:: wikimiki.org ::

Ambulance

Ambulance

right An ambulance is a vehicle designated for the transport of sick or injured people. The first ambulances called by that name were horse ambulances used in the American Civil War. The first practical ambulances were created by Dominique Jean Larrey, a French surgeon (1766-1842), for use in the Napoleonic Wars. Modern-day ambulances are typically large automobiles on a van or light truck chassis. However, an ambulance can be any vehicle, including a bus, helicopter, or even a hospital ship. During the 1960s and 1970s, station wagons were used in some American cities (despite their limited space) and can be seen in motion pictures from that period. In some countries civilian ambulances may use the symbol referred to as the "Star of Life," a blue six point star, originally designed and governed by the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). Any unit displaying this star is said to be qualified to render its specific level of emergency care. Under the laws of war, an ambulance marked by a red cross is not to be fired on and is to be permitted to carry out its duties in spite of the fighting. An ambulance may not mount weapons, although the Israeli EMS has produced a "tankbulance" that combines a Merkava main battle tank with ambulance features (see below).

Ambulances in North America

Ambulance types

Merkava Ambulances in both the United States and Canada are defined by KKK-1822E requirements which defines several categories of ambulances.
- Type I Ambulances are based on the chassis-cabs of light duty pickup-trucks,
- Type II Ambulances are based in modern passenger/cargo vans,
- Type III Ambulances are based on chassis-cabs of light duty vans,
- Extreme Duty versions of both Type I and Type III are also now authorized based on the chassis-cabs of medium duty truck chassis. Note that Type I's and Type III's are often called boxes by their crews with Type II's being called vanbulances; ambulances are also referred to as buses, which is not a very well liked term among paramedics, (as it denotes a negative slurr), mods or modulars (if type I or III), rigs etc.
- There are also fly-cars, which are large cars or SUVs. These units cannot provide patient transport, but are used variously by supervisors or as a source of additional personel.

Ambulance Providers

fly-car Ambulance service providers come in several types in the USA: 1. Volunteer Ambulance Corps (VAC) or services - like Volunteer Fire Companies, St. John Ambulance are the most common and may be found everywhere, from NYC to the smallest rural community all around the world. VACs may be community owned or privately owned, usually non-profit. Alternately, VACs may be part of Volunteer Fire Companies; in some of these cases, EMTs and drivers are also firefighters. Up until recently, Harbor City Volunteer Ambulance Squad (HCVAS) in Melbourne, Florida was the largest volunteer ambulance squad in the United States. 2. Private Ambulance Service - Normal commercial companies of which the largest is AMR (American Medical Response). While many private companies provide inter-facility patient transfer, many communities' 911 needs are served by privates. 3. Municipal Third Service (city and some metropolitan counties) - Operate as a third service alongside fire and police departments. 4. Municipal - Usually fire department owned and operated, or police department owned and operated. Police department owned and operated ambulances are very uncommon, although fire department owned and operated ambulances are common in some areas. 5. Combined- these are full service emergency service agencies such as airport and college public safety offices. Some smaller towns and cities may also have them. Generally all personnel are crosstrained as EMT's/Firefighter/peace officer.

Service Level

The lines between one level of care and the next are becoming increasingly blurred. Skills that were once reserved for physicians are now routinely done by paramedics, and skills once reserved for paramedics are now routinely done by basic (BLS) Emergency medical technicians (EMTs). There is also wide country-to-country, state-to-state (or province-to-province), and even county-to-county variation of what types of care providers at different levels are allowed to provide. That said:
- Basic Life Support or BLS - usually consists of two EMTs or an EMT and a driver. Provides oxygen therapy, splinting, bleeding control, defibrillation with an AED,and light extrication (eg: removing a victim from a car, but not using the jaws of life.)
- Advanced Life Support or ALS - usually consists of an EMT and an EMT Intermediate, or an EMT and a paramedic. EMT-Intermediates provide BLS care with the addition of IV therapy, and often intubation. For systems where a paramedic is on board, the paramedic can also provide manual defibrillation and advanced electrical therapy including transcutaneous pacing (fitting a temporary pacemaker to the patient's chest) and synchronized cardioversion (an advanced form of defibrillation), intubation, medication administration, pleural (chest) decompression, and more.
- Mobile Intensive Care Unit (MICU) - Some services divide ALS, as described above, into units staffed by Intermediates, which they call "ALS units" and units staffed by paramedics, frequently called "MICUs" or "paramedic units." These usually consist of either an EMT and a paramedic or multiple paramedics, and provide the full range of advanced services to include IV therapy, Cardiac monitoring and drugs, pain killers. etc. In some locations, physicians may ride MICUs for special calls or as a matter of course.
- Critical Care Units - consist of a combination of EMTs/Paramedics/Nurses/Physicians depending on the need and service. They may provide special transports for premature babies, cardiac transfers, etc, although in some services, these are standard ALS units.

Need for Flexibility

There is a continuous flux in terms of types of services due to constant efforts to improve efficiency and effectiveness. Indeed, many fire departments are fire-oriented only in name and are becoming all-purpose emergency services organizations. Ambulances in the United States are usually staffed by at least one EMT driver and one paramedic. Paramedics in the U.S. are professionally trained emergency medical technicians, a healthcare profession distinct from physicians and nurses. American paramedics called to an emergency will identify and treat anyone needing medical assistance. They stabilize and transport those in need of further medical care to hospitals, calling for additional ambulances as necessary. If the scene is dangerous (because someone is brandishing a gun or a building is on fire) paramedics usually do not enter until police or fire personnel explicitly allow them to do so. Large American cities like New York and Los Angeles tend to have many distinct ambulance services representing all of the types mentioned above, so pedestrians and drivers must be alert for ambulances of many shapes, sizes, and colors. However, many smaller cities and suburbs are completely dominated by AMR, and AMR vehicles are synonymous with "ambulance" in those areas. American ambulances usually are fitted with red (and sometimes white, amber and blue) flashing lights and a siren that continuously rises and falls, as opposed to the two or three-tone sirens heard in other countries. When an ambulance turns on its lights and siren, all other drivers are required by law to pull off to the side of the road and yield the right of way.

Ambulances in France & Europe

siren siren In France, the most general term is "vehicle adapted to patient transport", the term "ambulance" only applies for some categories of patient transport vehicles. The word "ambulance" is reserved to transportation on medical prescription, including oral prescription in case of emergency. It does not apply to first responders vehicles (most of times firefighters), although they also transport casualties; their vehicles are called VSAV–véhicule de secours et d'assistance aux victimes (rescue and assistance to casualties vehicle), or VPS–véhicules de premiers secours (first responders vehicles) in case of volunteers from associations. The VSAV and VPS are considered as vectors that bring rescue workers and devices onsite, the evacuation being only the logical following of this intervention but not their main duty. There are therefore two kinds of ambulance providers: hospitals and private companies. The reglementation classifies the patient transport vehicles in four types:
- A-type : ambulance for rescue and emergency care (ambulance de secours et de soins d'urgence–Assu) : in these ambulances, the personnel can stand; only these vehicles can be used for emergency (sanitary duty and H-MICU, see below) ;
- B-type : rescue and assistance to casualty vehicles (VSAV), i.e. first responders vehicles, very close to the A-type ;
- C-type : ambulance : the personnel cannot stand, it only allows the transport of a lying patient and of a sitting ambulance technician besides ; due to the lack of room, cares cannot be performed during the transport (these vehicles tend to disappear) ;
- D -type: light vehicle (véhicule sanitaire léger–VSL) : normal car without any specific equipment, for patient who can sit. The A, B and C-types are called "specially equipped" vehicles, and must follow the NF EN 1789 standard (December 1999).

