Founding the United States Sanitary Commission

by Carole Adrienne / The United States Sanitary Commission was a model of reform for the medical services, inspiring the Federal War Department to reorganize its medical policies. When the Civil War began, supplies presented a major problem. No quality controls existed. Uniforms were poorly made. There was extensive profiteering in food and horses. Surgeons and the wounded sometimes waited for days after a battle before supplies arrived, if they arrived at all. The Sanitary Commission inspected the conditions at camps and hospitals and published reports, pamphlets, and circulars written by Commission Agents and physicians. They published...

Read More

Daughters of Charity Nursed Wounded Civil War Soldiers at West Philadelphia Hospital

by Christine McCullough-Friend / Women’s religious orders have served both Catholics and non-Catholics within the Philadelphia community since the establishment of the Diocese of Philadelphia two centuries ago. These women, who have and who continue to devote their lives to the betterment of society have played a pivotal role in social work, education and medicine. As we begin to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the start of the Civil War, one example of this service that should be highlighted is the work of the Daughters of Charity (formerly Sisters of Charity) at Satterlee Military Hospital. The sisters ministered to thousands of wounded...

Read More

The First Women Nurses

The first women carried as nurses aboard a U.S. Vessel were Sister Mary Adela and Sister Veronica, nuns of the Order of the Holy Cross. They served throughout the war on the U.S.S. Red Rover, a captured Confederate vessel that was refitted as a hospital ship. The health care challenges of the war changed the role of American women in medicine and in the military. For the first time in the United States, female personnel held responsible positions in traditionally male environments. Thousands of women, North and South, volunteered as nurses in the hospitals and at the front. Many “Angels of the Battlefield” served throughout the war, lay women as well as Catholic nuns from orders including the Sisters of Charity, Sisters of St. Joseph, Sisters of Mercy and Sisters of the Holy Cross. Unknown...

Read More

Civil War Dentists

The treatment of dental problems raised separate health issues. By 1860, there were about 5,500 dental practitioners in the United States. Most dentists trained by apprenticeship, but about 400 dentists had graduated from three American dental schools. The Confederacy required that every soldier have a dental exam. The shortage of men in the South meant that no one could be exempted from service because of problems with his teeth. Dentists were routinely assigned to the larger Confederate military hospitals. The Federal government provided no official dental surgeons for its troops during the Civil War. Toothbrushes were not provided for troops. Many dentists served in the Union Army, but any dental treatment they performed wasn’t in an official capacity. Most dentists simply enlisted in...

Read More

Civil War Veterinary Medicine

by Carole Adrienne / The first veterinary facility in Europe was established at Lyon, France, in 1762, after centuries of wars, disease epidemics, livestock plagues and food shortages. The United States, with a lower density of animals, had not faced any of the major animal epidemics that had periodically swept Europe. The first veterinary college in the country was established in 1862 in Philadelphia. At the start of the Civil War, dozens of cavalry units were formed, requiring thousands of horses. A War Department General Order in May 1861 provided for one “veterinary sergeant” for every Union cavalry regiment, but listed no qualifications...

Read More

The Civil War Medicine Story

Civil War Medicine: The Documentary Series, is the story of remarkable American heroism and ingenuity at a time when the technology of warfare exceeded the science of medicine. Operating in the smoky fog of a brutal war, thousands of doctors began their practice of medicine overwhelmed and ill-equipped. They had no antibiotics, no sterilization, and sometimes, no supplies. But by the end of their war service, they had not only helped to heal a nation, they had established revolutionary systems for effective healthcare. Those medical personnel and volunteers had created a legacy that extends not just to modern war zones, but to every medical...

Read More

About the Civil War Medicine Documentary Series

Civil War Medicine is the story of our once-divided country’s massive health crisis, its heroic relief efforts and the resulting revolution in the culture of health care in America. Targeted for national television broadcast, four one-hour programs will feature 3,000 visual images and compelling dialogue from original letters, diaries, newspapers and rare memorabilia. More than 80 men and women who lived the medical and relief efforts of the terrible war lend their memories through voiceover roles. Seven years of intense research has yielded valuable information, artifacts and perspectives contributed by scores of experts from across the...

Read More

Mutter Minute: Blue Mass and Dover Powder

This week Robert showcases two medicines. Blue Mass was made in the late 1800's and was used during the Civil War and it's active ingredients are opium and mercury. Blue was used for a variety of things from venereal disease to gastrointestinal problems. Dover Powder was also used in the Civil War with active ingredients opium and ipecac and was used for fevers. To learn more about the Mütter Museum or The College of Physicians of Philadelphia, visit - www.collegeofphysicians.or...

Read More

Mutter Minute: Civil War Survey

Every Monday The Director of the Mütter Museum takes a minute to showcase an item from our collection. This week Robert showcases a Civil War survey from our historical medical library collection. To learn more about the Mütter Museum or The College of Physicians of Philadelphia, visit - www.collegeofphysicians.or...

Read More

Medical Advances Timeline: 1866-1899

1866 - 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution prohibits voting discrimination, denies government office to certain Civil War rebels and repudiates Confederate war debts. - February 11: The United States Christian Commission, which raised and spent more than $6 to support its war relief work, goes out of existence. - March 21: Mrs. Mary Ann “Mother” Bickerdyke submits her resignation to the U.S. Sanitary Commission. - May: Official termination of the United States Sanitary Commission, and the formation of the American Association for the Relief of Misery on the Battlefield. - September 29: George A. Otis, M.D. is breveted Captain and Major for faithful and meritorious service in the Medical Department and Lieutenant Colonel for faithful and meritorious service during the war. - Alfred Nobel...

