DK - The American Civil War

injured troops. Not everyone was

qualified for their duties; many had been

medical students before the war or

learned on the job as surgeon’s assistants,

but both sides lowered standards in order

to fill the need for doctors. Civilian

contractors and volunteers helped plug

the gaps that the uniformed medical

services could not fill, especially in the

first two years. Volunteer nurses and relief

organizations—such as the U.S. Sanitary

Commission in the North and the

Association for the Relief of Maimed

Soldiers in the South—proved crucial in

Medicine and

Medical Services

At the time of the war, medical care for wounded or sick soldiers was primitive. Bacteriology and sepsis

theory were still in their infancy, and modern weapons could inflict grievous wounds. This imbalance,

combined with the high risk of infection in the camps, created unprecedented numbers of casualties.

THE UNION TIGHTENS ITS GRIP 1863

W

hen the war began, the U.S.

Army’s medical corps was

comprised of one surgeon

general, 30 surgeons, and 83 assistant

surgeons; 24 resigned to serve the

Confederacy. These men became the

core of the Union and Confederate

medical departments; by the war’s

end, almost 12,000 doctors had been

employed by the North and 3,237

by the South.

This massive wartime expansion was

necessitated by the unprecedented scale

of the conflict and the high number of

BEFORE

By 1861, the medical profession was
transforming itself from one rooted in
guesswork, gut instinct, and folklore,
into a more scientific vocation.

MODERN MEDICINE
The old 18th-century ideas of “miasmic
vapors” and imbalances in bodily “humors”
were giving way to modern medical practices
and theories. Education of doctors and nurses
still varied widely. Some people were required to
graduate from university programs and others
simply learned by experience. Diagnosis,
prescription, therapy, and even surgery often
took place at the patient’s home, sometimes
literally on the kitchen table. Formal hospitals
were rare, and existed only in the big cities.

WARTIME TREATMENT
At the time of the war, surgical techniques
were crude, often involving rough amputations
and painful probing of wounds to extract
foreign objects. Luckily for most injured
soldiers, anesthesia—in the form of ether and
chloroform—was routinely given prior to surgery.

saving lives after major battles. In the

South, private homes often served as

makeshift hospitals, their female

occupants providing Confederates with

more personalized care than they might

otherwise have received.

Recruiting staff

After July 1862, each Union regiment

was required to have a surgeon and

two assistant surgeons who were, in

turn, overseen by brigade and divisional

surgeons. Stretcher-bearers and field

hospital orderlies—at first, drawn from

regimental and brigade musicians—

were ill-trained, but later made up

a special branch within the Union

medical department. Confederate

regiments were supposed to have one

surgeon and one assistant surgeon, and

followed a similar hierarchy up the

Caring for the wounded in wartime

With doctors on the front line overwhelmed, nurses

came into their own. During the war, around 2,000

volunteered their services, providing invaluable

assistance, and seeing death and disease firsthand.