Usahec Military History Podcast

October 16, 2019 - Superintendent Brandon Bies, Manassas National Battlefield Park Amid the stink of blood, the moans of wounded, and the detritus of battle, a Civil War battlefield surgeon sawed through the shattered remnant of a Soldier’s leg.  As he tossed the removed appendage into the nearby pit of other discarded limbs, another victim of the Battle of Second Manassas was placed on his grizzly operating table.  On Wednesday, October 16, 2019, at 7:15 PM, the U.S. Army Heritage and Education Center in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, hosted Superintendent Brandon Bies of the Manassas National Battlefield Park to present a talk entitled “Broken Lives and Shattered Bones: Discovering a Field Hospital at Manassas Battlefield.” Brandon Bies discusses the 2015 excavation of a Civil War “Limb Pit” discovered on the grounds of the Second Battle of Bull Run.  The archaeological find sheds new light on how battlefield surgery took place during the American Civil War. For video of the USHAEC's podcasts, or to learn more abo