Current Projects

“To Care for Him Who Shall Have Borne the Battle.”

The Medical and Surgical History of the Battle of Gettysburg

1. Shot Through Both Eyes and Bayoneted at Gettysburg:

The Extraordinary Survival of Sgt. Francis Jefferson Coates

One of the most harrowing medical and surgical cases of the Battle of Gettysburg involved 20-year-old Sgt. Francis Jefferson Coates of Company H, 7th Wisconsin, the Iron Brigade.

During the fight in Herbst’s Woods on July 1, 1863, a minie ball passed through both of his eyes, destroying them. He was then bayoneted. A sympathetic Confederate officer placed him beneath a tree, and Coates survived.

At the battlefield Seminary Hospital, and then at Satterlee Hospital in Philadelphia, Coates’ wounds were treated with dressing changes and debridement of bone fragments. For his bravery, he received the Medal of Honor in 1866.

Despite total blindness, Coates learned to read Braille, made brooms for a living, married, and fathered five children. He passed away in 1880.

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