美国国家公共电台 NPR Civil War Battlefield 'Limb Pit' Reveals Work Of Combat Surgeons

Civil War Battlefield 'Limb Pit' Reveals Work Of Combat Surgeons

DAVID GREENE, HOST:

All right. At a Civil War battlefield in Virginia, scientists have unearthed¹ a pit of human bones. These are the amputated limbs of wounded soldiers. NPR's Christopher Joyce was one of just a few journalists given access to these bones. And, as he reports, they reveal the tragedy of battle, the agony of survivors² and the trials of early combat surgeons.

CHRISTOPHER JOYCE, BYLINE³: At the visitor's center in Manassas, muskets⁵ stand in glass cases alongside mannequins in uniform. A map shows troop movements and battlefield tactics, the usual kind of Civil War exhibit. But one item alludes⁶ to what happened after battle. It's a surgeon's kit⁷ with numerous saws.

BRANDON BIES: We have saws for removing limbs. We have saws for cutting into head wounds, for cutting off fingers.

JOYCE: Archaeologist Brandon Bies is superintendent⁸ of the National Park Service's Manassas site. Saws like these were used here in some of the first field hospitals for soldiers.

BIES: If you can imagine sitting with a horrific wound of your own and hearing the moans and seeing a growing pile of limbs from the surgeon and knowing that your term was coming. I can't possibly imagine what that would have been like.

JOYCE: Except he can - because in 2014, Bies excavated⁹ a unique burial site. It was a pit of limbs uncovered accidentally by utility workers. At first, they found bone fragments. They sent them to the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History to some of the world's best anthropologists. At the museum's forensic¹¹ lab in Washington, D.C., bones lie on tables under fluorescent¹² lights. Kari Bruwelheide holds up a reconstructed section of a thigh¹³ bone.

KARI BRUWELHEIDE: And what was apparent when we put all these little pieces together was this very even cut edge.

JOYCE: Like a neatly¹⁴ sawed tree branch. They found 11 amputated limbs. All but one were parts of legs. And there were also two almost-complete skeletons, apparently¹⁵ soldiers buried along with the discarded limbs. These were casualties from the Second Battle of Bull Run in 1862. They were likely wounded during a charge up to a ridge¹⁶ called the Deep Cut held by thousands of Confederates. Bies takes me there.

BIES: As they start to get closer, within 300 yards, 400 yards, they start to receive rifle fire and musket⁴ fire, and men are dropping left and right.

JOYCE: Shot with muskets like the Enfield that Bies has brought. He prepares a blank charge.

BIES: Pour that black powder...

JOYCE: Down into the barrel.

BIES: Ram¹⁷ cartridge¹⁸.

JOYCE: He cocks the hammer.

BIES: Prime.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSKET FIRING)

JOYCE: Some of the wounded lay for days before surgeons arrived.

BIES: Over a hundred-thousand soldiers had trampled¹⁹, shot, exploded, eaten, burned everything. Every single house, barn, was occupied by wounded soldiers, and the surgeons had very little to work with.

JOYCE: Many soldiers had been hit by a new kind of bullet, a soft, heavy projectile²⁰ called a Minie ball. At the Smithsonian, chief physical anthropologist¹⁰ Doug Owsley shows me a bone with the kind of wound a Minie ball would cause.

DOUG OWSLEY: You can see that this right femur, high up it's got a fracture up in the upper thigh.

JOYCE: It's shattered. Looks shattered to me.

OWSLEY: It's shattered, and it's a horrific fracture of that leg.

JOYCE: Antibiotics²¹ were unknown. Owsley says surgeons had to amputate to save lives. During the entire Civil War, they performed tens of thousands of amputations.

OWSLEY: When you start researching that, you find out what a horrible situation everybody was in.

JOYCE: Owsley says the surgeons at Bull Run were skilled, though. Tiny striations on the cuts show that they sawed swiftly but expertly. Bruwelheide and Owsley say the limb pit is the first ever excavated from a Civil War battlefield.

BRUWELHEIDE: You think you know everything about the Civil War, but then you have a project like this that opens up a whole new area of history, aftermaths of battles.

OWSLEY: It's so much a part of what actually happened during the Civil War as the only way they could really deal with these types of limb fractures, but you never see it. And here it is right in front of us.

JOYCE: The research team may be able to identify some of these soldiers. Owsley says the surgeons recorded patients' names along with the wounds and where they amputated. That might allow the team to match names with bones and perhaps even find out what happened to those who survived.

Christopher Joyce, NPR News.

