memory, then this book will resonate with your mental images. What gives the book its integrity is its exclusive focus on a few personal stories--none of them having to do with the big names of the battle. And those stories are all at ground level. None of the characters sees, or is even aware of anything, beyond his line of sight. So this is not one of those sweeping historical novels that tries to cover the entire scope of Gettysburg with a huge cast of characters and subplots. You won’t understand the big picture of the battle any better after reading the novel. But the picture from the line of sight of these characters will enrich and color any understanding you do have of the big picture. Thus, Not One Among Them Whole makes a very nice complement to a big picture/big name novel like The Killer Angels, by Michael Shaara. I think it would be interesting to read both books at the same time--going through the 3 July days with perspective alternating between the grand picture and the bloody, fly-infested detail.
Let’s consider modern battlefield surgery. I don’t have a military background, but I am a former surgeon with an extensive trauma experience, so I can make an educated guess as to how our wounded soldiers are treated.
First, conditions permitting, I would surmise that the wounded are removed from the field of battle as quickly as possible. Secondly, the medics are capable of treating life-threatening injuries, such as massive hemorrhage and sucking chest wounds, in the field. IV fluids can be infused at a rapid rate to replace blood loss until blood transfusions can be administered.
Once in the mobile surgical hospital, the surgeons would have an array of diagnostic tools including x-ray and ultrasound. They would also have the instruments they need and a way to clean and sterilize them. Access to blood for transfusion, antibiotics to treat infection, sources of nutrition and hydration for those patients who cannot eat or drink would also be available.
And finally, there is no body cavity or organ system that is beyond the reach of the surgeon’s scalpel. If a bone is shattered, it can be pieced back together with screws, plates, and pins. If a major artery is lacerated, it can be repaired with a Dacron interposition graft or a segment of cadaver artery. Non-lethal injuries to the brain, heart, lungs and any other organ can be surgically treated.
Now let’s take a look at the state of battlefield surgery during the Civil War as depicted in Edison McDaniels’ Not One Among Them Whole A Novel of Gettysburg. First, it seems that many of the wounded languished on the field of battle until the fighting was over, which leads one to wonder how many soldiers died from wounds that could have been successfully treated with today’s techniques. Second, there were no blood transfusions or IV fluids at the time. If blood loss was significant, there was no way to replace it.
Antibiotics had not been discovered yet (in fact, bacteria as an infectious agent hadn’t even been identified), so for those soldiers fortunate enough to survive their acute injuries many went on to die from infection. Postoperative nutrition and hydration was limited to what the patient could eat or drink. Pain medication consisted of shots of whisky and sips of opioid elixirs. Many Civil War era soldiers–who today would be saved by simple means such as proper nutrition, hydration, blood transfusion and IV antibiotics–went on to die from postoperative infection, malnutrition, dehydration and dysentery.
And lastly, what did the surgeons of the day have in their armamentarium? Not much. If a bone in the arm or leg was shattered by a steel ball—amputation. If a major artery or vein was lacerated—amputation. A gunshot or bayonet wound to the abdomen with perforation of the gastrointestinal tract and/or major bleeding—death, most of the time. And forget about penetrating injuries to the chest or cranium. Very little, if anything could be done to treat these wounds.
And now let’s get to the heart of the matter. We all know that war is Hell, but think about how hellish it was to be a wounded soldier, or a surgeon treating that soldier, during the Civil War. That’s what Not One Among Them Whole offers the reader a chance to get inside the minds of the soldiers, surgeons, and other ancillary individuals who were swept up by the Gettysburg conflict. Edison McDaniels does a stunning job of portraying the human carnage that was Gettysburg, and he chronicles the loss–of life, of limb, and sanity–of those involved. And he does all this with an elegant prose style, dialects that ring true for time and place, and characterizations that would impress Mark Twain.
My only complaint, and the reason this is a four and not a five star review, is the lack of a greater context. The subtitle--A Novel of Gettysburg--seemed to promise at least a glimpse into the Gettysburg conflict proper. Not possessing an intimate knowledge of the war, I didn't know the battle depicted early in the story was actually part of the Gettysburg conflict. I thought the story was going to slowly lead me there, building tension as it neared. It wasn't until page 295, when a wounded soldier said he'd been shot a week ago at Gettysburg, did I realize we'd been there the whole time. Because of this, I came away from the story without feeling the full weight of the cataclysmic event that was Gettysburg.
Nonetheless, I enjoyed the story very much and highly recommend it.
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