The Surgeon's Battle

“This excellent book integrates medical history with environmental history, soldier studies, and military history. . . . Based on a wide range of military correspondence, surgeons’ reports, and other records, this concise book will fascinate and educate readers interested in the U.S. Civil War and medical history.”—Library Journal, STARRED review

“Privette applies a multi-disciplinary approach to her own study. . . . The result is a complex portrait that strongly challenges older claims that Civil War medicine was an ‘abject failure’ when it came to addressing the conflict’s stunning death toll from disease (pg. 7).”

“The debut of a promising new author. . . . [A] timely reminder that politics can include the art of uniting as well as dividing.”—Civil War Monitor’s Best Civil War Books of 2025

“The Surgeon’s Battle represents a noteworthy addition to the medical services history of the Civil War. . . . While the subtitle’s lofty claim that medicine ‘won’ the campaign is certainly attention-grabbing, it is actually more representative of the book’s content and interpretation to maintain that advancements in Union Army medicine ‘helped win’ the contest for Vicksburg. That more measured conceptualization, as developed by Privette, is persuasive.”—Civil War Books and Authors

“Privette offers a compelling argument that medical organization and environmental conditions played a critical role in Union success in the Western Theater, and her work opens the door for further scholarship on medicine, environment, and warfare during the Civil War.”—H-Sci-Med-Tech

“This is the best account of the Vicksburg Campaign that I have read. Privette provides a much-needed reinterpretation of this critical Civil War battle.”—Timothy Silver, author of Death in Briar Bottom

“A vivid account of military medicine’s evolution in one of the Civil War’s most pivotal campaigns. Privette’s attention to the operational and environmental challenges at Vicksburg will reveal fresh insights for students and scholars alike.”—Erin Stewart Mauldin, University of South Florida