First responders vehicles

A VSAV has three professional¹ CFR onboard, a VPS has five volunteer CFR. The first responders of the VSAV and VPS are called secouristes and have 60 hours of initial education (plus additional continuous education) and perform non-medical, non-invasive acts. They use splints (including cervical collars, long spine boards and vacuum mattresses), oxygen first aid, and make the casualty lifting. Note # some firefighters are not full-time professionals; they are called "pompiers volontaires", but they are paid for their work, whereas the volunteers from CFR associations (secouristes bénévoles) are not paid.

Hospital ambulances

There are two kind of hospital ambulances:
- internal ambulances, which drive the patients from a building to the other; these are sometimes simple vehicles without any medical equipment when the transport do not require any care (these are always very short transportations).
- the UMH–unité mobile hospitalière (H-MICU–hospital medical intensive care unit) from the SMURr–service mobile d'urgence et de réanimation (mobile emergency resuscitation service) : an ambulance with an MD, a nurse and an ambulance technician that do pre-hospital intervention and interhospital transportation under intensive care. The H-MICU is often a light rapid-intervention vehicle, i.e. a car carrying the personnel and the material to the casualty; the transport itself is made with a VSAV or a private ambulance equipped with the medical unit.

Special warning devices and traffic law

The H-MICU (A-type) and VSAV (B-type) have a blue rotating light and a two-tones siren (high-low-high-low-high-low...). When these special warning devices are on and when the emergency of the mission justifies it and as long as they do not endanger the life of other people, the traffic law allow them to get rid of certain limitations such as speed limits, direction of driving, priorities and traffic light. In most states, this allows ambulances to travel no more than 5 miles per hour above the posted speed limit. Also, when approaching a red light, the ambulance must first stop, determine the intersection is clear, and then may proceed. The ambulance of private companies (A- and C-type) have a blue flashing light and a three-tones siren (high-low-high...high-low-high...). When these special warning devices are on and when the emergency of the mission justifies it and as long as they do not endanger the life of other people, traffic laws allow them to get rid of certain limitations such as speed limits while respecting lane priorities and traffic lights.

Ambulances in the UK

In the UK, ambulance services are provided under the National Health Service through local ambulance 'trusts'. Each trust is specific to a county or area, and so the country is divided across a number of ambulance trusts, in a similar way to the British Police are. Most trusts offer three levels of personnel for service: care assistants, technicians and paramedics. Care assistants operate PTS (Patient Transport Services), which is largely concerned with the moving of patients between hospital and home. Technicians and paramedics crew the emergency ambulances, providing more urgent transport and also paramedical care of casualties. Occasionally, when not attending emergency incidents, technicians and paramedics may help out with PTS duties. Ambulance Trust's performance is measured. The Governments targets are to reach 75% of Category A (life threatening) calls within 8 minutes. A number of initiatives have been introduced to assist meeting these targets, including Rapid Responders and Community Responders. Ambulance crews work a shift rota, and working nights and public holidays is seen as part of the job. Many people start out in a PTS role to gain experience of patient care, and then progress onto additional technician training at a later date. This has always been the classic method of entry into the ambulance service, although more recently some Universities have started to offer paramedicine degrees, with guaranteed direct entry into technician status on completion. These courses are somewhat controversial, with some more experienced ambulance staff arguing that such a fast-track approach misses the experience of PTS where recruits learn vital interpersonal skills. Direct entry to paramedic is not available, and can only be achieved via the technician route. Many trusts receive several hundred applicants per place, and this allows them to be very discriminating. Technician training in many trusts is a 10 week course, usually residential. The IHCD division of Edexcel provides the qualifications for ambulance technicians and paramedics, and qualifiers become known as "state registered" or "IHCD registered". Without this registration, crewing of emergency vehicles or administration of certain medical techniques is forbidden. Private ambulance services are becoming more common in the UK, along with the traditional voluntary sectors, such as the Red Cross and St. John Ambulance. However both the voluntary and private services tend to be concerned with PTS, and it is rare (although not unheard of) to find an emergency being attended by a non-NHS ambulance. The relevant UK legislation applies to all ambulances with no discrimination as to who owns or operates them. The majority of UK Private Ambulance Services are members of the British Ambulance Association. In the UK, a minority of NHS ambulance staff are highly critical of the voluntary and private services, and there may exist an elitist attitude within some trusts. This may stem from hatred incurred during the various ambulance strikes, where private, voluntary and military ambulance services have stepped in to provide cover, earning them the title "scabs" (a northern British slang term for people who break a trade union strike) . Most trusts are more positive about the additional services, even welcoming them as a means to reduce their own workload!

Private ambulance companies

In the United States, private ambulance companies perform non-urgent transportation from home to hospital and back (e.g. regular dialysis, programmed surgical operation, this could be described as a "white taxi") or between hospitals. They also participate to the sanitary duty: they make interventions at home for relative emergencies (their response time is not compatible with "real" emergencies); the crew of a private ambulance is made of an ambulance driver and an ambulance technician, both usually EMT's. In France, no ambulance drivers are legally required to have any first aid training although most have at least basic first aid training. For simple transport (no care required), private companies also provide light vehicles called VSL–véhicule sanitaire léger, for seated transport. The crew has only one the ambulance driver. In this case, the driver must have the basic first aid diploma.

Military ambulances

taxi Ambulance]] taxi.]] Military ambulances include both regular ambulances painted in olive and armed ambulances based upon AFVs. Military helicopters often function as aerial ambulances, since they are extremely useful for MEDEVAC. Due to the high level of danger in battle-fields, military ambulances are often armored, or based upon armored fighting vehicles (AFV). Since laws of war demand ambulances not to mount any weapon, an ambulance AFV is disarmed and marked by a red cross or another accepted medical marking. Recently, Israel has modified some of its Merkava main battle tanks with ambulance features in order to allow rescue operations to take place under heavy fire in urban warfare. The modifications were made following a failed rescue attempt in which Palestinian gunmen killed two soldiers who aided a Palestinian woman in Rafah. Since M-113 armoured personnel carriers and regular up-armored ambulances are not protected enough against anti-tank weapons and improvised explosive devices, commonly used by Palestinian militants against both military and civilian Israeli vehicles, it was decided to use the Merkava tank, because it features heavy armor and a rear door enabling the evacuation of critically wounded soldiers. Though ambulances may not carry weapons, Israel did not remove the Merkava's weaponry, citing the fact that Palestinian militants do not adhere to international law.

References

- Meisel, Zachary (Nov. 8, 2005). [http://www.slate.com/id/2129684/ "Ding-a-Ling-a-Ling"]. Slate. Category:Patient transport Category:Emergency vehicles ja:救急車

Person

Person, in the classic sense, refers to a living human being. However, in philosophy, there has been debate over the precise meaning and correct usage of the term, whether the classical definition should be expanded or in some cases reduced, and which constituent elements or criteria must exist to establish personhood.

Are all persons human?

