La Motte was an American nurse who volunteered her services for France in 1914. She was stationed in Belgium about 10 kilometers behind the front. In the book's introduction, she explained the title:
We are witnessing a phase in the evolution of humanity, a phase called War—and the slow, onward progress stirs up the slime in the shallows, and this is the Backwash of War. It is very ugly. There are many little lives foaming up in the backwash. They are loosened by the sweeping current, and float to the surface, detached from their environment, and one glimpses them, weak, hideous, repellent. After the war, they will consolidate again into the condition called Peace.The Backwash of War is a series of sketches written in 1915 and 1916 that describe the horrors and bitter ironies of caring for injured soldiers, many of whom were just being comforted before their expected death.
The medical facilities in The Backwash of War become private worlds, with their own logic and rules. Doctors and nurses constantly worked to repair damage and ease pain—both physical and mental—often with the feeling that their patient would probably die.
La Motte wrote in very straightforward, almost detached, style. It's as if she wanted to create a very objective record of her experiences, at the risk of sounding uncaring or strangely fascinated. Maybe she was trying to not let her emotions get in the way of a clear understanding of what was going on and what needed to be done. When she adds commentary, it makes a powerful impression.
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| Hospital in Contrexeville, France during World War I |
The book is very instructive on how doctors and nurses worked, how they were trained, how they prioritized, how they reacted to different situations.
La Motte talked about the absurd ironies of war, like when a soldier was nursed back to health so that he could be executed as a deserter. Another soldier was kept alive as a medical experiment that might reflect well on a doctor if the soldier survived. And a third soldier cried for the release of death after being fitted for four artificial limbs and two glass eyeballs.
Military rituals are followed in The Backwash of War, even in the loneliness of a roomful of bedridden soldiers. Generals pass through, handing out medals, to ensure pensions, and also to make sure that wounded soldiers are seen with medals when they return to civilian life.
The Backwash of War shows the different ways that men react to dying. These men were in different mental states as they died, often because of head injuries. Bedside visits by generals and priests could help a soldier accept his death. Death could also be a lonely experience:
So Rochard died, a stranger among strangers. And there were many people there to wait upon him, but there was no one there to love him. There was no one there to see beyond the horror of the red, blind eye, of the dull, white eye, of the vile, gangrene smell.These small sketches show how life went on as normal as possible, even in unusual situations. They show how life is immediate reality, not matter what has gone before. For example, sexual attraction between men and women continued, often between young women and soldiers in battle-torn villages.
La Motte mentioned several times that older French soldiers had replaced the younger soldiers who had fought at the beginning of the war, showing how French society was being significantly changed in a war that still had several years to go.
Some of The Backwash of War was familiar to readers when it was published because it included material that was earlier published in The Atlantic Monthly.
In a 1934 edition of The Backwash of War, La Motte wrote that the book was banned in France and England when it was published. It was then suppressed in the United States after that country entered the war in 1917 because its descriptions of war "were considered damaging to the morale."
The Backwash of War continued to make a strong impression long after World War I ended in 1918. In the November 6, 1927 edition of the Chicago Daily Tribune, columnist H. L. Mencken wrote:
The most horrible war book ever written is "The Backwash of War," by Miss Ellen La Motte, an American nurse who served with the French army. It is so bad that, when the United States entered the late war, it was suppressed by the department of justice, and any one found reading it was treated as roughly as if he had been found playing Johann Sebastian Bach.
The Backwash of War was published around September 24, 1916, when it was advertised in The New York Times. Front page headlines in that day's Times included:
- Destroy 1 Zeppelin, Perhaps 2, During a Wide Raid on England / Anti-Aircraft Guns Bring Down a Giant Raider in the Southern Part of Essex Not Far from London—Another Airship Is Reported to Have Fallen Near the Coast.
- GERMANS CAPTURE 2 SHIPS IN NORTH SEA / Dutch Mail Steamer Taken Into Zeebrugge Where Escaped War Prisoners Are Taken Off.
- SWITZERLAND REFUSES TO MAKE PEACE MOVE / Federal Council Rejects Intervention Petitions—Fears Offense to Entente.
Online versions:
Newspaper information from Newspapers.com (https://www.newspapers.com/).
Photograph of patients and staff of United States Base Hospital 32 in Contrexeville, France during World War I by Charles S. Slough [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
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