I Nose This is Hard-OR-Interpreting Scents in Civil War Camps and on Battlefields

By Emmanuel Dabney, 9-26-11 Interpreters of war face numerous challenges in interpreting past military events such as interpreting violence which was the subject of some posts by John Hennessy which you can read here and here (If you care where I stand on the subject of interpreting violence-I believe is essential to understanding that the romantic visions Civil War soldiers left home with were dramatically altered between 1861 and 1865. Unfortunately, in the post-war period, romanticized versions of battle reappeared and these notions often guide modern thought processes on the Civil War.) Similar problems have gripped our historical sense...

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Herbs and Plants Used During the Civil War

By Lois Sutton, Ph.D. When we think of herbs and plants used during the Civil War, we need to set the stage in at least broad strokes. In the North are pharmaceutical companies, metal works, manufacturing centers; in the South, cotton gins. The agricultural crops of the north are basic foods and animal fodders (cereal grains, white potatoes, corn). In the South crops are primarily trade goods (cotton, tobacco, sugar cane). ​As the war drug on, the military imbalance in the field was not as critical as was the power of the Northern navy to blockade Southern ports. Blockade running and smuggling helped address these shortages in the South....

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Folk Medicine in the Civil War -- the South

From: healingwith-herbs.blogspot.com, 10-28-13 Much of the suffering in the war was because of a rapidly declining supply of medicine in the South as blockades restricted importation of all essentials. When enemy camps were overrun, speculators raided the medical stores capturing morphine, quinine and chloroform to resell at 50 times their original value. It was such a problem that General Lee called upon the secretary of war to put an end to the practice. In anticipation of this supply problem, surgeon Maj. Francis Perye Porcher set about creating a manual on indigenous botanical substitutes titled “Resources of the Southern Fields and...

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Camphor - Zhang Nao

From: chineseherbinfo.com During the U.S. Civil War, the demand for camphor (used primarily as a medicinal) was so high that the U.S. contracted for the entire Taiwan supply. Nature: acrid, hot, toxic Enters: Heart, Spleen Topical Actions: Expels wind and dampness; kills parasites; promotes blood circulation, alleviates pain. Topical Indications: • Scabies, ringworm, itching sores • Blood stasis: injuries, pain and swelling. • Used topically as a powder or paste. • Warming, irritative, and antiseptic effect on the skin. Mildly locally anaesthetic. Hsu: Irritant effect – promotes blood circulation, increases mucosa secretion. Internal...

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Civil War Cigarettes

From: examiner.com, 1-8-15 In the Mexican War (1846-1848), cigars were a popular smoke. Others chewed tobacco, used snuff or smoked it in pipes. By 1850, Phillip Morris was offering hand-rolled cigarettes from Turkey in his shop in London. Cigarettes did not become popular in the country until right around 1860. The first cigarettes made in America did not occur until 1865. But imported cigarettes were abundant throughout the war. Early on the cigarette was considered unmanly to smoke. A New York newspaper in 1854 said the following about the cigarette: “Some of the ladies of this refined and fashion-forming metropolis are aping the silly...

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Maimed Men - Life and Limb: The Toll of the American Civil War

From: nlm.nih.gov "The limbs of soldiers are in as much danger from the ardor of young surgeons as from the missiles of the enemy." Surgeon Julian John Chisholm, 1864 Although the exact number is not known, approximately 60,000 surgeries, about three quarters of all of the operations performed during the war, were amputations. Although seemingly drastic, the operation was intended to prevent deadly complications such as gangrene. Sometimes undertaken without anesthesia, and in some cases leaving the patient with painful sensations in the severed nerves, the removal of a limb was widely feared by soldiers. Under the Knife At this time,...

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Honorable Scars

From: nlm.nih.gov "It is not two years since the sight of a person who had lost one of his lower limbs was an infrequent occurrence. Now, alas! there are few of us who have not a cripple among our friends, if not in our own families." Physician Oliver Wendell Holmes, 1863 The vast numbers of men disabled by the conflict were a major cause of concern for Rebel and Union leaders. Some worried about preventing idleness and immoral behavior, while others focused on the economic hardship veterans would later face if they could not find employment after the war. Proposed solutions included wartime work as cooks, clerks, and hospital attendants,...