Firstly, there is the simple and traditional view that the common usage is the correct one: that "person" does indeed mean "human". However, this runs into the problem that the term "person" has a somewhat loaded meaning - we commonly believe that all and only persons have certain rights, for example, the right to life. Some would go so far as to say that all and only persons are sacred. However, we can imagine the hypothetical alien from another planet, who, despite not being human, nevertheless has every trait that we see as being essential for this protected status that elevates it above mere objects. Thus, many claim that the simple view implies a sort of arrogant speciesism. There are also religious views that attribute personhood to supernatural beings such as gods, angels, demons, elves, and so on. Similar ethical debates centre around the question of animal rights and artificial intelligence. Some would argue that humans have an amount of hubris that could potentially prevent us from recognizing the personhood of other sentient species. Some argue that certain primates and cetaceans (particularly the most highly intelligent species, such as the Great Apes and dolphins and killer whales) possess enough of the commonly held criteria for personhood to be considered persons. Recently corvids (crow species) have been recognized as highly intelligent tool users and strategists, while parrots display more linguistic intelligence. (see also animal intelligence and animal cognition). In fact, it is possible to teach a gorilla sign language, as evidenced by the case of Koko, who has expressed pride and flattery at having been awarded a place in the Guinness Book of Records for this. Some extend the list still further. In the future sentient programs and computers may even emerge, extending the argument beyond all biological realms. The issue of how we might discern whether artificial information processing systems are conscious will likely become a matter of important debate. Alan Turing first suggested that we give convincing machines or programs the benefit of the doubt, using his Turing test. However, even a simple chatbot can fool people for a time. The best evidence for consciousness or "sentience" would be the subjective reports of people undergoing gradual replacement of brain tissue with artificial processors (see cyborgs). For example, surgeons are already beginning to integrate artificial "neural prosthetics" in patients to repair some forms of brain damage. At some point such a person's cognitive system could require no biological elements. Because the process is gradual, the success or failure of the facilitation of phenomenal elements of conscious experience in a particular device could be reported by a person whom we are pragmatically warranted is considered conscious from the outset. At least in artificial systems designed in the same manner, we would be much more warranted in ascribing personhood than the low standards of the Turing test. Justification would become extremely high for ascribing personhood to any artificial cognitive system that either (1) became artificial through a gradual process of "cyborgization" (permitting subjective reports from a highly trusted source) or (2) was an artificial cognitive system whose design replicated a completely artificial stage of a cyborgization process that has been proven effective, in all relevant respects (e.g. not "personality," but the same type of hardware, organization, and operations). An elaboration on this theme is sometimes called "uploading", though the term carries baggage. "Uploading" here refers to a theoretical transfer of a mind to an artificial environment. Uploading proposals tend to assume that the mind does not persist through time in a substantial way (usually theoretically grounded on "deep reductivist" arguments that there is no soul or "self") so making a "copy" of brain structures is - in terms of survival - just as good as preserving the original structure. Advocates also tend to believe that such a copy would have conscious experience rather than merely acting as a convincing automaton. Reservations aside though, there does not seem to be any intrinsic reason that, some day, the mind of a human subject could not gradually extend into a functional simulation running on an advanced supercomputer. Related to this idea are cyberpunk/postcyberpunk science fiction (especially Ghost in the Shell) and the Transhumanist movement.

Are all humans persons?

There are certain challenges to the classical view regarding disputes over whether certain humans are persons. For example, in the abortion controversy, although the fetus is clearly of the human species, the personhood of the fetus has been challenged and has become a matter of debate. Some argue that an early stage a fetus is not a person, because of its lack of any form of consciousness, while others would argue that they are persons because they are human, or because they will develop into conscious beings. Also, in the case of a victim of severe brain damage who has no mental activity, many would concede that the person has ceased to exist, leaving only an "empty shell".

Possible criteria for personhood

The above points seem to indicate that there may be persons that are not human, and there may be humans that are not persons. For these reasons, many philosophers have tried to give a more precise definition, focusing on some trait or traits that all persons, real and hypothetical, must possess. The most obvious such trait that individuals considered persons usually possess is a conscious mind, typically (but not necessarily) with plans, goals, desires, hopes, fears, and so on. These traits therefore form a natural set of criteria for personhood. Despite this, these criteria are controversial. In particular, some have argued that these criteria fail to recognize babies as persons. Although they meet some of the criteria, such as some degree of consciousness, and the ability to feel pain, the mental abilities of a newborn baby often seem to some to be no more impressive than many animals not commonly considered persons. Another problematic example is the status of a person in deep sleep, with no consciousness at the moment, but who upon waking would return to being an entity with full subjective awareness in the future. However, this latter case becomes less problematic with the assistance of theories of embodied subjectivity (mind-brain identity or unity), which allow for the persistence of an intelligent physical system that both has been self-aware in the past and has the capacity to continue being self-aware in the future. A variation of this example is a "reversibly comatose patient," though criteria for reversibility complicate such an analysis. Because of these problems, some philosophers suggest that the potential to become fully thinking beings is sufficient to convey personhood, regardless of present mental status. Others take this view for essentially religious reasons. A consequence of this view is that an embryo would be considered a person from conception; but others see the idea of a single cell - with absolutely no mind of any sort - being a person as counterintuitive. It is a matter of debate when in development any conscious awareness is possible, as seemingly cognitive behaviour that may or may not be attributable to stimuli can be seen at multiple stages in a pregnancy. Nevertheless, consistent correlative evidence enables us to rule out awareness in the early and middle stages of foetal development with a high degree of confidence. As is reported in the August 24, 2005 Clinical Review article, Foetal Pain: A Systematic Multidisciplinary Review of the Evidence, at 29 weeks of development fetuses have mature somatosensory evoked potentials that indicate that pain signals travel above the spine, through the thalamus and to the somatosensory cortex; and at around 30 weeks of development the brain's EEG signals suggest the first signs of wakefulness. Wakefulness is a necessary condition for any awareness, including pain recognition, but is insufficient for awareness without a functional somatosensory cortex to recognize pain signals as such - which is lacking for people in permanently vegetative states. Because these two necessary conditions for consciousness do not occur before the 29th week of development, fetuses cannot be consciously aware (and therefore subjects of experience) before the 29th week. Another view amongst scholars is that personhood is not all-or-nothing: there can be degrees of personhood, based on how close to a fully working mind the individual in question has. Thus, a typical adult is entirely a person, while a human permanently in a persistent vegetative state would not be considered a person at all. Partial personhood is tacitly recognized by law in most cultures as reflected by parental rights and obligations, and in legal treatment of minors, the mentally handicapped, and the comatose. However, other philosophers argue that the concept of an incomplete or partial person is dangerous, possibly leading to weakened protection for those not considered complete persons. Others would argue that we are all incomplete or "developing" persons regardless of our developmental state.

Personhood theory

According to Boethius: :Person is an individual substance of rational nature. As individual it is material, since matter supplies the principle of individuation. The soul is not person, only the composite is. Man alone is among the material beings person, he alone having a rational nature. He is the highest of the material beings, endowed with particular dignity and rights. In recent years a kind of consensus among secular scholars has emerged, which might be referred to as "personhood theory". The criteria a person must have in personhood theory are one or more of the following: # Consciousness, # The ability to steer one's attention and action purposively, # Self-awareness, self-bonded to objectivities (existing independently of the subject's perception of it), # Self as longitudinal thematic identity, one's biographic identity. Neo-Kantian philosophers over the last two decades have emphasized that conscious awareness requires both: # The sensorial capacity to access an environment (and one's own body) in a way that offers the basic qualitative content for subjective experience. # The intellectual capacity to conceptually interpret sensorial content as representing some thing to oneself. Both of these capacities are required for a subject of experience, action, thought, or self-reflection to exist, at least in the physically embodied, world-accessing manner of humans (and presumably other intelligent animals). As Kant wrote: Without sensibility no object would be given to us, and without understanding none would be thought. Thoughts without content are empty, intuitions without concepts are blind. (Critique of Pure Reason, A 51 = B 75). For those who consider an embodied capacity for subjectivity as necessary for personhood, these abstract constraints are quite relevant to the personhood theory debate. Advocates of alternative positions, such as a biological species or potentiality criterion, would instead need to provide arguments against embodied subjectivity as a basis for personhood. For example, one might argue that property claims are made by immaterial minds on immature material bodies, though any claim as to the nature of such minds would be necessarily speculative and would typically involve an argument for Cartesian substance dualism (see "mind-body problem").

