About Medical Practices in the Civil War

The U.S. Civil War is one of the bloodiest conflicts on record. Even today, the infamous battlefields strewn across both the north and the south remind visitors just how many people lost their lives fighting against brothers, fathers, sons and friends.
Medicine then was a far cry from what it is now, but the doctors and nurses were no less heroic. Oftentimes, pain did not end on the battlefield but continued on through nights and through lifetimes.

Time Frame

The American Civil War lasted from 1861 to 1865. It began on the tail end of the flourishing of a field called heroic medicine. Heroic medicine became popular in the late 1700s and lasted through the middle of the 1850s. Practices that are now considered basic or common knowledge were only coming into popular practice during the time of the Civil War.
For instance, it was less than 15 years before that Hungarian Ignaz Semmelweis discovered that the lives of many new mothers could be saved when the attended doctor washed his hands before delivering the new baby. Louis Pasteur's work was still new and not largely practiced; microbiology and chemistry was all but unknown.
Women were not yet a part of the formal study of medicine, and cures for epidemic-scale diseases were still years away. General anesthetic was still fairly new, and there was no penicillin. Antiseptic was not discovered until the end of the war, in 1865.

History

Medical school in the 1860s was much different than it is today. Courses were oftentimes no more than two school terms of six months, with the lecture series in the second being very much a review of the first.
A soldier's experience in the war often began and ended with a physician. Entrance exams were often all but nonexistent, especially as the war dragged on and the death toll grew.
In the first year of the war, there was not even a set system of how to get wounded soldiers off the front lines and to those medical personnel who would attend them. It wasn't until 1862 that military evacuation plans were formed independently by both the Union and Confederate troops. There plans still remain the basis of those used today.
The first place a soldier was tended to was the place where he fell. Medics in the field bandaged wounds and tried to stop the bleeding on the spot, with the aid of whiskey as a painkiller. Those who could return to battle did. Others were transported to field hospitals in the back of the line, where conditions were often as chaotic and unsanitary as they were on the front. Many times both Union and Confederate soldiers could be found in the same field hospital.
Field hospitals were often hospitals in the loosest of terms, set up in a tent, barn or other convenient shelter. Chloroform and ether were the most common anesthetics in a place where the terms surgery and amputation were more or less interchangeable.

Significance

Quality of care and medical practices improved greatly during the course of the war. The sheer number of patients received and the severity of the wounds forced doctors and nurses to develop more efficient systems of caring for the overwhelming numbers of patients. Field hospitals were no longer enough, and pavilion-style hospitals were soon opening in major cities on both sides of the war. These pavilions were not attended only by field medics but by doctors, surgeons, nurses, laundry staff and even civilian personnel who volunteered their time and efforts to care for the wounded.
Mortality rates at these hospitals was approximately 8 percent. A lot of this was thanks to the Sanitary Commission. Inspectors--many of them women--were brought into medical care facilities to inspect sanitation conditions, drainage, ventilation, even the methods for cooking and the overall cleanliness of the camp and men itself. A medical bureau also made sure that each regiment was carrying sufficient medical supplies with them.
One of the most important humanitarian organizations today came out of the Civil War. Clara Barton is best known for her formation of the American Red Cross. She was also named as the "lady in charge" of Union front line hospitals, and involvement with The Atwater List had an impact on thousands of families.
These were all the forerunners of today's medical practices. While not as barbaric as some may think, the practices were a far cry from what they would become later. As they were a crucial step in forming today's medical field, it's also important to understand what role they played in taking those steps forward.

Considerations

It's important to take into consideration not just the events in the divided Union and Confederate territories but also in the rest of the world. It's extremely easy to sit back and criticize how much was done wrong, but this was a time when Darwin was just publishing his world-changing theories and Florence Nightingale was revolutionizing medical procedures on the other side of the ocean.

Misconceptions

It's often thought that to participate in the military and wartime efforts, women needed to disguise themselves as men and make their way through a male-dominated society in that way. There were actually very few women who managed to be successful in the guise of a man, but there were women who participated in wartime efforts as themselves.
The Civil War even had a female officer in the Confederate Army. When Sally Louisa Tompkins opened an extremely well-run, successful hospital, Confederate president Jefferson Davis made her an officer in order that the hospital would become official and that it would be one to obtain military supplies.
It's also thought that the only painkiller available to a soldier undergoing an amputation was biting on something to keep from screaming. Chloroform and ether were both readily available, and surgeons on both sides often prescribed teas and herbal medicines to aid in alleviating pain.