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Returning to the Army

From: nlm.nih.gov The Invalid Corps was established by the federal government in 1863 to employ disabled veterans in war-related work. Soldiers were divided up into two battalions, based on the extent of their injuries. The first carried weapons and fought in combat. The second, made up of men with more serious impairments, served as nurses, cooks, and prison guards. Despite the rigorous workload, members of the Invalid Corps (known as the “Cripple Brigade” among their former comrades ), were not offered the generous financial awards granted to re-enlisting soldiers and new recruits in the Union. Nicknamed “Inspected-Condemned” after the initials...

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Advice to Civil War Soldiers - 1862

From: victoriana.com A correspondent writes to The Middlebury Register, to give to inexperienced American Civil War soldiers some hints for the preservation of health, from what he has learned in the field.  After warning the new recruit that the enthusiasm of the first week will soon tone down to stanch realities, which he must meet and face as a man — that he cannot live as carelessly about his health as he can at home, where warm rooms and comfortable beds and well-cooked meals are at his service from day today, and that he must act the physician for himself, to a great degree, and be watchful against any predisposition to disease,...

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Sacrifices Forgotten - Life and Limb: The Toll of the American Civil War

From: nlm.nih.gov The selflessness of soldiers fostered great respect in the years after the war. Pension payments were increased regularly, and men pursuing political office often found that their obvious injury proved useful in attracting voters. Yet as Americans sought to put the memory of the conflict behind them, they increasingly ignored the plight of aging, disabled, impoverished veterans. Instead, memorializing the dead and asserting national patriotism became the focus of Civil War remembrances, and the image of the disabled soldier became one of a money-grabbing dependent. Image: "Puck" magazine, 20 December 1882. By the 1880s support...

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Lobelia, the Herb That Carried More Cultural Weight Than Marijuana

From: thesouthernhighlander.org Before there was marijuana, there was lobelia. This blue, summer wildflower was the most controversial plant in the United States prior to the Civil War, as it came to symbolize a cultural divide in perhaps the nation’s first cultural upheaval, pitting the wealthy elite against the Jacksonian “common man.” By the close of the eighteenth century, American medicine was in a state of crisis. According to medical historian John S. Haller, many patients and physicians alike had come to believe that the medical system to which they had committed years of education and practice had lost its ability to cure. Relying...

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Civil War Medical Museum To Manage Missing Soldiers Office, National Museum of Civil War Medicine, Press Release. 12-30-10

From: civilwarlibrarian.blogspot.com The National Museum of Civil War Medicine (NMCWM) will open the Clara Barton Missing Soldiers Office Museum this year at 437 7th St. NW, Washington. The General Services Administration (GSA), which owns the building, chose the Frederick, Md., non-profit museum whose mission is preserving and researching the legacy of Civil War medicine, to operate the museum. Barton lived in the third-floor rooms during and immediately after the war. Her living quarters and office were there until 1867. During the war supplies for her nursing work were stored in these rooms. In 1865 Barton hired staff and opened the Office...

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History of Memorial Day

From: usmemorialday.org Memorial Day, originally called Decoration Day, is a day of remembrance for those who have died in service of the United States of America. Over two dozen cities and towns claim to be the birthplace of Memorial Day. While Waterloo N.Y. was officially declared the birthplace of Memorial Day by President Lyndon Johnson in May 1966, it’s difficult to prove conclusively the origins of the day. Regardless of the exact date or location of its origins, one thing is clear – Memorial Day was borne out of the Civil War and a desire to honor our dead. It was officially proclaimed on 5 May 1868 by General John Logan, national...

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The History of the Suture

By Nick Snelling, Writer and Filmmaker 9-22-15 Who came up with the idea of stitching together human skin like ripped jeans? Nick Snelling delves into medical history to find out. Getting stitches is a rite of passage as a kid. Fall off your BMX, run into something sharp or gouge yourself leaping out of a tree, and you were off to the doc quick-smart, wincing and wailing as they sewed you back up. But did you ever stop to consider who first thought to ‘repair’ a tear in people’s skin by stitching it back together like a seamstress or tailor? Mentions of physicians suturing human skin stretch all the way back to 3000 BC and the Ancient Egyptians....

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Disease & Sickness Ravaged Civil War America

By Chris, 3-10-13 During the American Civil War over 620,000 people were casualties (and probably a lot more) with 504 dying every day. For the soldier, two out of every three would die of disease. The average soldier quickly discovered that one of the worst places to be sent were the field hospitals. William C. Haynes of the 11th Kansas wrote in February of 1863 wrote about the toll of war with regard to disease (and sickness) and how it ravaged the soldier and the army: "no toungue can tell suffering that they have endured the past winter and have had all in their favor Soldiers are Bound to suffer no mater as to the weather For when they...

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