Hainesville Civil War Encampment: A Mortal Wound and Embalming

The surgeon then began probing the wound and found... PUSS,  lots and lots of yellow puss.  He scooped it out and threw it down on the ground in front of the spectators drawing lots of yucks and  oooohhs and assorted groans.  Pretty gross.  He said that yellow puss was good as if it was black, that meant there was a gangrene problem.

Next he dug some and found a large sliver of a piece of wood which he also threw on the ground.

He also found that there were no broken bones or a shattered knee cap, which was also good as had he found those, amputation would have been necessary.

When he finished, they tried to bring the soldier back to being awake, but, unfortunately,he didn't revive.  He was dead.

He had died on the operating cot.

The undertaker was called in and the first thing he did was look to see if the soldier had paid for his services.  If he had (he did) then he would begin embalming.  If not, the body would be taken out back and buried in a shallow grave and hopefully a wooden marker put up.

Since this man had paid, he began draining the man's blood and putting in the embalming fluid.  Rather gross.

Just Don't Get Wounded.  --Old Secesh