Organization of the Hospitals in the Department of Washington

Excerpted from: civilwardc.org By Susan C. Lawrence "At the outbreak of the civil war," the author of the chapter on general hospitals in "The Medical and Surgical History of the War of the Rebellion" wrote, "this country knew nothing practically of large military hospitals; indeed, most of our volunteer medical officers knew nothing of military hospitals, small or large." In fact, most of the volunteer medical officers would have known nothing of hospitals at all unless they had practiced in a city large enough to have had one or more charity hospitals, such as New York, Boston, Philadelphia or Washington, DC. Both volunteer and newly recruited...

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Keeping the Soldiers Warm: Civil War Women Make Quilts

From: quilting101.com Women held a paramount role during the American Civil War. Back in the 1850s the government did not provide for the military the same way they do now and it was often up to the women to provide clothing and bedding for the soldiers. This experience alone is said to have been one of the largest forces of confidence amongst women and what propelled the push for the right to vote! Women’s role within the war was not always received well and there were many that were not happy with their commercial patriotism which was shown through the sale of their civil war quilts at local fairs. However as times were dire and money was...

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Illnesses and Opiates

From: nchealthandhealing.com People remember the Civil War for its tragically high casualty rates—about 970,000 in all, or 3 percent of the population. But among soldiers, disease actually killed far more than battlefield wounds. Many soldiers fell sick in military camps. Constant exhaustion, lack of adequate clothing, exposure to severe weather and a diet of poorly cooked food made soldiers susceptible to a host of infectious diseases. Worst of all, drinking water contaminated by open latrines caused outbreaks of typhoid fever, which caused the most fatalities. The most common problems, though, were diarrhea and dysentery. “No matter what...

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The Civil War: The Origins of Veterans’ Health Care

by Jerome W. Mapp When the Civil War ended its bloody run on April 9, 1865 at Appomattox Courthouse, Va., more than 600,000 of the 2.4 million Union and Confederate troops were either killed in combat or by disease. Thousands more would require long-term care for their mental or physical wounds of war. America’s costliest and bloodiest conflict would have a profound effect on health care for Veterans. When the Civil War began on April 12, 1861, it is estimated America had 80,000 Veterans from previous conflicts, who were treated at a handful of Veterans homes scattered across the nation. The Civil War added more than 1.9 million Soldiers,...

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Civil War Water Filter

From: joshuasattic.com As shown in Lord's Civil War Encyclopedia, these are the two metallic parts of a "water filter" sold privately to soldiers. The foul, often brackish waters near large numbers of encamped men often bore highly-deadly diseases like dysentery which lead to intense, chronic diarrhea, dehydration and frequent death. In fact, more men died from disease during the Civil War than battle! Knowing the risks of drinking water, troops were lulled into a sense of false security by purchasing these filter sets in tin cases. The soldier was supposed to place the larger filter end into the stream or pond, drawing water up through...

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Health and Medicine During the Civil War

by Elaine Hirsch From 1861 to 1865, the Civil War wreaked havoc on American life. Nearly 620,000 soldiers died and an additional 412,000 were wounded. The massive amount of injuries presented new challenges in the medical field. Hospitals and clinics were overwhelmed with patients, disease was rampant and sanitation practices were no where near as sophisticated as today’s standards. Standardized medical schools did not yet exist and there were less than 100 doctors in the army at the start of the war. These factors presented unique challenges that American hospitals were not prepared to meet. The National Museum of Civil War Medicine features...

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Civil War Medical Remedies

By Laura June Davis While these nineteenth century remedies might not cure what ails you, they make an intriguing read. For Dysentery Dissolve as much table salt in pure vinegar as will ferment and work clear. When the foam is discharged cork it up in a bottle, and put it away for use. A large spoonful of this in a gill of boiling water is efficacious in cases of dysentery and colic. Cure for the Chills The plant, commonly called hoarhound, is said to afford a certain cure. Boil it in water, and drink freely of the tea. Gargle for Sore Throat, Diptheria or Scarlet Fever Mix in a common size cup of fresh milk two teaspoonfuls of pulverized...

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Health and Healing in North Carolina

From: nchealthandhealing.com Like many other states, North Carolina had very few hospitals at the outbreak of the Civil War. Unprecedented numbers of sick and wounded soldiers created a medical crisis. The state quickly established large military hospitals in Charlotte, Fayetteville, Goldsboro, Raleigh, Salisbury, Wake Forest, Wilmington and Wilson. Smaller, temporary hospitals sprang up along railroad lines. Hotels, churches and schools also served as makeshift hospitals. And some military camps established their own for soldiers who fell ill during training. Dr. Edmund Burke Haywood, a Confederate Army major, established the state’s first...

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Did You Know Abraham Lincoln Advocated for People with Hearing Loss?

From: hearingaids.com While most of us are familiar with Lincoln’s actions to emancipate the slaves, did you know he was also an advocate for people with hearing loss? One of Lincoln’s close friends, a former U.S. Postmaster General named Amos Kendall, helped fund the school known as the Columbia Institution for the Instruction of the Deaf and Dumb and Blind. The best known action Lincoln took on behalf of the deaf (then any sort of hearing loss was lumped under term “deafness” even if the person being referred to could hear to some degree) was signing the Enabling Act on April 8, 1864. This allowed the school later known as Gallaudet College,...

