where the wound was located on a limb affected the soldier's ability to survive after the surgery. the closer a wound was to the body the higher the mortality rate. for example, confederate general john bell hood was wounded in the leg at the battle of chickamauga. his leg was amputated just over from his hip. this type of hip operation had an 83% mortality rate. hood was among the 17% who survived. arm wounds had a lower mortality rate of 24%. but stonewall jackson did not long survive the loss of his arm. the amputation process itself was done quickly. a cut was made around the arm or leg. then the bone was sawed through. nerves were pulled out as far as possible then cut off. the bloody stump was often left to heal by itself or a flap of skin was sewn over the stump. the surgeon had to move quickly to keep the patient from losing too much blood or going into shock. a leg amputation at the knee could be done in three minutes. in most cases anesthesia was used.