Amputations were very common during this time, and it is not like what surgery is like in present day. There was no anesthesia yet, so many people drank alcohol prior to the amputation to help dull the pain. Usually, people knew for several days that they would be getting an amputation, so soldiers were known to hoard alcohol rations until day of surgery so that they could be more sedated, per se. The reason why they had to wait is because once the wound is washed out and cleaned thoroughly, the death rate dropped 20%. However, to make that chance even greater for survival, amputation had to be done at some point in the future. Since there was no anesthesia, an amputation had to be quick, otherwise the body could go into shock or the person
