General Percy

General Percy

Born on October 28th, 1754 in Montagney, Franche-Comté, France.
Dead on February 18th, 1825 in Paris.

French surgeon in French Revolution and Empire's army, an innovator in battlefield rescue and surgery.

The healthcare service in Napoleon's Army consisted of devoted men but was desperately short of means

Doctors, surgeons and phamacists wore the distinctive colour black, crimson or green respectively. At army level , they served in military hospitals and were organized, at division level, the army surgeons and aides-major (army aides) practiced first aid; the corps commander also ordered regular soldiers to help when necessary. Some reforms were attempted, but the medical personnel remained insufficiently trained and often undermanned.

For lack of efficient evacuation means, a great number of wounded soldiers laid dying on the battlefield. Surgeons like Percy and Larrey, suggested Napoleon to create a corps of military nurses (1809) and then of stretcher-bearers (1813) in charge of collecting the wounded and conveying them to the ambulance depots. However, their numbers were insufficient. Worse, an inadequate recruitment gave them a bad reputation; the results were therefore not very conclusive.

The hospitals often resembled makeshift shelters without suitable equipment; typhus fever and gangrene - sometimes more deadly than the battles - caused absolute carnage.

Despite all this, the healthcare service of the imperial armies was considered to be the best in Europe.