sad day

Intercourse? Nah, but we held the Christiana Riot on one side of the county and had a bridge burning in Columbia to keep the Confederates over on the other side of the Susquehanna on the other side.

The riot came about when a Federal marshal came looking for an escaped slave and attempted to get the townsfolk to help him retrieve the 'property'. They didn't and some shooting started. The slave owner caught a bullet and died. Half the town was arrested and tried. AFAIK, they were all acquitted.

The bridge burning took place just prior to the battle of Gettysburg. I've read that folks came from all across the county to stop the Southern Army, or try anyway.

Lotsa history here but you have to dig for it. The tourist bureau is too wrapped up in the Amish thing to bother with it.

BTW, Mom's family came from down Christiana way. I don't know if any ancestors were involved or not.

Bill Banaszak, MFE Sr.

I really should read Mr. Catton's works sometime. In recent years Columbia has made a big deal of recreating the bridge burning. Of course, they do it in some farmer's field now. PennDOT would take a dim view of their trying to burn the one that crosses the river now. Besides, concrete doesnt catch well. :)

Bill Banaszak, MFE Sr.

i love his descriptions of the civil war vets he knew as a child. one description of a guy picking berries with a pail hooked onto what was left of his forearm really sticks out. many contemporary historians are kind of, oh yeah, catton...while reading his books in private.

That was the state of medical care back in those days. Wounded in an extremity? Cut it off. I'm not sure if the death rate from infection was higher from the wound or the cure. Sounds like a Ron Smith question.

Bill Banaszak, MFE Sr.

apparently you had a really good chance with amputation and almost none with a shttered limb. i don't remember %, but it was over 70% surviving amputation. i also forgot the name of the method, but it was perfected in the 17th century. i know it involved a flap of skin over the cut matk and 4 sutures to seal it up. they weren't quite the dummies we think. ever read about the roman surgeon galen? he did sports medecine and even cosmetic surgery...brain surgery.

I wasn't thinking 'dummies' but the crush of numbers and limited facilities and supplies.

Yes, humanity keeps rediscovering things we already knew but forgot. That was a fascinating find in paleolithic dentistry that was published the other week and trepaining had been practiced way back then too. The worst time to be in a doctor's care seems to have been the early Renaissance when they thought they knew what they were doing.

Bill Banaszak, MFE Sr.