Implications of the personhood debate

Personhood theory has become a pivotal issue in the interdisciplinary field of bioethics. While historically most humans did not enjoy full legal protection as "persons" (women, children, non-landowners, minorities, slaves, etc.), from the late 18th through the late 20th century being born as a member of the human species gradually became secular grounds for an appeal for basic rights of liberty, freedom from persecution, and humanitarian care. Since modern movements emerged to oppose animal cruelty (and advocate vegetarian or vegan lifestyles) and theorists like Turing have recognized the possibility of artificial minds with human-level competence, the identification of personhood protections exclusively with human species membership has been challenged. On the other hand, some proponents of "human exceptionism" (also referred to as "speciesism") have countered that we must institute a strict demarcation of personhood based on species membership in order to avoid the horrors of genocide (based on propaganda dehumanizing one or more ethnicities) or the injustices of forced sterilization (as occurred in the U.S. to people with low I.Q. scores and prisoners). While the former advocates tend to be comfortable constraining personhood status within the human species based on basic capacities (e.g. excluding human stem cells, fetuses, and bodies that cannot recover awareness), the latter often wish to include all these forms of human bodies even if they have never had awareness (which some would call "pre-persons") or had awareness, but could never have awareness again due to massive and irrecoverable brain damage (some would call these "post-persons"). The Vatican has recently been advancing a human exceptionist understanding of personhood theory, while other communities such as Christian Evangelicals in the U.S. have sometimes rejected personhood theory as biased against human exeptionism. Of course, many religious communities (of many traditions) find the more politically "progressive" versions of personhood theory perfectly compatible with their faith, as do the majority of modern Humanists. The theoretical landscape of personhood theory has been altered recently by controversy in the bioethics community concerning an emerging community of scholars, researchers and activists identifying with an explicitly Transhumanist position, which supports morphological freedom even if some people change so much as to no longer be considered members of the human species (whatever standard is used for this determination). Francis Fukuyama first brought the transhumanist philosophy to the attention of the bioethics community in 2002 with his critical book, Our Posthuman Future, in which he presents a bioconservative view.

Individual rights and responsibility

Closely related to the debate on the definition of personhood is the relationship between persons, individual rights, and ethical responsibility. Many philosophers would agree that all and only persons are expected to be ethically responsible, and that all persons deserve a varying degree of individual rights (see human rights). There is less consensus on whether only persons deserve individual rights and whether persons deserve greater individual rights than non-persons. The rights of non-person animals are an example of contention on this issue (see animal rights).

Corporations as persons

See also legal entity (artificial person) and natural person Largely separate from the discussion of "real" persons are considerations regarding artificial persons such as corporations and states. In Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific Railroad Company the United States Supreme Court ruled that a corporation is considered a person for many legal purposes. Many question the wisdom of this; the philosopher John Ralston Saul said, "If you are a person before the law and Exxon or Ford is also a person, it is clear that the concept of democratic legitimacy lying with the individual has been mortally wounded." It must be emphasized that corporate personhood is a legal fiction -- in other terms, a convenient assumption adopted for practical reasons that is not necessarily accepted as true (see also the documentary film The Corporation).

References

- Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
- [http://www.iep.utm.edu/ The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy]
- Fetal Pain: A Systematic Multidisciplinary Review of the Evidence, Clinical Review August 24, 2005 Category:Humans Category:Personal life Category:Philosophical terminology

American Civil War

The American Civil War (1861–1865) was fought in North America within the United States of America, between twenty-four mostly northern states of the Union and the Confederate States of America, a coalition of eleven southern states that declared their independence and claimed the right of secession from the Union in 1860–1861. The war produced over 970,000 casualties (3.09% of population), including approximately 560,300 deaths (1.78%), a loss of more American lives than any other conflict in history. The causes of the war, and even the name of the war itself, are still debated (see the article Naming the American Civil War).

The division of the country

Naming the American Civil War

The Deep South

Seven states seceded shortly after the election of Abraham Lincoln in 1860 – even before he was inaugurated:
- South Carolina (December 21, 1860),
- Mississippi (January 9, 1861),
- Florida (January 10, 1861),
- Alabama (January 11, 1861),
- Georgia (January 19, 1861),
- Louisiana (January 26, 1861), and
- Texas (February 1, 1861). These States of the Deep South, where slavery and cotton plantation agriculture were most dominant, formed the Confederate States of America (February 4, 1861), with Jefferson Davis as President, and a governmental structure closely modeled on the U.S. Constitution (see also: Confederate States Constitution). After the Battle of Fort Sumter, South Carolina, Lincoln called for troops from all remaining states to recover the forts, resulting in the secession of four more states: Virginia (April 17, 1861), Arkansas (May 6, 1861), North Carolina (May 20, 1861), and Tennessee (June 8, 1861).

Border States

Main article: Border states (Civil War) Along with the northwestern counties of Virginia (whose residents did not wish to secede and eventually entered the Union in 1863 as West Virginia), four of the five northernmost "slave states," (Maryland, Delaware, Missouri, and Kentucky) did not secede, and became known as the Border States. Delaware, which in the 1860 election had voted for Southern Democrat John C. Breckinridge, had few slaves and never considered secession. Maryland also voted for Breckinridge, and after rioting in Baltimore and other events had prompted a Federal declaration of martial law, its legislature rejected secession (April 27, 1861). Both Missouri and Kentucky remained in the Union, but factions within each state organized "secessions" that were recognized by the CSA. In Missouri, the State government under Governor Claiborne F. Jackson, a southern sympathizer, evacuated the state capital of Jefferson City and met in-exile at the town of Neosho, Missouri, adopting a secession ordinance that was recognized by the Confederacy on October 30, 1861, while the Union organized a competing State government by calling a constitutional convention that had originally been convened to vote on secession. (See also: Missouri secession). Missouri secession Although Kentucky did not secede, for a time it declared itself neutral. During a brief occupation by the Confederate Army, Southern sympathizers organized a secession convention, inaugurated a Confederate Governor, and gained recognition from the Confederacy. Residents of the northwestern counties of Virginia organized a secession from Virginia, with a plan for gradual emancipation, and entered the Union in 1863 as West Virginia. Similar secessions were supported in some other areas of the Confederacy (such as eastern Tennessee), but were suppressed by declarations of martial law by the Confederacy. Conversely, the southern half of the Federal Territory of New Mexico voted to secede, and was accepted into the Confederacy as the Territory of Arizona (see map below), with its capital in Mesilla (now part of New Mexico). Although the northern half of New Mexico never voted to secede, the Confederacy did lay claim to this territory and briefly occupied the territorial capital of Santa Fe between March 13 and April 8, 1862, but never organized a territorial government.