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Civil War Hospital Leg Brace

From: joshuasattic.com This is an utterly amazing item, showing the ingenuity and resourcefulness of Civil War period manufacturers: a wooden leg brace by maker "A. Goodwin Ashfield" which incorporates pivots, ratchets and other mechanics which allow exact positioning of an injured lower limb. This brace pivots up and down at the knee to adjust flexion and extension of that joint, locking into place by setting the heel position upon the step-cut base. The wood (Walnut or chestnut)has been contoured to comfortably fit the lower thigh and the calf. Then, there is a heel plate that is adjusted by two large wooden turnscrews which raise the foot...

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Three Bladed Surgeons Fleam

From: joshuasattic.com This is an outstanding CW period 3-blade fleam, used to "let blood" from ailing patients. Before they knew about germs and infections, the theory was to let out the bad humours, toxins and poisons in the feverish person's body by draining off specific amounts of blood. The blade tips were used to lightly cut across superficial veins, usually in the forearms. So, in essence, your doctor came to your house in a buggy, examined you, and then cut your arms with these fleams till he was satisfied you were healthier from the process. Then you were wrapped up and paid him for the service. (Then you either lived or died...) This...

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London-made Wingnut Tourniquet

From: joshuasattic.com This item is an extremely high quality brass screw-type of tourniquet as was often contained in Capital Surgical Sets used in Field Hospitals. The canvas strap was tightened to draw the wad down upon an artery, thus staunching the flow of blood from a prior wound or from cuts made during surgery. Made by Evans & Co. of London. These are sometimes excavated in battle areas and the field hospital sites to the rear. It is 3 3/4" high. Field orderlies had access to cheaper buckle-type tourniquets that quickly strapped a gushing limb dry until the victim was rushed to the rear...

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Prescription Drug Abuse History

From: narcanon.org The abuse of prescription drugs in America goes back more than a hundred years to the abuse of laudanum, a mixture of opium and alcohol. This was an early remedy for pain, sleeplessness, anxiety, coughing and diarrhea. In the 1800s, laudanum was used by doctors across the country. But it was quite addictive. It was also part of an interesting division of addiction for people living in the 1800s. The usual laudanum addict was a Caucasian woman. Men had their own substance of addiction - alcohol. But women were not supposed to visit bars or saloons or be seen drinking so they could visit their doctors for their addictive...

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Ether and Chloroform

From history.com By the time the American Civil War broke out in 1861, both ether and chloroform had been in use for several years as methods of surgical anesthesia. Though both anesthetic agents were developed around the same time (the 1840s), chloroform soon emerged as the more widely used, as it took action faster and was non-flammable. During the Civil War, ether and particularly chloroform became indispensable tools for military doctors, who performed tens of thousands of amputations and other types of procedures for wounded Union and Confederate soldiers. DEVELOPMENT OF ETHER Before its development as a surgical anesthetic, ether was...

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Women in the Civil War: Five Nurses from St. Lawrence County

From: northnet.org If war is a test of a nation’s civil, military and spiritual strength, then civil war - neighbor against neighbor and brother against brother - it the ultimate test of a people’s character. The American Civil War (1861-65) tore at the roots of our political and social fabric. During the War Between the States women played a number of roles. Women from the North and the South organized at home to provide much need support for their fathers, brothers, husbands and sons far from home in the field. Local Ladies Aid Societies knitted socks, rolled bandages, sewed clothing, sent bedding and towels and food. They wrote letters,...

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The Heritage of Army Audiology (Excerpt)

By D. Scott McIlwain, AuD, Kathy Gates, AuD, Donald Ciliax, PhD Noise-induced hearing loss has been documented as early as the 16th century, when a French surgeon, Ambroise Paré, wrote of the treatment of injuries sustained by firearms and described acoustic trauma in great detail. Even so, the protection of hearing would not be addressed for three more centuries, when the jet engine was invented and resulted in a long overdue whirlwind of policy development addressing the prevention of hearing loss. Military conflicts have long been identified as a source of physical disability. Veterans’ benefits were first documented in this country in...

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General Robert E. Lee's Probable Heart Attack in 1863

From: examiner.com Confederate General Robert E. Lee, at age 56, was experiencing pain in his chest, back and arms in late March and early April of 1863. Several doctors diagnosed pericarditis. Pericarditis by definition, according to the Mayo Clinic, is “a swelling and irritation of the pericardium, the thin sac membrane that surrounds your heart.” For General Lee, his doctors, Lafayette Guild and S. M. Bemiss, prescribed rest, gave him quinine and sent him into a private home near Fredericksburg, Virginia and away from the rebel camp. He was confined in bed for several weeks and was feverish. By April 16, he was back in camp, but still...

