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[[File:Picketts-Charge,-Battle-of-Gettysburg-in-1863-278439-large.jpg|thumbnail|300px|Prominently featured in this painting of Pickett's Charge is Gen. Armistead reaching for the gun with his hat high on his sword.]]

By all accounts, Armistead’s wound was not thought to be mortal. He was treated at a Union field hospital by Dr. Daniel Brinton. The doctor believed that although amputation was probable, Armistead had a very good chance of survival as "no arteries had been severed."<ref>Priest, 162.</ref> When Armistead was treated at the XI Corps hospital, Dr. Henry Hendrick reported that, “‘He had lost quite a deal of blood, but the wounds were not necessarily fatal. He never rallied, however, and died a little past noon on the Fourth of July’”<ref>Frey, 151.</ref>We are now presented with two men and two wounds. One was expected to live while the other was told he would die. Some science is needed to understand the surprising turn of events.

== Science ==

== Conclusion ==

“Altogether his case was thought to be hopeless, and I so informed him, as I thought peritonitis of an aggravated form had set in.” This was written by Dr. De Witt Peters in an article published in the “American Medical Times," January 1864.<ref>De Witt Peters, "Interesting Cases of Gunshot Wounds," ''American Medical Times'' 8 (January, 1864), 3. http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015006715380.</ref>Among the several cases pertaining to the Battle of Gettysburg on which Peters lectured, he always included the Estee case. Even today, untreated peritonitis is fatal. Treatment after waiting for a long period of time is lethal on more than nine out of ten occasions. When given the details of Estee’s case, several medical professionals that were interviewed agreed there was no known medical reason that he survived. When asked her opinion on why she thought he lived, one registered nurse simply responded, “Miracle.” This so-called miracle was derived from a conditioned belief held by Estee, which induced psychobiological responses that finally resulted in physiological change.

==References==

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