Origins of the conflict

:Main articles: Origins of the American Civil War, Timeline of events Timeline of events. In their agitation against the South, abolitionists cited the slave codes as an example of the barbarism of Southern society. Above, a woodcut from the abolitionist Anti-Slavery Almanac (1839) depicts the capture of a fugitive slave by a slave patrol.]] There had been a continuing contest between the states and the national government over the power of the latter, and over the loyalty of the citizenry, almost since the founding of the republic. The Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions of 1798, for example, had defied the Alien and Sedition Acts, and at the Hartford Convention, New England voiced its opposition to President Madison and the War of 1812. In 1828 and 1832 the Congress passed protective tariffs to benefit trade in the northern states. It was deemed a "Tariff of Abominations" and its provisions would have imposed a significant economic penalty on South Carolina and other southern states if left in force. South Carolina dealt with the tariffs by adopting the Ordinance of Nullification, which declared both the tariffs of 1828 and 1832 null and void within state borders. The legislature also passed laws to enforce the ordinance, including authorization for raising a military force and appropriations for arms. In response to South Carolina's threat, Congress passed a "Force Bill" and President Andrew Jackson sent seven small naval vessels and a man-of-war to Charleston in November 1832. On December 10, he issued a resounding proclamation against the nullifiers. On the eve of the Civil War, the United States was a nation composed of four quite distinct regions: the Northeast, with a growing industrial and commercial economy and an increasing density of population; the Northwest, now known as the Midwest, a rapidly expanding region of free farmers where slavery had been forever prohibited under the Northwest Ordinance; the Upper South, with a settled plantation system and (in some areas) declining economic fortunes; and the Southwest, a booming frontier-like region with an expanding cotton economy. With two fundamentally different labor systems at their base, the economic and social changes across the nation's geographical regions – based on wage labor in the North and on slavery in the South – underlay distinct visions of society that had emerged by the mid-nineteenth century in the North and in the South. Before the Civil War, the Constitution provided a basis for peaceful debate over the future of government, and had been able to regulate conflicts of interest and conflicting visions for the new, rapidly expanding nation. For many years, compromises had been made to balance the number of "free states" and "slave states" so that there would be a balance in the Senate. The last slave state admitted was Texas in 1845, with five free states admitted between 1846 and 1859. The admission of Kansas as a slave state had recently been blocked, and it was due to enter as a free state instead in 1861. The rise of mass democracy in the industrializing North, the breakdown of the old two-party system, and increasingly virulent and hostile sectional ideologies in the mid-nineteenth century made it highly unlikely, if not impossible, to bring about the gentlemanly compromises of the past (such as the Missouri Compromise and the Compromise of 1850) necessary to avoid crisis. Also the existence of slave labor in the South made the Northern States the preferred destination for new immigrants from Europe resulting in an increasing dominance of the North in Congress and in Presidential elections, due to population size. Sectional tensions changed in their nature and intensity rapidly during the 1850s. The United States Republican Party was established in 1854. The new party opposed the expansion of slavery in the Western territories. Although only a small share of Northerners favored measures to abolish slavery in the South, the Republicans were able to mobilize popular support among Northerners and Westerners who did not want to compete against slave labor if the system were expanded beyond the South. The Republicans won the support of many ex-Whigs and Northern ex-Democrats concerned about the South's disproportionate influence in the Senate, the Buchanan administration, and the Supreme Court. Meanwhile, the profitability of cotton, or "King Cotton," as it was touted, solidified the South's dependence on the plantation system and its foundation: slave labor. A small class of slave barons, especially cotton planters, dominated the politics and society of the South. King Cotton Southern secession was triggered by the election of Republican Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln was a moderate in his opposition to slavery. He pledged to do all he could to oppose the expansion of slavery into the territories (thus also preventing the admission of any additional slave states to the Union); but he also said the federal government did not have the power to abolish slavery in the states in which it already existed, and that he would enforce Fugitive Slave Laws. The southern states expected increasing hostility to their "peculiar institution"; not trusting Lincoln, and mindful that many other Republicans were intent on complete abolition of slavery. Lincoln had even encouraged abolitionists with his 1858 "House divided" speech[http://showcase.netins.net/web/creative/lincoln/speeches/house.htm], though that speech was also consistent with an eventual end of slavery achieved gradually and voluntarily with compensation to slave-owners and resettlement of former slaves. In addition to Lincoln's presidential victory, the slave states had lost the balance of power in the Senate and were facing a future as a perpetual minority after decades of nearly continuous control of the presidency and the Congress. Southerners also felt they could no longer prevent protectionist tariffs such as the Morrill Tariff. The Southern justification for a unilateral right to secede cited the doctrine of states' rights, which had been debated before with the 1798 Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions, and the 1832 Nullification Crisis with regard to tariffs. Before Lincoln took office, seven states seceded from the union, and attempted to establish an independent southern government, the Confederate States of America on February 9, 1861. They took control of federal forts and property within their boundaries, with little resistance from President Buchanan. Ironically, by seceding, the rebel states weakened any claim to the territories that were in dispute, canceled any obligation for the North to return fugitive slaves, and assured easy passage of many bills and amendments they had long opposed. The Civil War began when Confederate General P.G.T. Beauregard opened fire upon Fort Sumter in Charleston, South Carolina on April 12, 1861. There were no casualties from enemy fire in this battle.

Narrative summary

1861 Lincoln's victory in the presidential election of 1860 triggered South Carolina's secession from the Union. Lincoln was not even on the ballot in nine states in the South. Leaders in South Carolina had long been waiting for an event that might unite the South against the anti-slavery forces. Once the election returns were certain, a special South Carolina convention declared "that the Union now subsisting between South Carolina and other states under the name of the 'United States of America' is hereby dissolved." By February 1, 1861, six more Southern states had seceded. On February 7, the seven states adopted a provisional constitution for the Confederate States of America and established their capital at Montgomery, Alabama. The pre-war peace conference of 1861 met at Washington, D.C. The remaining southern states as yet remained in the Union. Several seceding states seized federal forts within their boundaries; President Buchanan made no military response. Less than a month later, on March 4, 1861, Abraham Lincoln was sworn in as President of the United States. In his inaugural address, he argued that the Constitution was a more perfect union than the earlier Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union, that it was a binding contract, and called the secession "legally void". He stated he had no intent to invade southern states, but would use force to maintain possession of federal property. His speech closed with a plea for restoration of the bonds of union. The South did send delegations to Washington and offered to pay for the federal properties, but they were turned down. On April 12, the South fired upon the federal troops stationed at Fort Sumter in Charleston, South Carolina until the troops surrendered. Lincoln called for all of the states in the Union to send troops to recapture the forts and preserve the Union. Most Northerners hoped that a quick victory for the Union would crush the nascent rebellion, and so Lincoln only called for volunteers for 90 days. This resulted in four more states voting to secede. Once Virginia seceded, the Confederate capital was moved to Richmond, Virginia. Even though the Southern states had seceded, there was considerable anti-secessionist sentiment within several of the seceding states. Eastern Tennessee, in particular, was a hotbed for pro-Unionism. Winston County, Alabama issued a resolution of secession from the state of Alabama. The Red Strings were a prominent Southern anti-secession group. Winfield Scott created the Anaconda Plan as the Union's main plan of attack during the war.

Eastern Theater 1861–1863

Because of the fierce resistance of a few initial Confederate forces at Manassas, Virginia, in July 1861, a march by Union troops under the command of Maj. Gen. Irvin McDowell on the Confederate forces there was halted in the First Battle of Bull Run, or First Manassas, whereupon they were forced back to Washington, D.C., by Confederate troops under the command of Generals Joseph E. Johnston and P.G.T. Beauregard. It was in this battle that Confederate General Thomas Jackson received the name of "Stonewall" because he stood like a stone wall against Union troops. Alarmed at the loss, and in an attempt to prevent more slave states from leaving the Union, the U.S. Congress passed the Crittenden-Johnson Resolution on July 25 of that year, which stated that the war was being fought to preserve the Union and not to end slavery. Major General George B. McClellan took command of the Union Army of the Potomac on July 26 (he was briefly general-in-chief of all the Union armies, but was subsequently relieved of that post in favor of Maj. Gen. Henry W. Halleck), and the war began in earnest in 1862. Upon the strong urging of President Lincoln to begin offensive operations, McClellan invaded Virginia in the spring of 1862 by way of the peninsula between the York River and James River, southeast of Richmond. Although McClellan's army reached the gates of Richmond in the Peninsula Campaign, Joseph E. Johnston halted his advance at the Battle of Seven Pines, then Robert E. Lee defeated him in the Seven Days Battles and forced his retreat. McClellan was stripped of many of his troops to reinforce John Pope's Union Army of Virginia. Pope was beaten spectacularly by Lee in the Northern Virginia Campaign and the Second Battle of Bull Run in August. Second Battle of Bull Run Emboldened by Second Bull Run, the Confederacy made its first invasion of the North, when General Lee led 55,000 men of the Army of Northern Virginia across the Potomac River into Maryland on September 5. Lincoln then restored Pope's troops to McClellan. McClellan and Lee fought at the Battle of Antietam near Sharpsburg, Maryland, on September 17, 1862, the bloodiest single day in American history. Lee's army, checked at last, returned to Virginia before McClellan could destroy it. Antietam is considered a Union victory because it halted Lee's invasion of the North and provided justification for Lincoln to announce his Emancipation Proclamation. When the cautious McClellan failed to follow up on Antietam, he was replaced by Maj. Gen. Ambrose Burnside. Burnside suffered near-immediate defeat at the Battle of Fredericksburg on December 13, 1862, when over ten thousand Union soldiers were killed or wounded. After the battle, Burnside was replaced by Maj. Gen. Joseph "Fighting Joe" Hooker. Hooker, too, proved unable to defeat Lee's army; despite outnumbering the Confederates by more than two to one, he was humiliated in the Battle of Chancellorsville in May 1863. He was replaced by Maj. Gen. George G. Meade during Lee's second invasion of the North, in June. Meade defeated Lee at the Battle of Gettysburg (July 1–3, 1863), the largest battle in North American history, which is sometimes considered the war's turning point. Lee's army suffered 28,000 casualties (versus Meade's 23,000), again forcing it to retreat to Virginia, never to launch a full-scale invasion of the North again.

