Venereal Disease

Venereal diseases were common among mid-nineteenth century troops. It has been known for hundreds of years that syphilis and gonorrhea were transmitted by sexual contact, although the term “gonorrhea” was applied to all forms of urethral discharge during the Civil War.As the devastating complications frequently don’t appear for many years, it’s impossible to estimate the number of post-war deaths from these diseases. 102,893 soldiers were diagnosed with gonorrhea during the war and 79,589 with syphilis, but very few wartime deaths were listed as a direct result of these diseases.The military created some successful public health programs in its...

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Civil War Medications

Information for this section was contributed by The College of Physicians of Philadelphia, in particular Jane E. Boyd, Ph.D., Wood Institute Research Associate, and Robert D. Hicks, Ph.D., Measey Chair for the History of Medicine and Director of the Mütter Museum & Historical Medical Library. For more information about The College of Physicians and the Mütter Museum, visit www.collphyphil.org. In the Civil War era, many of the medications we now take for granted did not exist. There were no antibiotics and hardly any vaccines, as no one knew that germs (microorganisms) caused many diseases. Nevertheless, pharmaceuticals played an important...

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The Bullet in Lincoln's Brain

After the President's death, Lincoln's body was removed to the White House. Dr. Joseph J. Woodward performed the autopsy on the bed in the room now known as the "Lincoln bedroom". Dr. Woodward was assisted by Dr. Edward Curtis. Dr. Curtis remembered: "The Surgeon General detailed me the history of the case. . . Dr. Woodward and I proceeded to open the head and remove the brain down to the track of the ball. The latter had entered a little to the left of the median line at the back of the head, had passed almost directly forwards through the center of the brain and lodged. Not finding it readily, we proceeded to remove the entire...

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The Slaves of Chimborazo Hospital

From: The U.S. National Library of Medicine African Americans, free and enslaved, provided care for wounded soldiers in Union and some Confederate hospitals. The survival of the military hospital was dependent upon their work. Employed in white-only and black-only facilities, African Americans were able to move beyond the confines of private employment to a more public environment. Hospital work represented change and opportunity for many African Americans Chimborazo Hospital in Richmond, Virginia, the largest Confederate hospital, relied on the slaves of local plantation owners and hospital surgeons to fill positions such as nurses,...

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A Medical Doctor Treats Sick Horses

Horses were an essential part of the Civil War military. They were responsible for transporting food, supplies and artillery. Sickness among horses could have a devastating effect on the course of a campaign.   Confederate surgeon Herbert M, Nash was treating soldiers with malaria, when the unit's horses began to stumble and tremble.   "While the men were thus suffering with malaria, the horses became affected with blind staggers and many died. Without horses the artillery could not be moved, and they could not be replaced.   "I made autopsies and became convinced that the same or a similar poison was acting on both...

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Socks for Sore Feet

BUSY FINGERS: KNITTING STOCKINGS IN THE CIVIL WARBy Lynne Zacek Bassett, from Knitting Traditions, Spring 2012 South Carolina resident Mary Chesnut commented in her diary late in the summer of 1861, "I do not know when I have seen a woman without knitting in her hand." In the North as well as in the South, knitting needles clicked incessantly during the Civil War years (1861-1865). Although machine-knitted stockings were widely available, they were considered inferior to handknit stockings and wore out quickly from the rigors of long marches and insufficient washing. The call for handknitted stockings went out throughout the country. Stories...

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A Confederate Shortage of Splints

Southern doctors were particularly hard pressed to obtain sufficient medical supplies. They tried to procure reserves from Europe, but Union Naval blockades, prevalent later in the war, complicated the already desperate situation. Dr. William H. Taylor recounted his experiences: "Normally we were scant of medicines, and generally they were of the commoner kinds. At times, however, we were well supplied, and with excellent preparations. These times would be when captures had been made, or medicines of Northern or European manufacture had come through the blockade. The Confederate pharmaceutical laboratories worked industriously,...

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Death by Diarrhea

During the Civil War, diarrhea and dysentery were known as the prevailing diseases in army camps. Union Major and Surgeon S.C. Gordon observed: "The death list from disease was a fearful one in the Department of the Gulf. Fever and diarrhea, the former disabling and the latter killing, were worse foes than bullets, ten to one. "It was estimated that at least ten thousand soldiers died and were buried in the Department of the Gulf, from disease of the bowels alone. It was a standing joke in our department that to be a good soldier here bowels are of more consequence than brains. "The slang phrase in regard to the soldier who...

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Yellow Fever Epidemic in North Carolina

Yellow Fever was a highly contagious and deadly disease. In 1864, it ravaged the town of Newbern, North Carolina. The Union publication, "Medical and Surgical Reporter" of September, 1864, published the following: "Yellow fever is prevailing to an alarming extent. "Never before in the history of the place has any epidemic been known to rage so violently and so fatally. One account says the citizens have more than they can do to attend to the sick and bury the dead. In a number of houses when entered, corpses have been found, dead probably a day or two, remaining there in a state of decomposition, for want of persons to remove them. "The...

