During combat the medical team set up a field hospital close to the action. Orderlies were jacks-of-all-trades, men who showed an interest and aptitude in nursing and were appointed by the surgeon. The steward was responsible for supplies and medicine chests. Each morning at “sick call,” the surgeons listened to soldiers’ complaints and provided treatment.
In Union and Confederate volunteer service, and in the Missouri State Guard, regulations authorized each regiment a surgeon, an assistant surgeon, a hospital steward with the rank of sergeant major, and several enlisted men serving as orderlies. Louis Ladies Union Aid Society and parallel Colored Ladies Union Aid Society. Louis became the center of the regional Western Sanitary Commission, as well as the local St. Civilian organizations, often labeled “sanitary commissions,” sprang up to address these needs, but in Missouri the dynamics of the conflict limited these to the Union side. Moreover, once in uniform, few military surgeons considered it to be their duty to address the basic requirements to keep the men healthy to fight, such as proper sanitation, food, and shelter. The border troubles labeled “Bleeding Kansas” in the Eastern press gave Missouri a reputation for violence, yet prior to the Civil War relatively few physician within the state ever treated a gunshot wound or performed more than minor surgery, much less attempted the amputation of a limb. 2Įducation and peacetime practice did little to prepare physicians to treat the mass casualties of war. The Confederacy soon took similar and perhaps even more rigorous steps. Army Medical Department began giving examinations to weed out unqualified physicians. Not surprisingly, the quality of military surgeons differed considerably. By modern standards the curriculum in even the best schools was surprisingly brief lasting two years, with the second year being merely a repeat of the first. Diploma mills existed, but so did an increasing number of respected medical schools, such as the McDowell Medical College in St. While some had served only an apprenticeship with an experienced practicing physician, formal medical education was becoming common. With the outbreak of war civilian doctors entered the ranks of the Northern and Southern forces in large numbers. It gave sick and injured soldiers a greater opportunity of recovery than in any previous war. While shortages often crippled the Confederacy’s efforts, by the end of the conflict the medical treatment available to Union soldiers was probably the best in the world. The Civil War brought important advances in both organization and technique. Lack of preparedness was the foremost problem, and it was responsible for much otherwise unnecessary suffering. 1Ĭontrary to popular belief, nineteenth century military medicine was not always crude and ineffective. The Confederate Medical department had to begin from scratch. Fortunately for the Union, the Medical Department entered a new era under a relatively junior physician, Dr. Thomas Lawson, was unable to think beyond the needs of small, frontier post hospitals. Army possessed only 113 physicians to care for more than 16,000 personnel scattered across the country. Army and the nascent Confederate Army were almost totally unprepared for either the scope or duration of the conflict. The medical establishments within the U.S. Retired physician and long-time avocational Civil War historian, Thomas Sweeney, offers the following: Image courtesy of the Civil War Museum at Wilson’s Creek National Battlefield.
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