Western Theater 1861–1863

While the Confederate forces had numerous successes in the Eastern theater, they crucially failed in the West. They were driven from Missouri early in the war as result of the Battle of Pea Ridge. Leonidas Polk's invasion of Kentucky enraged the citizens who previously had declared neutrality in the war, turning that state against the Confederacy. Nashville, Tennessee, fell to the Union early in 1862. Most of the Mississippi was opened with the taking of Island No. 10 and New Madrid, Missouri, and then Memphis, Tennessee. New Orleans, Louisiana, was captured in May 1862, allowing the Union forces to begin moving up the Mississippi as well. Only the fortress city of Vicksburg, Mississippi, prevented unchallenged Union control of the entire river. Braxton Bragg's second Confederate invasion of Kentucky was repulsed by Don Carlos Buell at the confused and bloody Battle of Perryville and he was narrowly defeated by William S. Rosecrans at the Battle of Stones River in Tennessee. The one clear Confederate victory in the West was the Battle of Chickamauga in Georgia, near the Tennessee border, where Bragg, reinforced by the corps of James Longstreet (from Lee's army in the east), defeated Rosecrans, despite the heroic defensive stand of George Henry Thomas, and forced him to retreat to Chattanooga, which Bragg then besieged. The Union's key strategist and tactician in the west was Maj. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant, who won victories at Forts Henry and Donelson, which seized control of the Tennessee and Cumberland Rivers; Shiloh; Vicksburg, Mississippi, cementing Union control of the Mississippi and considered one of the turning points of the war; and Chattanooga, Tennessee, driving Confederate forces out of Tennessee and opening an invasion route to Atlanta and the heart of the Confederacy.

Trans-Mississippi Theater 1861–1865

Though geographically isolated from the battles to the east, a number of military actions took place in the Trans-Mississippi theater, a region encompassing states and territories to the west of the Mississippi River. In 1861 Confederates launched a successful campaign into the territory of present day Arizona and New Mexico. Residents in the southern portions of this territory adopted a secession ordinance of their own and requested that Confederate forces stationed in nearby Texas assist them in removing Union forces still stationed there. The Confederate territory of Arizona was proclaimed by Col. John Baylor after victories at Mesilla, New Mexico, and the capture of several Union forces. Confederate troops were unsuccessful in attempts to press northward in the territory and withdrew from Arizona completely in 1862 as Union reinforcements arrived from California. :The Battle of Glorieta Pass was a small skirmish in terms of both numbers involved and losses (140 Federal, 190 Confederate). Yet the issues were large, and the battle decisive in resolving them. The Confederates might well have taken Fort Union and Denver had they not been stopped at Glorieta. As one Texan put it, "if it had not been for those devils from Pike's Peak, this country would have been ours". :This small battle smashed any possibility of the Confederacy taking New Mexico and the far west territories. In April, Union volunteers from California pushed the remaining Confederates out of present-day Arizona at the Battle of Picacho Pass. In the eastern part of the United States, the fighting dragged on for three more years, but in the Southwest the war was over. [http://www.cr.nps.gov/nr/twhp/wwwlps/lessons/117glorietaraton/117facts3.htm] The Union mounted several attempts to capture the trans-Mississippi regions of Texas and Louisiana from 1862 until the war's end. With ports to the east under blockade or capture, Texas in particular became a blockade-running haven. Referred to as the "back door" of the Confederacy, Texas and western Louisiana continued to provide cotton crops that were transferred overland to Matamoros, Mexico, and shipped to Europe in exchange for supplies. Determined to close this trade, the Union mounted several invasion attempts of Texas, each of them unsuccessful. Confederate victories at Galveston, Texas, and the Battle of Sabine Pass repulsed invasion forces. The Union's disastrous Red River Campaign in western Louisiana, including a defeat at the Battle of Mansfield, effectively ended the Union's final invasion attempt of the region until the final fall of the Confederacy. Isolated from events in the east, the Civil War continued in the Trans-Mississippi theater for several months after Robert E. Lee's surrender. The last battle of the war occurred at Palmito Ranch in southern Texas—ironically a Confederate victory.

The End of the War 1864–1865

Palmito Ranch At the beginning of 1864, Grant was promoted to lieutenant general and given command of all Union armies. He chose to make his headquarters with the Army of the Potomac, although Meade remained the actual commander of that army. He left Maj. Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman in command of most of the western armies. Grant understood the concept of total war and believed, along with Lincoln and Sherman, that only the utter defeat of Confederate forces and their economic base would bring an end to the war. Therefore, scorched earth tactics would be required in some important theaters. He devised a coordinated strategy that would strike at the heart of Confederacy from multiple directions: Grant, Meade, and Benjamin Butler would move against Lee near Richmond; Franz Sigel would invade the Shenandoah Valley; Sherman would invade Georgia, defeat Joseph E. Johnston, and capture Atlanta; George Crook and William W. Averell would operate against railroad supply lines in West Virginia; and Nathaniel Banks would capture Mobile, Alabama. Union forces in the East attempted to maneuver past Lee and fought several battles during that phase ("Grant's Overland Campaign") of the Eastern campaign. An attempt to outflank Lee from the south failed under Butler, who was trapped inside the Bermuda Hundred river bend. Grant was tenacious and, despite astonishing losses (over 66,000 casualties in six weeks), kept pressing Lee's Army of Northern Virginia. He pinned down the Confederate army in the Siege of Petersburg, where the two armies engaged in trench warfare for over nine months. After two failed attempts (under Sigel and David Hunter) to seize key points in the Shenandoah Valley, Grant finally found a commander, Philip Sheridan, aggressive enough to prevail in the Valley Campaigns of 1864. Sheridan was sent in response to a raid by the aggressive Jubal Early, whose corps reached the outer defenses of Washington before withdrawing back to the Valley. Sheridan proved to be more than a match for Early, and defeated him in a series of battles, including a final decisive defeat at Cedar Creek, Sheridan then proceeded to destroy the agricultural and industrial base of the Valley, a strategy similar to the scorched-earth tactics Sherman would later employ in Georgia. Meanwhile, Sherman marched from Chattanooga to Atlanta, Georgia, defeating Generals Joseph E. Johnston and John B. Hood. The fall of Atlanta on September 2, 1864, was a significant factor in the re-election of Abraham Lincoln. Leaving Atlanta, and his base of supplies, Sherman's army marched with an unclear destination, laying waste to much of the rest of Georgia in his celebrated "March to the Sea", and reaching the Atlantic Ocean at Savannah, Georgia in December 1864. Burning towns and plantations as they went, Sherman's armies hauled off crops and killed livestock to retaliate and to deny use of these economic assets to the Confederacy, a consequence of Grant's scorched earth doctrine. When Sherman turned north through South Carolina and North Carolina to approach the Virginia lines from the south, it was the end for Lee and his men, and for the Confederacy. Lee attempted to escape from the besieged Petersburg and link up with Johnston in North Carolina, but he was overtaken by Grant. He surrendered his Army of Northern Virginia on April 9, 1865, at Appomattox Court House. Johnston surrendered his troops to Sherman shortly thereafter at a local family's farmhouse in Durham, North Carolina. The Battle of Palmito Ranch, fought on May 13, 1865, in the far south of Texas, was the last land battle of the war and ended, ironically, with a Confederate victory. All Confederate land forces surrendered by June 1865. Confederate naval units surrendered as late as November 1865, with the last actions being attacks on private New England whaling ships by the CSS Shenandoah in the Bering Strait through June 28, 1865.

