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,
But the largest medical achievements of the Civil War were in the areas of field hospital organization and personnel. But it is comforting to know that there were advances made medically for the better of mankind during this otherwise bleak era. 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. At the beginning of the war, staffs were haphazardly organized on an "as needed" basis. Outbreaks of these diseases were caused by overcrowded and unsanitary conditions in the field. The commission was directed by Frederick Law Olmstead. the hospital part," wrote poet Walt Whitman, who nursed soldiers in Washington. For troops wounded in the early battles of the Civil War, the disorganization of the medical corps often proved disastrous. A wounded soldier was given alcohol as a stimulant, some morphine derivative as a painkiller and ether or chloroform as anesthesia. 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. Here they had operating surgeons, where they did amputations. War surgeons developed an inhaler for anestisia use, an improvement over the soaked rag, to conserve supplies. Preaching the virtues of clean water, good food, and fresh air, the commission pressured the Army Medical Department to improve sanitation, build large well-ventilated hospitals, and encourage women to join the newly-created nursing corps. The old, round bullets fired from a smooth-bore musket bounced off bone and were accurate to less than a hundred yards.
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