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General Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson's Death Wounds

(Attended by his personal physician, Dr. Hunter H. McGuire)From the Richmond, Virginia "Dispatch" of September 20, 1900At the battle of Chancellorsville, May, 1863, General Jackson received his death wounds, and being placed upon a litter, was passed on as rapidly as the thick woods and rough ground would permit, when, unfortunately, one of the bearers was struck down, and the General was thrown to the ground, but was again placed on the litter, when he was met by Surgeon McGuire, to whom he said: "I am badly injured, Doctor; I fear I am dying."His clothes were saturated with blood, his skin cold and clammy, his face pale, fixed and rigid, and...

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The Sisters of Charity Nurse Smallpox Patients

American Civil War nurse and poet Walt Whitman observed the new social phenomenon of seeing nuns and lay women in hospitals in Washington:   "There are many women in one position or another, among the Hospitals, mostly as nurses here in Washington, and among the military stations; quite a number of them young ladies acting as volunteers. They are a great help in certain ways, and deserve to be mention'd with praise and respect."   Men weren't accustomed to encountering women in the hospitals, and some of the soldiers had never seen Catholic nuns before. A Sister of Charity in Pennsylvania wrote in her journal:   "Our...

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Catholic Nuns as Civil War Nurses

by Kristine Ashton Gunnell, Ph.D.   Approximately 600 Catholic sisters served as nurses during the civil war, both Union and Confederate. Some religious communities, like the Daughters of Charity, had nurses on both sides.   The battle of Gettysburg occurred only 8 miles from the headquarters of the Daughters of Charity in Maryland, and they were the first nurses on the scene. Records indicate that they operated 21 field hospitals for several months after the battle.   Surgeons often commented that they preferred the discipline of the religious sisters over the volunteer nurses. Catholic sisters shaped the...

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Civil War Hospital Flags

The organization of the Confederate Medical Department/Medical Service was identical to that of the United States Medical Department in 1861. It is probable that the same system, use of yellow flags to mark the location of hospitals. (The Army Medical Department 1818-1865). Confederate Veteran XIX, reunion announcement "Medical Officers Army and Navy, C.S.A. - Our place of meeting will be the chapel of the First Presbyterian Church, centrally located and easily accessible by the display from the front of a yellow flag, the hospital insignia of the Confederate Army". Confederate Veteran XXII " Dr. Simon Baruch, remembers the day of His capture...

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American Medical Education in the 1860s

American medical students frequently trained through an apprenticeship to an older practicing physician, who passed along his own fund of knowledge, good and bad. Sometimes the mentor, or "preceptor", sponsored the student's admission to a formal medical college.  The country had more than 80 medical schools that operated independently. Most hospitals were institutions that had evolved from almshouse infirmaries. Very little surgery was performed. The average medical student in the United States trained for two years rather than the European requisite of four, and received little clinical and laboratory experience. In 1861, several...

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Dr. Thomas Martin Palmer, CSA

By Robert Sonntag Among Florida doctors serving with distinction during the war was T. M. Palmer MD.  All three Palmer family doctors have been outstanding practicing physicians, leaders in the state, and presidents of the FMA.  Young Tom came to Monticello in Jefferson County in 1829, eight years old and eight years after Florida became a United States territory.  After graduating from the University of Maryland, he returned to Monticello where he spent his life in practice except for the Civil War.  He served in the Constitutional Convention of 1861, which passed the Ordinance of Secession.  During the war he...

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Turpentine in Civil War Medicine

At the time of the Civil War, turpentine was routinely prescribed for oral and topical use in America and Europe. During the war, when quinine wasn't available to them, Confederate surgeons substituted turpentine. After the war, Confederate surgeon Herbert M. Nash remembered: "During the siege of Petersburg, in July and August, 1864, malarial fevers of every type attacked our men, so that scarcely enough of the whole number could be had to man the two mortar batteries in use upon the banks of the river. There was no quinine issued at that time, and the men were treated with decoctions internally and friction of turpentine to the spine...

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Chimborazo Hospital Remembered

By late 1864 there were 154 hospitals in the Confederacy and 204 in the Union. Chimborazo Hospital outside Richmond Virginia had 8,000 beds and may have been the largest military hospital in the world. Chimborazo was exceptional, as well, in appointing to one of its large units Phoebe Pember, known as an outstanding woman hospital administrator. Confederate Surgeon Herbert M. Nash remembered: "In Chimborazo Hospital between 40,000 and 50,000 cases of wounds were treated during its existence. In it there was never a case of gangrene and not a case of smallpox ever developed in its divisions. It had a system of force-pump baths...

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The Citizens' Volunteer Hospital

In the North, Philadelphia served as a railway hub, and thousands of the wounded passed through. Volunteers operated a hospital at a main depot. In his history of Philadelphia during the Civil War, author Frank H. Taylor wrote: "This beneficent establishment was located opposite the depot of the Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Railroad. It was especially intended for the reception of the more serious cases of the sick and wounded constantly arriving from the army by train. It was a clearing house from which the patients were gradually distributed to other hospitals. Humane citizens of both sexes maintained volunteer committees...

