WIHA hosts Revolutionary War reenactor Graeme Marsden

Story & Photos by Marianne Salza

Donned in a 1770s British military surgeon uniform, with a black cocked hat and red wool coat, historical re-enactor, Graeme Marsden, of the First Foot Guards regiment, stood beside a wooden medical chest containing surgical instruments that would have been used amid conflict.

During the October 7 Winthrop Improvement & Historical Association’s (WIHA) dinner meeting, in the Deane Winthrop House barn, “Doctor George Marsden,” the gentleman’s period persona, described his experience caring for injured soldiers in the field during the War of Independence. 

“Most domestic physicians would not have a lot of training. The training was apprenticeship, and was much the same in America until 1910,” said Marsden. “Some of the physicians would be fully trained, especially those in London, which is where my regiment is from. The First Foot Guards have precedence, to this day, in the British Army.”

Marsden explained that military soldiers were treated as officers, and sent into conflicts. As the army moved from one pitched battle to the next, a surgeon and two assistants would set up a medical station nearby, usually on the opposite side of a hill to avoid cannon fire. 

“I would set up an operating table within ear shot of the battle,” Marsden described. “An operating table would be really rustic: two tree stumps and the door of a house.”

Marsden revealed how he and his assistants would care for cases, such as head injuries, gunshot wounds, and amputations, offering a look at his wooden-handled tools (some, replicas that he made himself). No invasive surgery was performed during that period, on of off the battlefield.

A gull-winged trephine saw was used to release pressure on the brain by creating a circular hole in the skull. The removed bone was replaced with a coin or piece of metal and the skin sewn using silk or waxed linen thread.

A patent tourniquet would tighten rapidly onto a strapped limb for amputation. Using a capital knife, a surgeon would cut an arm or leg off in two swift strokes.

Surgeons would also care for soldiers’ teeth, with extractions being most common. Molars would be twisted out using a goat’s foot hook or a tooth key.

“Sanitizing was not invented yet; nor has anesthesia. We will lie the patient down, and give him something for the pain,” Marsden demonstrated, biting on a wooden stick. “No bourbon. We don’t give out alcohol because alcohol is slow acting. We need to operate now. Its effect is uncertain. It could make you snooze or fighting drunk. The other thing is it causes blood supply to run to the skin. We don’t want that because we’re going to be cutting into them.”

Cleanliness was limited, with soap not yet commercially produced. Surgeons did not wash their hands between operations. They merely wiped them on a leather apron. At the end of the day, assistants – typically injured soldiers who were no longer active — would make sure there was no rust on instruments.

“They knew nothing about keeping things clean, I’m afraid,” remarked Marsden.

Few schools taught medicine at the time, so surgeons and physicians would travel abroad to Europe to attend medical school. Most would be trained by apprenticeship or by attending lectures in London.

Marsen has been performing in re-enactments for some 40 years, and took part in the May 28 re-enactment of the Battle of Chelsea Creek during the 250th anniversary celebration of the American Revolution. Today, the First Foot Guards regiment are referred to as Grenadier Guards, and protect the royal palaces in London.

Marsen is originally from Stalybridge, England, where he met his wife at a pub. He served as a biologist at the Imperial College of Science and Technology, London, and also worked in the botany department at the University of London. Marsden now resides in Quincy with his wife.