https://archiv.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/volltextserver/29958/
available in french and german text,
some comparison with French and Austrian Armies medical services
l'autrice va sans doute publier une version abrégée chez Passés Composés Les blessés de Napoléon
In this thesis, we follow wounded soldiers from the moment they are injured in battle up until their recovery or death. The focus is put on the 1805, 1809 and 1813 campaign, mainly drawing on sources from the French and Austrian armies. We were able to identify two main points.
In an approach centred around the study of combat experience, we use wounded soldiers as a focus point to extend this approach beyond the limited time of actual combat. This first question is tackled following three different angles. Firstly, comes the question of the body in war, and studying injury experience allows access to this theme, which is hardly present in the sources otherwise. Secondly, we study the Europeans circulations of wounded soldiers, allowing to go beyond the national scale. Thirdly, we also study the question of how the narrative of self are constructed by combatants, at a time of transition between the older literary genre that are memoirs, with an historical, collective aspect, and the newer and more personal autobiographies.
In following the trajectories of these men, we also research the organisation of their care. We look at how wounded men are treated, in and out of medical institutions, by surgeons, but also by civilians in the regions they pass through.
In this research, combat injuries are therefore taken into account both as an individual experience and as the social, collective phenomenon of the institutionalised care of the wounded. The thesis is divided into five parts.
The first part focuses on the organisation of health services and in particular the regulatory framework in France and Austria, as well as preparation for battle. The second part follows wounded soldiers from the moment of injury to treatment in an ambulance. In the third part, we look at how soldiers are cared for in hospital and during evacuations. In the fourth part, we look at non-institutional modes of care, such as that provided by civilians. Finally, the fifth part looks at the longer-term consequences and ways of recounting the injury. This thesis demonstrates the constant coexistence of institutional and non-institutional modes of care, with care that is not solely state-run.
The sources used are "ego-documents"– memoirs, collections of testimonies and diaries – but also administrative documents, regulations, instructions, reports or hospital registers in particular. These sources are subject to qualitative and quantitative analysis by means of databases
