Doctors in Gray: The Confederate Medical Service

H. H. Cunningham’s Doctors in Gray remains the definitive work on the medical history of the Confederate army. Drawing on a prodigious array of sources, Cunningham paints as complete a picture as possible of the daunting task facing those charged with caring for the war’s wounded and sick.

Of the estimated 600,000 Confederate troops, Cunningham claims that 200,000 died either from battle wounds or from illness—the majority, surprisingly, from illness. Despite these grim statistics, Confeder...