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[[File:Carver_Hospital,_Washington,_D.C._Interior_view_-_NARA_-_524592.jpg|thumbnail|300px|Carver Hospital, Washington D.C., circa 1860-1865, Matthew Brady Studio.]]

“Surely the Almighty’s hand was in this.”<ref>William McCarter, ''My Life in the Irish Brigade: The Civil War Memoirs of Private William McCarter, 116th Pennsylvania Infantry,'' Kevin E. O'Brien, ed. (Cambridge, MA: Da Capo Press, 1996),200.</ref>This was the immediate thought of Private William McCarter after discovering that the blanket he had used to shield his head contained 47 musket balls. On December 13, 1862, McCarter survived the Battle of Fredericksburg lying prone and bleeding on the battlefield, armed with a blanket and a prayer. After being shot in the upper arm, the private deemed his situation to be hopeless. He proceeded to pray, which at the time was his only means of solace. After praying he “felt more composed in [his] mind and perfectly reconciled to [his] fate”<ref>McCarter, 180.</ref>

How can a few words to an unproven entity ease a man’s mind and perhaps heal his body? Was the reason for McCarter’s survival supernatural or was it strictly science? Perhaps it was both. A conditioned belief in the power of supernatural intervention is responsible for the scientific explanation of supposed medical miracles. McCarter was far from alone as a miraculous survivor of the bloodiest of all American wars. Although Fredericksburg was a horrific battle, the one seven months hence caused even greater suffering; it occurred on a farm in an obscure Pennsylvania town.