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Slave Medicine

From: nchealthandhealing.com In antebellum North Carolina, ownership of slaves included the right to direct their treatment when they were sick. As they did with their own families, slaveholders usually tried to treat sick and injured slaves themselves before consulting a physician. In fact, doctors were called only for life-threatening cases. Then slaves were treated with the same medicines and therapies that whites relied on. Health issues often brought slaves into conflict with their owners, since they held very different beliefs about the causes and treatment of illnesses. Enslaved African Americans drew upon their own healing traditions....

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Did the Civil War Create a Lot of Morphine Addicts?

By Chris A question posed in 1999 asked, “I’ve often read that there were 500,000 morphine addicts running around after the Civil War. Is this true? If so, did narcotics have a deleterious effect on the Old West? How many cowboys were wacko on these then-legal drugs?” According to one interesting source, the answer was… maybe: Still, even allowing for exaggeration by drug alarmists, you have to think the Civil War had some impact. Narcotics were handed out like candy by army surgeons, who were surrounded by suffering and had few remedies to offer other than painkillers. Nearly ten million opium pills were issued to Union soldiers, along...

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Civil War Crutches

From: Joshuasattic.com Crutches during the Civil War were not made with the double body struts like now. They were a long, sturdy pole of hardwood doweled-into a top piece that fit under the armpit. These could be quickly made by local woodshops or by carpenters escorting the Divisions. This one of either walnut or fine-grained oak was padded over the years with a green (or faded dark brown) heavy cloth that is sewn with heavy brown thread. It keeps the wood from digging into the flesh and irritating it with constant use... An arm could get numb, sometimes permanently, if pressure on the nerve was constant and intense. Civil War doctors were...

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About Morphine Use During the Civil War

By Susan Sosbe Morphine, along with opium and laudanum, was widely used in the Civil War to relieve soldiers after surgical procedures were performed in field hospitals. Despite the side effects of using morphine, it is still a commonly used analgesic and is held up as a comparison for all other acute pain relievers. Morphine was first discovered by Friedrich Wilhelm Adam Serturner when he managed to isolate the alkaloid in the opium poppy in 1805. He often experimented with his discovery on himself, noting both the benefits and the negative aspects of morphine. Although not much interest was shown in his discovery at first, chemists and...

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Anesthesia Comes of Age During the Civil War: "He's Pretty Spunky"

by Bob Shepard The story of the use of anesthesia in the Civil War, from the very different experiences of a private and a general, according to the world’s first academic anesthesiology history unit. Anesthesia was in its infancy when the American Civil War began in 1861. The sheer number of casualties gave surgeons on both sides the opportunity to gain experience with the first two anesthetic agents developed — sulfuric ether and chloroform — according to a paper by a University of Alabama at Birmingham anesthesiologist published in the October issue of the "Scandinavian Journal of Pain". "As we honor the sesquicentennial, or 150th anniversary,...

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They Heard the Call of Duty: Civil War Nurses

From armyheritage.org With the onset of the American Civil War in 1861, able-bodied men on both sides of the conflict began marching to battlefields in service to their country. Women on both sides also felt a need to volunteer and contribute to the war effort. Most of these female volunteers served as nurses. Driven by the same patriotic desire as many of their male counterparts, roughly 3,300 women served as nurses for the Union Army from years 1861-1865. These pioneers challenged existing gender roles and social norms. Many of their male colleagues believed that women did not belong in the hospitals and resented their presences. Civil...

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The History of Civil War Veterinarians

By James Rada Walter Heiss may be the only person to have worn his Civil War uniform although he is not a veteran of the war. The blue Union jacket has the gold stripes of a calvaryman. The three-up, three-down stripes identify him as a sergeant major, but in between those stripes is a horseshoe patch marking him as a veterinary surgeon. "There isn't a record of anyone holding this position," Mr. Heiss said. And he would be one of the few people alive who would know. Mr. Heiss spent two years compiling information about Civil War veterinary medicine. "At the beginning of the Civil War, there were 7.5 million horses in the United States...

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Dean of The College of Pharmacy of the University of Findlay Speaks About Civil War Medicine

September 16, 2013 Written by Sarah Foltz In August, Don Stansloski, dean of the College of Pharmacy, visited Lakeside Chatauqua, a historic Ohio community and resort, to share his knowledge of the Civil War and the impact it had on medicine in the United States. In a uniform of a pharmacist in the Union Army, he shared interesting before-and-after facts of the war. “Essentially, I talked to them about what the north and south were like before the civil war,” Stansloski said. Stansloski explained many aspects of the Civil War, including the industrial environment in the north where people depended on machinery, while the south depended on...

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Dr. Charles A. Leale’s Report on the Assassination of Abraham Lincoln

By Helena Iles Papaioannou and Daniel W. Stowell In May 2012, Helena Iles Papaioannou, a research assistant with the Papers of Abraham Lincoln, was systematically searching the Letters Received series of the Records of the Office of the Surgeon General at the National Archives in Washington, D.C. Proceeding through correspondence filed under the letter “L,” she located a twenty-two-page report by army surgeon Dr. Charles A. Leale about his role as the first physician to tend the wounded Lincoln after the president’s shooting at Ford’s Theatre on April 14, 1865. Papaioannou brought the document to the attention of the director of the Papers...

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