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It was quicker to cut off limbs than it was to try and save that same limb. They could save the lives of many by cutting limbs off or save the limbs of a few by doing it right.
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Not really true....cutting of the limbs was done to prevent gangrene and blood poisoning. Since there were no antibiotics at the time, and sterilization was unheard of, the only
sure way of preventing these outcomes was amputation.....saving the limb wasn't even a thought out conclusion.
I found some books on civil war medicine, medical treatments of the day, ect. when were were at Gettysburg a few years ago....what I found interesting was the survival rate for those soldiers recieving head wounds....something like 80% survived! But I guess if you figure that
severe head wounds probably never made it to the hospital, and that most of these wounds were most likely superficial (even though they were able to do primative skull surgeries, such as trephanations), the number starts to make sense.