Civil War Medicine

A detailed Summary of Civil War Medicine

There were many medical advances made during the American Civil War. When the Civil War began in April 1861, medicine was approaching what Surgeon General William Hammond called "the end of the medical Middle Ages." American physicians had little knowledge of the cause and prevention of disease and infection. (Maher, pg. 1)

The Army Medical Department, which was responsible for the care of the sick and wounded in the North, was unprepared. The staff of 90 doctors was experienced in dealing with the health problems of small military outposts, but had no idea of how to deal with large scale medical and logistical problems.

Unfortunately, the war occurred just a few years before Louis Pasteur discovered the role of germs in infection; doctors dug bullet fragments out with unwashed fingers and operated with bloody instruments for lack of clean water (Thomas, pg92). A surgeon recalled: "We operated in old blood-stained and often pus-stained coats, we used undisinfected instruments from undisinfected plush lined cases. If a sponge (if they had sponges) or instrument fell on the floor it was washed and squeezed in a basin of water and used as if it was clean." Civil War surgeons actually thought pus in a wound was good (Maher,

In conclusion, the Civil Was a very dark and sad time in American History and many lives were lost needlessly. We must never forget that. But it is comforting to know that there were advances made medically for the better of mankind during this otherwise bleak era.

Second to disease as a cause of death was battlefield injuries, totaling some 200,000 casualties. The overwhelming number of wounded created problems in removing them from the battlefield. As late as 1862 there was no ambulance corps on either side. In August of that year, however, Union General George B. McClellan authorized the creation of a trained ambulance corps for the Army of the Potomac, and other armies, both Union and Confederate, soon did the same.

For troops wounded in the early battles of the Civil War, the disorganization of the medical corps often proved disastrous. At the First Battle of Manassas (Bull Run) on July 21, 1861, for example, many Union surgeons refused to treat casualties from regiments other than their own, and civilian ambulance drivers fled from the field at the first sound of gunfire. As a result, some wounded were left lying on the battlefield for three or four days.

After the amputation, the surgeon then tossed the limb into the growing pile of limbs. The operator would then tie off the arteries with either horsehair, silk, or cotton threads. The surgeon would scrape the end and edges of the bone smooth, so that they would not work back skin left by the surgeon would be pulled across and sewed close, leaving a drainage hole. The stump would be covered perhaps with plaster, and bandaged, and the soldier set aside where he would wake up thirsty and in pain. If the soldier was lucky, he would recover without one of the horrible so-called "Surgical Fevers", i.e. deadly pyemia or gangrene. A good surgeon could amputate a limb in under 10 minutes.

Anesthesia, introduced in the 1840s, had its first widespread use during the Civil War. A wounded soldier was given alcohol as a stimulant, some morphine derivative as a painkiller and ether or chloroform as anesthesia. War surgeons developed an inhaler for anestisia use, an im

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Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: Science