Production Update: The U.S. Army War College's MOLLUS Collection

By Carole Adrienne The Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States, (MOLLUS), is an American patriotic order formed on April 15, 1865 by military officers of the United States who had "aided in maintaining the honor, integrity, and supremacy of the national movement" during the Civil War. This venerable organization collected and preserved thousands of photographs and documents from the war. The U.S. Army Heritage and Education Center Library in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, counts these among their vast holdings. The original images have been photocopied and placed in more than 140 binders. The originals are stored in their temperature...

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Mary Putnam Jacobi: Pioneer for Women in the Medical Professions

By Maggie MacLean, 6-26-15 Mary Putnam Jacobi was a prominent physician, author, scientist, activist, educator, and perhaps most importantly, a staunch advocate of women's right to seek medical education and training. Men in medicine claimed that a medical education would make women physically ill, and that women physicians endangered their profession. Jacobi worked to prove them wrong and argued that it was social restrictions that threatened female health. Jacobi was the most significant woman physician of her era and an outspoken advocate for women's rights, rising to national prominence in the 1870s. She was a harsh critic of the exclusion...

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Glowing Wounds at the Battle of Shiloh: The Strange Facts Behind the Legend of the Angel’s Glow

By Mark Weaver, 3-15-14 Wars breed blood and death on a massive scale. They also breed their share of strange stories. The American Civil War was no exception to this rule. Whether it was the governor who wanted to arm his troops with pikes on battlefields dominated by rifles and artillery, or the doctor who plotted to use biowarfare on Northern cities, the War Between States had its fair share of strange factual stories. But another thing that warfare breeds is folklore. These apocryphal stories seem too good to be true. Once such bit of folklore that was largely dismissed as wishful thinking came from the Battle of Shiloh, which took place...

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Walt Whitman: Civil War Missionary

From: warfarehistorynetwork.com, 4-11-14 After his brother was wounded in battle, Whitman volunteered many hours helping wounded soldiers in Washington D.C. In late December 1862, national poet Walt Whitman arrived in Washington D.C., intending to stay for just a few days. He ended up staying for the next ten years; for the first three, he was a regular visitor at the various military hospitals in and around the nation’s capital. In “The Soldiers’ Missionary,” Roy Morris Jr.’s in-depth feature in the Spring 2014 issue of Civil War Quarterly Magazine, you’ll get to read all about Whitman’s interactions with the wounded soldiers. Whitman’s...

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Mrs. Keckley, “Contraband” and The Lincolns

By Feather Schwartz Foster, 10-19-15 The Civil War brought out great bitterness. It also brought out great generosity. Shortly after the Civil war began, runaway slaves were give a unique new name: “Contraband of War.” Fortress Monroe, near Norfolk, VA, was a crucial center for the Union, since it commanded the Chesapeake Bay, its trade, commerce and defensive position. General Benjamin Butler, a “political” general and Massachusetts lawyer, was in command of Union forces in that area, which was a magnet for the runaways. Technically, they “could not” be freed and “should” be returned to their masters, but Butler, an abolitionist, was not...

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Mental Health

By Barbara Floyd, University Archivist, University of Toledo In early 19th century America, care for the mentally ill was almost non-existent: the afflicted were usually relegated to prisons, almshouses, or inadequate supervision by families. Treatment, if provided, paralleled other medical treatments of the time, including bloodletting and purgatives. However, in a wave of concern for the oppressed, some took action. Among these, Dorothea Dix was the leading crusader for the establishment of state-supported mental asylums. Through her efforts, the first state hospitals for the insane were built in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. She and other...

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Healers or Horrors: Civil War Medicine

By Richard A. Gabriel, 9-22-16 Safe behind its ocean barriers, the United States paid scant attention to the wars that raged abroad during the early 19th century, taking little notice of the lessons that might have been learned from the European experience with mass killing. With few opportunities for its own military medical establishment to acquire field experience, the U.S. Army’s military medical service remained primitive. In 1802, the U.S. Army Medical Corps comprised only two surgeons and 25 orderlies. By 1808, the number of surgeons had increased to seven and surgical assistants to 40. There was no ambulance corps during the War of...

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Rabies History

By Yolanda Smith, BPharm Rabies has long been recognized throughout history, which is most likely due to the particularly stark symptoms associated with the disease. It appears to have been ever present in dog species, as well as occurring intermittently in other animal species such as bats. Early History It was quickly understood even in ancient history that the rabies virus could be passed on via an animal bite. Rabies is mentioned in several ancient literature works, such as the paper by Aristotle (300BC) that notes rabies as one of the diseases that affects dogs and any animal that the dog bites. Also in early historical times, the owner...

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Failed Objects: Bullet Proof Vests and Design in the American Civil War

By Sarah Weicksel, 4-29-13 Scholar Sarah Weicksel continues her exploration of Civil War clothing with a look at the bullet proof vest. In late March 1862, Illinois officer John Cheney wrote home to his wife Mary about recent happenings in camp. "Lew Smith is here selling those bulletproof vests," he relayed. "I think they are a good thing and may buy one" (quoted in Gordon Armstrong, ed., Illinois Artillery Officer's Civil War, 24). John Cheney was one of many Union soldiers who were tempted by advertisers' promises of the merits of bullet proof vests. Such protective battle garments were not, of course, altogether new—armor had been used...

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Hannah Myers Longshore: Pioneer Physician and Professor of Anatomy

By Maggie MacLean, 8-23-14 Hannah Myers Longshore graduated from the Female Medical College of Pennsylvania's first class in 1851 and became Philadelphia's first woman doctor with a medical degree to establish a private practice, which she continued for forty years. She also lectured extensively first at the Female Medical College, and later in public speeches about sexual health at a time when there was little public discussion of any kind on the subject. Early Years Hannah Myers was born May 30, 1819 in Sandy Spring, Maryland, where her father taught at a Quaker school. She was the daughter of Samuel and Paulina Myers, Quakers from Bucks...

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Nostalgia and Malingering in the Military During the Civil War (excerpt)

By Donald Lee Anderson, Godfrey Tryggve Anderson In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: The American Civil War witnessed a revival of nostalgia, a mental disorder that had created problems for armies for centuries. It is not within the scope of this study to trace the origins of nostalgia in detail. If we were to attempt this we might begin in early biblical times and consider the words of the psalmist: "By the waters of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion". As early as 1569, a Swiss officer reported that one of his cadets had succumbed to homesickness. References to this problem can...

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Robert E. Lee’s “Right Arm”

From: warfarehistorynetwork.com Although Stonewall Jackson’s death was unpreventable, given the state of medicine at the time, it is more likely that he died from thromboembolism than from the indirect cause of pneumonia. Although Stonewall Jackson’s death was unpreventable, given the state of medicine at the time, it is more likely that he died from thromboembolism than from the indirect cause of pneumonia. Following his greatest victory, at the Battle of Chancellorsville on May 2, 1863, Confederate Lt. Gen. Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson was scouting ahead of the lines with members of his staff when tragedy struck. In the pitch blackness...

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