Gravely Mistaken: Tales of Medicine, Mishaps and Body Snatching in Augusta, Georgia

Grave robbing is a suspected source of supply for the bodies used as specimens in the anatomy classes at the Medical College of Georgia in 1854. Two students, John and Sterling, take a break from their studies one night and have a drink at the tavern. While there, they spy Grandison Harris, the slave purchased to work as a porter for the school. They decide to see what he has in the back of his wagon. A shovel and a body in a bag on the floor of his wagon convince them that Harris is a resurrectionist. The students resolve to play a trick on the porter. Removing the body from its bag and hiding it, John crawls into the sack, intending to scare Harris. But, as the porter climbs in the wagon, the prank goes awry when the horse bolts and runs away. John remains trapped in the bag and when he tries to wriggle free, Harris sees the movement and mistakes the body for an evil spirit. The porter hits the squirming sack with a shovel, takes it back to the cemetery and puts it in the grave. John is either dead or buried alive. Surrounding the mystery are stories exemplifying the best heroic medical treatment of the day including; bleeding, purging and application of plasters for the treatment of Yellow Fever and other maladies along with development of ether anesthesia, surgical procedures, use of laudanum and the practice of autopsy to further medical knowledge.