The following was taken from the "History of Pike County, Georgia

Treating a snakebite

"How was a snakebite treated before the discovery of anti-venom? Here is one method that probably saved the life of Edgar H. Baker (Born in 1855), son of John Harris Baker. When he was quite young, Edgar was bitten by a rattlesnake as he worked on the family farm near Zebulon. One of his brothers had the presence of mind to use his suspenders to fashion a tourniquet, which he applied near the wound. Then he rushed the patient home for further treatment.

While Edgar was being given regular doses of whiskey, freshly killed white baby chickens were slit open and applied bloody and warm to the wound. When one chicken turned green from the poison drawn from the wound, another would be applied, and so on until there was no further sign of the poison. The treatment apparently worked, Edgar survived and later married and had four children."

Note John Harris Baker would be the Colonel of the 13th Georgia Infantry.