Analysis of the War

Why the Union prevailed (or why the Confederacy was defeated) in the Civil War has been a subject of extensive analysis and debate. Advantages widely believed to have contributed to the Union's success include:
- The more industrialized economy of the North, which aided in the production of arms and munitions.
- The Union significantly outnumbered the Confederacy, both in civilian and military population partly due to African Americans and Immigrants.
- Strong compatible railroad links between Union cities, which allowed for the relatively quick movement of troops. (It should be noted, however, that the Confederacy had more railroads per capita than any other country at the time.)
- The Union's possession of the U.S. merchant marine fleet and naval ships, which led to its successful blockade of Confederate ports.
- The Union's more established government, which may have resulted in less infighting and a more streamlined conduct of the war.
- The Confederacy's possible squandering of resources on early audacious conventional offensives and its [http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0HZY/is_1_14/ai_78397581 failure] to fully use its advantages in guerrilla warfare against Union communication and transportation infrastructure.
- The Confederacy's failure to win military support from any foreign powers, mostly due to the Battle of Antietam, and the well-timed release of the Emancipation Proclamation.
- Despite the Union's many tactical blunders like the Seven Days Battle, those commited by Confederate generals, such as the Lee's miscalculations at the Battle of Gettysburg and allowing the battle plans to fall into Union hands before the Battle of Antietam, were far more serious — if for no other reason than that the Confederates could so little afford the losses.
- The Confederacy vastly overestimated the dependence of Great Britain and France on Southern cotton and an early decision by the Confederate government to cut production may have only weakened their hand as it forced the British to seek new supplies in Egypt, ultimately making an alliance less attractive.

Major land battles

The ten costliest land battles, measured by casualties (killed, wounded, captured, and missing) were: Battle of Antietam Other major land battles included First Bull Run, The Seven Days, Perryville, Fredericksburg, Vicksburg, Chattanooga, the Siege of Petersburg, and the battles of Franklin and Nashville. There was also Jackson's Valley Campaign, the Atlanta Campaign, Red River Campaign, Missouri Campaign, Valley Campaigns of 1864, and many coastal and river battles.

Major naval battles

Major naval battles included Battle of Island Number Ten, Battle of Hampton Roads, Battle of Memphis, Battle of Drewry's Bluff, Battle of Fort Hindman, and Battle of Mobile Bay. In addition to this, a Union blockade of Confederate ports throughout the war managed to deny supplies to the CSA.

Civil War leaders and soldiers

Union blockade at Vicksburg National Military Park.]] One of the reasons that the US Civil War wore on as long as it did and the battles were so fierce was that most important generals on both sides had formerly served in the United States Army — some including Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee, during the Mexican-American War between 1846 and 1848. Most were graduates of the United States Military Academy at West Point, where Lee had been commandant for 3 years in the 1850s. Significant Southern leaders included Jefferson Davis, Robert E. Lee, Joseph E. Johnston, Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson, James Longstreet, P.G.T. Beauregard, John Mosby, Braxton Bragg, John Bell Hood, James Ewell Brown (JEB) Stuart, William Mahone, Judah P. Benjamin, Jubal Early, and Nathan Bedford Forrest. Northern leaders included Abraham Lincoln, William H. Seward, Edwin M. Stanton, Ulysses S. Grant, William Tecumseh Sherman, George H. Thomas, George B. McClellan, Henry W. Halleck, Joseph Hooker, Ambrose Burnside, Irvin McDowell, Philip Sheridan, George Crook, George Armstrong Custer, Christopher "Kit" Carson, John E. Wool, George G. Meade, Winfield Hancock, Elihu Washburne, Abner Read, and Robert Gould Shaw. Five men who served as Union officers eventually became presidents of the United States: Grant, Rutherford B. Hayes, James Garfield, Benjamin Harrison, and William McKinley. After the war, the Grand Army of the Republic, a fraternal organization open to Union war veterans, was founded in 1866. Confederate veterans formed the United Confederate Veterans in 1889. In 1905, a campaign medal was authorized for all Civil War veterans, known as the Civil War Campaign Medal. According to data from the United States Department of Veterans Affairs, the last surviving Union veteran of the conflict, Albert Woolson, died on August 2, 1956 at the age of 109, and the last Confederate veteran, John Salling, died on March 16, 1958, at the age of 112. However, William Marvel investigated the claims of both for a 1991 piece in the Civil War history magazine Blue & Gray. Using census information, he found that Salling was born in 1858, far too late to have served in the Civil War. In fact, he concluded, "Every one of the last dozen recognized Confederates was bogus." He found Woolson to be the last true veteran of the Civil War on either side; he had served as a drummer boy late in the war. Women were not allowed to fight — though some did fight in disguise. Clara Barton became a leader of the Union Nurses and was widely known as the "Angel of the Battlefield." She experienced the horror of 16 battles, helping behind the lines to heal the injured soldiers. Barton organized a relief program that helped to better distribute supplies to wounded soldiers of both the North and South. After 1980 scholarly attention turned to ordinary soldiers, and to women and African Americans.

The question of slavery

As slavery and constitutional questions concerning states' rights were widely viewed as the major causes of the war, the victorious Union government sought to end slavery and to guarantee a perpetual union that could never be broken. During the early part of the war, Lincoln, to hold together his war coalition of Republicans and War Democrats, emphasized preservation of the Union as the sole Union objective of the war, but with the Emancipation Proclamation, announced in September 1862 and put into effect four months later, Lincoln adopted the abolition of slavery as a second mission. The Emancipation Proclamation declared all slaves held in territory then under Confederate control to be "then, thenceforth, and forever free", but did not affect slaves in areas under Union control. It had little initial effect but served to commit the United States to the goal of ending slavery. The proclamation would be put into practical effect in Confederate territory captured over the remainder of the war.

Foreign diplomacy

Because of the Confederacy's attempt to create a new state, recognition and support from the European powers were critical to its prospects. The Union, under Secretary of State William Henry Seward attempted to block the Confederacy's efforts in this sphere. The Confederates hoped that the importance of the cotton trade to Europe (the idea of cotton diplomacy) and shortages caused by the war, along with early military victories, would enable them to gather increasing European support and force a turn away from neutrality. Lincoln's decision to announce a blockade of the Confederacy, a clear act of war, enabled Britain, followed by other European powers, to announce their neutrality in the dispute. This enabled the Confederacy to begin to attempt to gain support and funds in Europe. Jefferson Davis had picked Robert Toombs of Georgia as his first Secretary of State. Toombs, having little knowledge in foreign affairs, was replaced several months later by Robert M. T. Hunter of Virginia, another choice with little suitability. Ultimately, on March 17, 1862, Jefferson selected Judah P. Benjamin of Louisiana as Secretary of State, who although having more international knowledge and legal experience with international slavery disputes still failed in the end to create a dynamic foreign policy for the Confederacy. The first attempts to achieve European recognition of the Confederacy were dispatched on February 25, 1861 and led by William Lowndes Yancey, Pierre A. Rost, and Ambrose Dudley Mann. The British foreign minister Lord John Russell met with them, and the French foreign minister Edouard Thouvenel received the group unofficially. However, at this point the two countries had agreed to coordinate and cooperate and would not make any rash moves. Charles Francis Adams proved particularly adept as ambassador to Britain for the Union, and Britain was reluctant to boldly challenge the Union's blockade. The Confederacy also attempted to initiate propaganda in Europe through journalists Henry Hotze and Edwin De Leon in Paris and London. However, public opinion against slavery created a political liability for European politicians, especially in Britain. A significant challenge in Anglo-Union relations was also created by the Trent Affair, involving the Union boarding of a British mail steamer to seize James M. Mason and John Slidell, Confederate diplomats sent to Europe. However, the Union was able to smooth over the problem to some degree. As the war continued, in late 1862, the British considered initiating an attempt to mediate the conflict. However, the Union victory in the Battle of Antietam caused them to delay this decision. Additionally, the issuing of the Emancipation Proclamation further reinforced the political liability of supporting the Confederacy. As the war continued, the Confederacy's chances with Britain grew more hopeless, and they focused increasingly on France. Napoléon III proposed to offer mediation in January 1863, but this was dismissed by Seward. Despite some sympathy for the Confederacy, ultimately, France's own concerns in Mexico deterred them from substantially antagonizing the Union. As the Confederacy's situation grew more and more tenuous and their pleas increasingly ignored, in November 1864 Davis sent Duncan F. Kenner to Europe to test whether a promised emancipation could lead to possible recognition. The proposal was strictly rejected by both Britain and France.

