KILLED BY THE CURE: CIVIL WAR MEDICINE, PT. IX

XXVII. Records of the Office of the Surgeon General of the United States (RG 112)

The National Archives in Washington, DC holds some records of Civil War medical personnel and support staff:

1. Station Books of Medical Officers, 1857-1902.
2. Registers of Military Service of Hospital Stewards, 1856-1887.
3. List of Volunteer Medical Officers Who Served with the Civil War Army Corps, 1861-1865.
4. Registers of Deaths of Civil War Voluntary Medical Officers, 1863-1896.
5. List of Female Nurses, Cooks, and Laundresses Employed in Army Hospitals During the Civil War.

XXVIII. Books on Civil War Medicine

Adams, George Worthington. Doctors in Blue; The Medical History of the Union Army in the Civil War. New York: H. Schuman, 1952.

Barnes, Joseph K. The Medical and Surgical History of the Civil War. Wilmington, N.C.: Broadfoot Pub. Co, 1990.

Bollet, Alfred J. Civil War Medicine: Challenges and Triumphs. Tucson, Ariz: Galen Press, 2002.

Cunningham, Horace Herndon. Doctors in Gray; The Confederate Medical Service. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1958.

Flannery, Michael A. Civil War Pharmacy: A History of Drugs, Drug Supply and Provision, and Therapeutics for the Union and Confederacy. Pharmaceutical heritage. New York: Pharmaceutical Products Press, 2004.

Freemon, Frank R. Microbes and Minie Balls: An Annotated Bibliography of Civil War Medicine. Rutherford: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 1993.

Rutkow, Ira M. Bleeding Blue and Gray: Civil War Surgery and the Evolution of American Medicine. New York: Random House, 2005.

Smith, George Winston. Medicines for the Union Army; The United States Army Laboratories During the Civil War. Madison, Wis: Amer. Institute of the History of Pharmacy, 1962.

XXIX. Websites

Civil War Home- Civil War Medicine

CivilWarPhotos.net

Growing Research Into History of Drugs Used During Civil War

Library of Congress- American Memory -- NOTE: Under Search All Collections, type “Civil War medicine”.

National Museum of Civil War Medicine

Preparing and Dispensing Prescriptions During the Civil War

Society of Civil War Surgeons

Tom Pearson, Reference Librarian
Special Collections Department
St. Louis Public Library
1415 Olive Street
St. Louis, MO 63103

KILLED BY THE CURE: CIVIL WAR MEDICINE, PT. VIII

XXII. Amputations

The most commonly employed surgical technique during the Civil War was the amputation. Union Army medical records list 29,980 amputations. When amputations performed early in the war that went unrecorded, and Confederate Army amputation estimates are added to the total, it is reasonable to assume that Union and Confederate Army surgeons performed somewhere between 50,000-55,000 amputations during the war.

XXIII. Amputations- Categories

Amputations were placed in one of three categories, depending on how soon after the injury the procedure was performed:

1. Primary- Within 48 hours of the injury (23.9% mortality rate)
2. Intermediary- Three to thirty days after the injury (34.8% mortality rate)
3. Secondary- Thirty-one or more days after the injury (28.8% mortality rate)

XXIV. Amputations- Bodily Area of Injury

Injuries in the Civil War requiring amputation involved these sites on the body:

1. Hand (26.4% of total)
2. Thigh (21.2%)
3. Lower leg (18.4%)
4. Upper arm (18.4%)
5. Forearm (5.9%)
6. Foot (5.1%)
7. Shoulder (2.9%)
8. Knee (0.7%)
9. Ankle (0.5%)
10. Hip (0.2%)
11. Wrist (0.2%)
12. Elbow (0.1%)

XXV. Amputations- Mortality Rates by Type of Procedure

The fatality rate of amputations increased the closer the procedure was performed to the trunk of the victim. The mortality rate of various procedures was as follows:

1. Hip (88% fatalities)
2. Knee (58%)
3. Mid-Thigh (54%)
4. Lower leg (38%)
5. Shoulder (28%)
6. Ankle (24%)
7. Upper arm (24%)
8. Forearm (14%)
9. Wrist (10%)
10. Elbow (7%)
11. Toes (6%)
12. Foot (5%)
13. Fingers (3%)
14. Hand (2%)

XXVI. Artificial Limbs Furnished to Maimed Soldiers

After the war, the federal government and most Confederate states had programs to pay for (or to reimburse maimed veterans for) the purchase of artificial limbs and eyes. These programs could be very expensive- Mississippi in 1866 spent more than 1/3 of its entire state budget for these items. Some state archives have retained records of these purchases (South Carolina, for example, has published a printed record of such purchases).

Tom Pearson, Reference Librarian
Special Collections Department
St. Louis Public Library
1301 Olive Street
St. Louis, MO 63103

KILLED BY THE CURE: CIVIL WAR MEDICINE, PT. VII

XX. Diseases Most Commonly Contracted by Civil War Soldiers

Six million cases of disease were reported to or discovered by Union medical officers during the Civil War. These 15 diseases account for 3,966,828 (66%) of those cases:

Listings provide Disease; Number of Cases; Number of Deaths; and Death Rate.

