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During the American Revolution, The American Continental Army Medical Department consisted of General Hospitals and regimental medical establishments. The General Hospitals were staffed by prominent medical men and handled the most seriously sick and wounded. The staff included surgeons, physicians, pharmacists,  assistants(called hospital mates) and often “camp followers” to help with cooking and care. Accompanying the army in the field, the General Hospital was set up in whatever structure could be appropriated. In the photo, I show the plaque located on the Birmingham Friends Meeting House, in Chadds Ford, PA. This 18th century structure was used as an American General Hospital at the Battle of the Brandywine, September 11, 1777.

(Photo by RSG)

George Washington was brave and from an early age was involved in battle. When 23 years old, while fighting for the British in the French and Indian War, he was exposed to intense enemy fire but was unscathed. Afterwards, he wrote to his brother, “I heard the bullets whistle, and, believe me, there is something charming in the sound.” During the Revolutionary War, he rallied his men from the front at The Battle of Princeton in January 1777 and was nearly wounded. For a thrilling account of this battle, read The Rogue’s Plot, pp.36-43: https://a.co/d/9zj31XP
Despite his exposure in battle and his thrill of battle, the answer is : No, George Washington was never  shot, but he could have been several times. For example, in September 1776, he was in immediate danger of being shot by British rangers at the Battle for Manhattan. To see what could have happened, see pages 63-85 in  
“The Long Shot, The Secret History of 1776,” pp. 63-65, published by Amazon.com, 2020. 

(Photo: “George Washington” by Rembrandt Peale, painted in 1853.)

To mark the 250th Anniversary of the Revolution’s first battle, here is Howard Pyle’s (1853-1911) illustration showing the British Regulars defeating the American militia. The work focuses on the American wounded with the British Redcoats in the background. Pyle prepared the illustration for “The Story of the Revolution,” published in Scribner’s Magazine in January 1893. 

(Photo by RSG, courtesy Brandywine River Museum)

Surgery during the American Revolution was confined to amputations, wound care, trephining (opening the skull), and few other operations, largely because of limited pain control and subsequent infection. Operations on the abdomen were very rare, and open chest surgery was unthinkable. Some pain relief was achieved back then by opiates, such as laudanum, or by alcohol. Patients had to be restrained physically. Ether was one of the first anesthetics in clinical use. Although it had been discovered in 1540, it was not used for anesthesia until three hundred years later when ether was used at Massachusetts General Hospital during removal of a neck tumor. 

(Image : Early anesthetics, Getty Images) 

These practices were used to treat many conditions especially fevers well into the 1800s when the modern era of medical practice began. But at the time of the revolution, bleeding by “opening a vein” or by applying leeches was consistent with prevailing medical theories of the day. Back then, disease was thought to result from an imbalance of bodily fluids (or “humours”). So, it followed that by bleedings, emetics, and cathartics, health would be restored . With the best of intensions, doctors often made their patients worse.

(Image: Courtesy, Smithsonian Institution) 

No, discovery of germs (micro-organisms that cause disease) did not come until nearly 100 years after the American Revolution. Without a scientific basis for infection, doctors in the 18th Century did not know of ways to prevent infection. Infections were rampant after battlefield wounds and after surgery. Modern control of infection is based upon sterile technique, antiseptics and antibiotics. Shown in the figures are an artist’s conception of group A streptococci and a laboratory plate showing group A streptococci. This microorganism causes “strep throat” and may act as the “flesh-eating “ bacteria. (Courtesy: stockphoto)

Childbirth in the late 18th Century was a dangerous business, with a death rate of about 1 in 100 deliveries.  Chief causes were infection, bleeding, convulsions (eclampsia) and dehydration. Thomas Jefferson’s wife Martha died in 1782 four months after giving birth to her seventh child. Because she never recovered from the delivery, her death was most likely from an obstetric complication such as ongoing infection. There were no antibiotics, blood transfusions, intravenous hydration, anti-hypertensives, anticonvulsants, medications to improve desultory labor, or effective pain control. With the advent of these treatments in the 20th Century, maternal mortality declined in United States to 1/10,000 by 1980: one of the great public health victories of modern times. 

(Image : 18th Century childbirth, from Alamy)