1 unearthed   

出土的（考古）

参考例句：

• Many unearthed cultural relics are set forth in the exhibition hall. 展览馆里陈列着许多出土文物。
• Some utensils were in a state of decay when they were unearthed. 有些器皿在出土时已经残破。

2 survivors   

幸存者，残存者，生还者( survivor的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The survivors were adrift in a lifeboat for six days. 幸存者在救生艇上漂流了六天。
• survivors clinging to a raft 紧紧抓住救生筏的幸存者

3 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

4 musket   

n.滑膛枪

参考例句：

• I hunted with a musket two years ago.两年前我用滑膛枪打猎。
• So some seconds passed,till suddenly Joyce whipped up his musket and fired.又过了几秒钟，突然，乔伊斯端起枪来开了火。

5 muskets   

n.火枪，（尤指）滑膛枪( musket的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The watch below, all hands to load muskets. 另一组人都来帮着给枪装火药。 来自英汉文学 - 金银岛
• Deep ditch, single drawbridge, massive stone walls, eight at towers, cannon, muskets, fire and smoke. 深深的壕堑，单吊桥，厚重的石壁，八座巨大的塔楼。大炮、毛瑟枪、火焰与烟雾。 来自英汉文学 - 双城记

6 alludes   

提及，暗指( allude的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• In the vegetable kingdom Mr. Mivart only alludes to two cases. 在植物界中，密伐脱先生仅提出两点。
• Black-box testing alludes to test that are conducted at the software interface. 黑箱测试是指测试软件接口进行。

7 kit   

n.用具包，成套工具；随身携带物

参考例句：

• The kit consisted of about twenty cosmetic items.整套工具包括大约20种化妆用品。
• The captain wants to inspect your kit.船长想检查你的行装。

8 superintendent   

n.监督人，主管，总监；(英国)警务长

参考例句：

• He was soon promoted to the post of superintendent of Foreign Trade.他很快就被擢升为对外贸易总监。
• He decided to call the superintendent of the building.他决定给楼房管理员打电话。

9 excavated   

v.挖掘( excavate的过去式和过去分词 )；开凿；挖出；发掘

参考例句：

• The site has been excavated by archaeologists. 这个遗址已被考古学家发掘出来。
• The archaeologists excavated an ancient fortress. 考古学家们发掘出一个古堡。 来自《简明英汉词典》

10 anthropologist   

n.人类学家，人类学者

参考例句：

• The lecturer is an anthropologist.这位讲师是人类学家。
• The anthropologist unearthed the skull of an ancient human at the site.人类学家在这个遗址挖掘出那块古人类的颅骨。

11 forensic   

adj.法庭的，雄辩的

参考例句：

• The report included his interpretation of the forensic evidence.该报告包括他对法庭证据的诠释。
• The judge concluded the proceeding on 10:30 Am after one hour of forensic debate.经过近一个小时的法庭辩论后，法官于10时30分宣布休庭。

12 fluorescent   

adj.荧光的，发出荧光的

参考例句：

• They observed the deflections of the particles by allowing them to fall on a fluorescent screen.他们让粒子落在荧光屏上以观察他们的偏移。
• This fluorescent lighting certainly gives the food a peculiar color.这萤光灯当然增添了食物特别的色彩。

13 thigh   

n.大腿；股骨

参考例句：

• He is suffering from a strained thigh muscle.他的大腿肌肉拉伤了，疼得很。
• The thigh bone is connected to the hip bone.股骨连着髋骨。

14 neatly   

adv.整洁地，干净地，灵巧地，熟练地

参考例句：

• Sailors know how to wind up a long rope neatly.水手们知道怎样把一条大绳利落地缠好。
• The child's dress is neatly gathered at the neck.那孩子的衣服在领口处打着整齐的皱褶。

15 apparently   

adv.显然地；表面上，似乎

参考例句：

• An apparently blind alley leads suddenly into an open space.山穷水尽，豁然开朗。
• He was apparently much surprised at the news.他对那个消息显然感到十分惊异。

16 ridge   

n.山脊；鼻梁；分水岭

参考例句：

• We clambered up the hillside to the ridge above.我们沿着山坡费力地爬上了山脊。
• The infantry were advancing to attack the ridge.步兵部队正在向前挺进攻打山脊。

17 ram   

(random access memory)随机存取存储器

参考例句：

• 512k RAM is recommended and 640k RAM is preferred.推荐配置为512K内存，640K内存则更佳。

18 cartridge   

n.弹壳，弹药筒；(装磁带等的)盒子

参考例句：

• Unfortunately the 2G cartridge design is very difficult to set accurately.不幸地2G弹药筒设计非常难正确地设定。
• This rifle only holds one cartridge.这支来复枪只能装一发子弹。

19 trampled   

踩( trample的过去式和过去分词 )； 践踏； 无视； 侵犯

参考例句：

• He gripped his brother's arm lest he be trampled by the mob. 他紧抓着他兄弟的胳膊，怕他让暴民踩着。
• People were trampled underfoot in the rush for the exit. 有人在拼命涌向出口时被踩在脚下。

20 projectile   

n.投射物，发射体；adj.向前开进的；推进的；抛掷的

参考例句：

• The vertical and horizontal motions of a projectile can be treated independently.抛射体的竖直方向和水平方向的运动能够分开来处理。
• Have you altered the plans of the projectile as the telegram suggests?你已经按照电报的要求修改炮弹图样了吗?

21 antibiotics   

n.（用作复数）抗生素；（用作单数）抗生物质的研究；抗生素，抗菌素( antibiotic的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• the discovery of antibiotics in the 20th century 20世纪抗生素的发现
• The doctor gave me a prescription for antibiotics. 医生给我开了抗生素。