Aftermath

Duncan F. Kenner depicts a Union and Confederate soldier shaking hands.]] The border States of Missouri and Maryland moved during the course of the war to end slavery, and in December 1864, the Congress proposed the 13th Amendment to the United States Constitution, barring slavery throughout the United States; the 13th Amendment was fully ratified by the end of 1865. The 14th Amendment, defining citizenship and giving the Federal government broad power to require the States to provide equal protection of the laws was adopted in 1868. The 15th Amendment guaranteeing black men (but not women) the right to vote was ratified in 1870. The 14th and 15th Amendments reversed the effects of the Supreme Court's Dred Scott decision of 1857, but the 14th Amendment, in particular, had unanticipated and far-reaching effects. From the election of 1876 until the election of 1964, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, and Arkansas gave no electoral votes to the Republican Party, with South Carolina and Louisiana making an exception only once each. Most other states that had seceded voted overwhelmingly against Republican presidential nominees also, with the same trend predominantly applying in state elections too. This phenomenon was known as the

Dominique Jean Larrey

.]] Dominique Jean Larrey ( July 8, 1766 – July 25, 1842 ) was a French surgeon in Napoleon's army. He was born in the little village of Baudean, in the Pyrenees to to bourgeois parents, who later moved to Bordeaux. Larrey was orphaned at the age of 13. He was then raised by his uncle Alexis, who was chief surgeon in Toulouse. After serving a 6-year apprenticeship, he went to Paris to study under the great Desault, who was chief surgeon at the Hôtel Dieu. But his studies were cut short by war. Larrey was surgeon-in-chief of the Napoleonic armies from Italy in 1797 to Waterloo in 1815. During this time, he initiated the modern method of army surgery, field hospitals and the system of army ambulance corps. After seeing the speed with which the carriages of the French flying artillery manuevered across the battlefields, Larrey adapted them as [http://napoleonic-literature.com/Flying_Ambulance.htm Flying Ambulances] for rapid transport of the wounded and manned them with trained crews of drivers, corpsmen and literbearers. Larrey also increased the mobility and improved the organiztion of field hospitals, effectively creating a forerunner of the modern MASH units. A favorite of the Emperor, he was ennobled as a Baron on the field of Wagram in 1809. After Waterloo, he was taken prisoner by the Prussians and condemned to death. However, he was recognized by one of the German surgeons, who pleaded for his life. Perhaps partly because he had saved the life of Blücher's son when he was wounded and taken prisoner by the French, he was pardoned and taken back to France under escort. He devoted the remainder of his life to writing and a civilian medical career. He died on July 25, 1842 in Lyon Often considered the first modern military surgeon, Larrey's writings are still regarded as valuable sources of surgical and medical knowledge, have been translated into all modern languages.

References and links

- [http://napoleonic-literature.com/Flying_Ambulance.htm The Revolutionary Flying Ambulance of Napoleon's Surgeon]
- [http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=8720755&dopt=Abstract In Larrey's shadow: transport of British sick and wounded in the Napoleonic wars.]
- Brewer LA. Baron Dominique Jean Larrey (1776-1842 Father of Modern Military Surgery, Innovator, Humanist. Journal of Thoracic Cardiovascular Surgery. December 1986; 92(6):1096-1098. Larrey, Dominique Jean Larrey, Dominique Jean

1766

1766 was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar).

Events

- January 1 - Bonnie Prince Charlie becomes the new Stuart claimant to the throne of Great Britain as King Charles III and figurehead for Jacobitism.
- March 5 - Antonio de Ulloa, the first Spanish governor of Louisiana, arrives in New Orleans.
- March 18 - American Revolution: The British Parliament repeals the Stamp Act which was very unpopular in the British colonies. The persuasion of Benjamin Franklin is considered partly responsible. The Declaratory Act asserts the right of Britain to bind the colonies in all other respects.
- November 10 - The last Colonial governor of New Jersey, William Franklin, signs the charter of Queen's College (later renamed Rutgers University).
- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart returns to Salzburg after touring Paris and London with his father
- Christian VII becomes King of Denmark
- Lorraine becomes French again on the death of Stanislaus I Leszczyński, King of Poland
- The Burmese begin to invade the Thai kingdom of Ayutthaya.
- What is now England's oldest surviving Georgian theatre constructed in Stockton-on-Tees.

Births

- February 14 - Thomas Malthus, English demographer and economist (d. 1834)
- April 22 - Anne Louise Germaine de Stael, French author (d. 1817)
- July 8 - Dominique Jean Larrey, French surgeon (d. 1842)
- August 6 William Hyde Wollaston, English chemist (d. 1828)
- September 6 - John Dalton, English chemist and physicist (d. 1844)
- October 23 - Emmanuel, marquis de Grouchy, French marshal (d. 1847)
- November 2 - Joseph Radetzky von Radetz, Austrian field marshal (d. 1858)
- December 3 - Barbara Fritchie, U.S. patriot in Civil War (d. 1862)

Deaths

- January 1 - James Francis Edward Stuart, "The Old Pretender" (b. 1688)
- January 9 - Thomas Birch, English historian (b. 1705)
- January 13 - King Frederick V of Denmark (b. 1723)
- January 19 - Jean-Nicolas Servan, French architect and painter (b. 1695)
- January 21 - James Quin, English actor (b. 1693)
- February 5 - Leopold Josef Graf Daun, Austrian field marshal (b. 1705)
- February 23 - Stanislaus I Leszczyński, King of Poland (b. 1677)
- April 4 - John Taylor, English classical scholar (b. 1704)
- April 7 - Tiberius Hemsterhuis, Dutch philologist and critic (b. 1685)
- May 5 - Jean Astruc, French physician and scholar
- May 8 - Samuel Chandler, English non-conformist minister (b. 1693)
- June 24 - Adrien-Maurice, 3rd duc de Noailles, French soldier (b. 1678)
- July 9 - Jonathan Mayhew, American minister and patriot (b. 1720)
- July 11 - Elizabeth Farnese, queen of Philip V of Spain (b. 1692)
- July 14 - František Maxmilián Kaňka, Czech architect (b. 1674)
- September 3 - Archibald Bower, Scottish historian (b. 1686)
- September 13 - Benjamin Heath, English classical scholar (b. 1704)
- November 9 - Unico Wilhelm van Wassenaer, Dutch composer (b. 1692)
- December 12 - Johann Christoph Gottsched, German writer (b. 1700) Category:1766 ko:1766년 ms:1766 simple:1766

1842

1842 was a common year starting on Saturday (see link for calendar).

Events

- February 7 - Ras Ali Alula, Regent of the Emperor of Ethiopia defeats warlord Wube Haile Maryam of Semien in the Battle of Debre Tabor
- February 21 - John J. Greenough patents the sewing machine.
- March 5 - Mexican troops led by Rafael Vasquez invade Texas briefly occupy San Antonio and then head back to the Rio Grande. This is the first such invasion since the Texas Revolution.
- March 30 - Anesthesia is used for the first time in an operation (Dr. Crawford Long performed the operation using ether).
- March 31 -