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Pain Control

By T.A. Wheat, from "Medicine in Virginia During the Civil War" Almost from the moment of injury, efforts were made to ensure that the wounded soldier felt as little pain as possible. Unfortunately, the first substance administered to a wounded man was usually alcohol because it was felt to be a stimulant. But alcohol actually suppresses the nervous system and dilates the blood vessels, neither of which is helpful, especially in cases involving major blood loss.  The assistant surgeon, at the aid station, also used an oral narcotic, usually morphine sulfate, and might allow the patient to inhale the vapors of chloroform for additional...

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The Surgical Tenaculum

Deep wounds of the chest and abdomen presented often insurmountable problems. One of the only instruments available for seizing and holding displaced or severed arteries was the sharp, slender hook called a tenaculum. The surgeon would hook and hold the blood vessels with the instrument as an assistant or second surgeon tied them off to control the bleeding. Union surgeon William Williams Keen explained:      "The surgery of the chest lagged far behind that of the head and the abdomen because when the chest was opened the lung collapsed and breathing became embarrassed, or impossible, if both sides were...

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Dr. John van Surly DeGrasse

African American Union Doctor   By Robert G. Slawson, M.D., F.A.C.R.   Dr. John van Surly DeGrasse is the third man known to have received a commission. Dr. DeGrasse was the second African American to be graduated from an American medical school. He was graduated from Maine Medical School, affiliated with Bowdoin College, in Brunswick, Maine, in 1849..   Following graduation, he went to Paris and there was Assistant Dresser to the famous French surgeon, Velpeau, for two years. He returned to the United States and first practiced in New York. Later he moved to Boston and did very well there; he became a member of...

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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...

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Pavilion Hospitals

At the beginning of the war, available buildings were converted and used as hospitals, but later, both sides came to favor the newly designed pavilion hospital. These facilities featured long, narrow, well-ventilated wooden buildings, frequently built like spokes on a hub. Specialized areas of the hub included operating rooms, kitchens, offices, supply rooms and "dead house". Although overall sanitation was still poor, pavilion hospitals were usually equipped with rudimentary toilet facilities. Medications, food, laundry and supplies moved much more efficiently through the pavilion hospitals and the quality of convalescent care im...

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Quinine

Quinine was one of the most effective medicines available to Civil War doctors. Quinine is a drug made from cinchona tree bark, whose active ingredient is the alkaloid “quinine.” Spanish missionaries observed its use in South America in the 1500’s.  It was used to treat fevers of all kinds but was especially useful in treating the chills and fever of malaria.  Powers and Weightman, a Philadelphia-based firm, was the nation's largest supplier of quinine during the war. When quinine wasn't available, Confederate surgeons substituted turpentine.Turpentine was routinely prescribed for oral and topical use in America and Europe....

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The Nelaton Probe

French physician and surgeon Auuste Nelaton invented a porcelain-tipped probe for locating bullets inside a wound. Union surgeon William Williams Keen described using the tool:   "We had the ordinary and dangerous probe. This may be described as a slender flexible silver finger to detect the course, and, if possible, the presence of a bullet, but in our ignorance of bacteriology, not being sterilized, it was also a means of carrying infection deep into the wound.   "In 1862 Nelaton of Paris invented his celebrated probe. This wa a rather stout but flexible wire tipped with a bulb of unglazed porcelain and therefore rough. When...

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Civil War Optometrists

The practice of optometry began with the invention and subsequent refinement of eyeglasses in the early nineteenth century. Optometry guilds were formed at this time, and the practice eventually was regulated under statutory law. Jewelers were actually some of the first professionals to use eye charts and sell glasses to the public.   The industry in the United States expanded during the Civil War when the government purchased large quantities of binoculars and microscopes for the war effort. Eyeglasses became plentiful and, by the end of the nineteenth century, schools were teaching the science of optics, often in combination with...

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Civil War Stretchers and Stretcher Bearers

Civil War Union veteran surgeon Richard Swanton Vickery, born and educated in Ireland, wrote "Duties of the Surgeon in Action". He detailed the importance of, and directions for stretchers and the men who carried them. Dr. Vickery's instructions were directed to the Surgeon in charge on the battlefield. "We will suppose his Regiment is formed in line of battle, expecting soon to be engaged; he has been notified that the Division Depot or Hospital is at some farm-house or other building, a mile or two to the rear, and during the few minutes quiet that he has left, he reviews his arrangements to see that they are as perfect as may be. "He...

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Research on Civil War Eye Glasses

By Johan Steele My own research included talking to a local fella and present day optometrist who collects eye glasses and was rather enlightening. Surprisingly prices are about the same today, when compared to inflation. The frame curving around the ear glasses are definitely a post war invention. Most typical had the lenses very small when compared to those of today, the pair I have were originally a set of sample/display glasses. The lenses aren't much larger than my eyes, you are forced to look straight at whoever you are talking to. There is NO peripheral vision with these. Some of the others I was shown that dated to the 1860's...

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