Read More

Medical Advances Timeline: 1861-1865

1861 - Dr. Samuel D. Gross, prominent Philadelphia surgeon, teacher and author, publishes A Manual of Military Surgery for use by the young surgeons flocking into the army. A copy is later captured by Confederate troops and reprinted for the Southern physicians. - French neurologist Paul Broca publishes a paper detailing the relationship of damage in the brain’s left temporal lobe to loss of speech. - January 29: Kansas becomes a state of the U.S. - February: The Washington Peace Convention tries to preserve the Union, but the Congress of Montgomery forms the Confederate States of America with South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and Florida. - February 25: Samuel Preston Moore a physician from South Carolina, resigns from the US Army. He will become Surgeon General of...

Read More

Medical Advances Timeline: 1850-1860

1850 - The Female Medical College of Pennsylvania, the world’s first women’s medical school, opens in Philadelphia. - German physician Carl Reinhold Wunderlich introduces the practice of taking accurate temperature with a thermometer as a regular part of diagnosis. - California becomes a state of the U.S. - R.W. Bunsen produces the gas burner. 1851 - German physician Hermann von Helmholz, who was originally trained as a military surgeon, describes the ophthalmoscope for seeing inside the eye. - The New Orleans Monthly Medical Register begins publication. It later merged with the New Orleans Medical News and Hospital Gazette. - Isaac Singer invents the continuous-stitch sewing machine. - The New York Times appears in September. - World Population statistics in millions: China 430 Germany...

Read More

Medical Advances Timeline: 1800-1849

1800 - The Royal College of Surgeons is founded in London. - Eli Whitney invents muskets with interchangeable parts. 1802 - German naturalist Gottfried Treviranus coins the term “biology”. 1803 - German pharmacist F.W.A. Serturner isolates morphine, an opium alkaloid. It was named for Morpheus, the Greek god of dreams. - Ohio becomes a state of the U.S. - American Robert Fulton propels a boat by steam power. - English inventor Henry Shrapnel invents the shell. 1805 - Rockets, which were originally created by William Congreve, are reintroduced as weapons in the British Army. 1807 - The medicinal pill-making machine is invented - Charles Bell publishes his System of Comparative Surgery. 1810 - Homeopathy is introduced by Christian Friedrich Samuel Hahnemann in Germany in his Organon of...

Read More

Medical Advances Timeline: 1746-1799

When was the stethoscope invented? Did Civil War doctors have hypodermic needles? When did surgeons first begin to use anesthesia for operations? What were the origins of Neurology? When were the first nursing schools established? Did mid-19th century physicians perform blood transfusions? When was an ambulance corps approved by Congress? See the progression as medicine transformed from an “art” to a “science” . . . 1746 - The compressive bandage to stop bleeding from wounds is introduced. 1747 - Primae lineae physiologiae by Albrecht von Haller, Switzerland, is the first textbook on physiology. - Benjamin Robins, an English military engineer, addresses the Royal Society on the physics of a spinning projectile. 1749 - The Philadelphia Academy is founded. It will later evolve to become the...

Read More

Top Ten Surprising Things About Civil War Medicine

1) There wasn’t an ambulance to be found. The American Civil War spurred a revolution in emergency rescue and evacuation. Union Major Jonathan Letterman devised the first dedicated ambulance system with trained personnel. Our 21st century emergency rescue systems are still based on his concepts. 2) Most doctors had never performed surgery or seen a gunshot wound. Of the estimated 16,000 physicians who served in the Civil War, only 5% had ever seen or performed surgery. They would learn from hasty training, field manuals and the experience of working with hundreds of thousands of casualties. 3) Anesthesia was used for most wartime surgeries. Despite widespread tales of soldiers biting on bullets while undergoing surgery, almost all Civil War surgeries were performed with the use of ether...

Read More

Improved Civil War Ambulances

The Civil War was a landmark in the evacuation and treatment of battlefield casualties. It was the first mass evacuation of wounded troops and its lessons and innovations were quickly adopted in Europe. “The American War” had introduced a trained ambulance corps, improved and designated ambulance vehicles and the use of field hospitals near the battlefield. These systems became standards of battlefield and disaster medicine. Early in the war, the wounded lay on some battlefields for as long as three days. No designated vehicles were assigned to ambulance duty. There were no trained attendants to carry stretchers. Men deployed to the task were...

Read More

Civil War Pharmaceuticals

Army physicians treated their patients with the most advanced care available, but those treatments were frequently ineffective and sometimes harmful. They applied preparations like croton oil, which burned the skin, in the belief that a “counter irritant” would increase blood flow. It didn’t work. Soldiers weak from diarrhea were dosed with emetics to induce vomiting in the belief that “cleaning out one’s insides” was beneficial. It wasn’t. A few effective drugs were available to Civil War physicians. Ether and chloroform, the anesthetics, were routinely administered. Belladonna was helpful in the treatment of intestinal cramps. The narcotics opium and morphine were used to treat pain and diarrhea. The liberal use of these drugs was criticized after the war for the proliferation of addition,...

Read More

Infections in the Civil War

If a soldier survived his wound and subsequent surgery, he wasn’t necessarily healed. He still faced the looming specter of infection. Infection can develop when a great amount of tissue damage and necrosis, or, death of the tissue, exist. Civil War doctors didn’t know the causes of infections and weren’t able to treat them. Frequently, the infections reached a stage where amputation of the infected limb became the best option. Although surgeons were aware of a correlation between cleanliness and a low infection rate, most battlefield conditions didn’t permit even a cursory attempt at cleanliness. Sterilization of wounds and surgical tools was unknown. Almost every soldier who underwent surgery during the war suffered post-operative infections known as “surgical fevers”. Most of these were...

Read More