1. Diarrhea or dysentery---1,585,196---37,794---(2.38 %)
2. Malaria---1,213,685---12,199---(1.01 %)
3. Pneumonia/diseases of respiratory tract---448,923---17,902---(3.99 %)
4. Catarrh/Bronchitis---281,294---1,185---(0.42 %)
5. Gonorrhea---95,833---6---(0.01 %)
6. Typhoid fever---75,368---27,056---(35.90 %)
7. Syphilis---73,382---123---(0.17 %)
8. Measles---67,763---4,246---(6.27 %)
9. Mumps---48,128---72---(0.15 %)
10. Scurvy---30,714---383---(1.25 %)
11. Tuberculosis---13,499---5,286---(39.16 %)
12. Smallpox---12,236---4,717---(38.55 %)
13. Chronic Alcoholism/Delirium tremens---10,253---605---(5.90 %)
14. Diptheria---8,053---777---(9.65 %)
15. Typhus---2,501---850---(33.99 %)

XXI. Anesthesia

Two main forms of anesthesia were used during the Civil War: chloroform and ether. In the 8,900 surgeries reported to the Union Surgeon General in which type of anesthesia was specified, chloroform was used in 76% of cases, ether in 15% of cases, and some combination of chloroform and ether in 9% of cases. Of the 6,784 cases using chloroform that were reported, death attributable to the anesthetic was involved in 37 cases, or 0.5%. 254 surgeries were reported in which no anesthetic was used (3%).

Tom Pearson, Reference Librarian
Special Collections Department
St. Louis Public Library
1301 Olive Street
St. Louis, MO 63103

KILLED BY THE CURE: CIVIL WAR MEDICINE, PT. V

XV. Medicines in Common Use During the Civil War- Union Army

These items were among those carried with the Army of the Potomac during the May 1864 Wilderness Campaign:

1. Acacia
2. Alcohol
3. Alum
4. Ammonia water
5. Ammonium carbonate
6. Brandy
7. Camphor
8. Cantharides
9. Castor oil
10. Chloroform
11. Collodion
12. Ether
13. Ferric chloride
14. Lead acetate
15. Liquid soap
16. Mercury pills
17. Morphine
18. Opium
19. Quinine
20. Potassium iodide
21. Silver nitrate
22. Spirits of ammonia
23. Sulfuric acid
24. Tannic acid
25. Tartaric acid
26. Turpentine

XVI. Medicines in Common Usage During the Civil War- C.S. Army

These items were commonly found in Confederate Army medicine wagons:

1. Acetic acid
2. Adhesive plaster
3. Alcohol
4. Ammonia water
5. Arsenic oxide
6. Creosote
7. Digitalis
8. Ether
9. Hydrochloric acid
10. Morphine sulfate
11. Opium
12. Quinine sulfate
13. Rhubarb
14. Senna
15. Sugar
16. Sulfuric acid

Tom Pearson, Reference Librarian
Special Collections Department
St. Louis Public Library
1301 Olive Street
St. Louis, MO 63103

KILLED BY THE CURE: CIVIL WAR MEDICINE, PT. I

Copyright © 2009 by St. Louis Public Library. All rights reserved.

I. Civil War Military Hospitals

When the Civil War broke out, there were no official United States military hospitals. Each Army regiment had its own hospital, which was staffed with a surgeon, and two assistant surgeons. Equipment consisted of medical supplies, at least one ambulance, and a number of tents. If a regiment found itself with more sick and wounded men than it had beds for, nearby civilian buildings were temporarily used for that purpose.

It quickly became apparent that larger, more permanent hospitals would be necessary. They were called general hospitals because they could admit men from any regiment in its service region.

II. Hospitals in the North

Once the war began in earnest, both sides had to quickly acquire or build hospitals for the sick and wounded. By 1863, there were 151 general hospitals for soldiers in the North; by 1865 there were 204, which provided beds for 137,000 sick and wounded soldiers. The largest capacity Northern military hospital was Satterlee Hospital in Philadelphia, with a 3,519 bed capacity. Following close on its heels was the hospital at Fort Monroe, Virginia, which had a 3,497 bed capacity.

III. Hospitals in the South

The South also had to rapidly acquire places to put its sick and wounded men. By 1865, the South had 150 general hospitals for soldiers in operation. The largest by far was Chimborazo Hospital in Richmond, Virginia (so-called because of its location on Chimborazo Heights). This sprawling hospital complex had an 8,000 bed capacity, making it the largest military hospital by far in the North or the South.

IV. Hospital Acquisition

The need for more hospital beds was filled in one of four ways:

1. Use of army barracks as hospitals (layout and poor ventilation made most of them unsuitable for long-term use as hospitals).
2. Conversion of existing buildings in the civilian sector into hospitals (layout and poor ventilation also made many of these unsuitable for long-term medical use).
3. Tents could be pitched around hospitals to provide additional temporary bed space.
4. Construction of new buildings designed specifically as military hospitals

Tom Pearson, Reference Librarian
Special Collections Department
St. Louis Public Library
1301 Olive Street
St. Louis, MO 63103