History Commons^™

Is Hindsight 20/20? Reconsidering Popular Perceptions Of Civil War Surgeons, Miller Bacon

History Undergraduate Honors Theses

This paper provides a cursory examination of the history and truth of the modern “butcher” stereotype associated with Civil War surgeons. Beginning with a review of modern examples of the stereotype in cinema, educational materials, children’s literature, and academic literature, this thesis further provides a detailed historical analysis of the source of this stereotype in the nineteenth century. This analysis completes the cultural analysis present within the paper by demonstrating the presence of the “butcher” stereotype in Civil War era newspapers and literature.

Finally, after the cultural analysis of the modern stereotype and its historical roots in the nineteenth century, …

The Emergence Of Neurology During The American Civil War: The Delafield Commission's Impact On Military Medicine, Michaela Ahrenholtz

Honors Thesis

In 1855, three high ranking military officers organized as the Delafield Commission traveled across Europe during the Crimean War. They were tasked to consider, report, and upon their return, implement the advancements they observed from the militaries across the European continent. During their travels, the Delafield Commission evaluated changes in artillery, cavalry, and military medicine. Upon their return, the members of the Delafield Commission published their reports, and a year later the Civil War began. As the war continued, innovations from the Crimean War were implemented, including withing the Union Army Medical Department. Major medical reform was facilitated by Dr. …

Special Collections Roadshow – Episode 9: Medical Kit, Meg A. Sutter, Megan E. Mcnish

The Gettysburg Compiler: On the Front Lines of History

For our ninth episode we welcome our guest Dr. Ian Isherwood ’00 to talk about a Civil War medical kit and how to do research relating to Civil War medicine, as seen in the PBS series, Mercy Street. [excerpt]

What Would Florence Do?, Ian A. Isherwood

Civil War Institute Faculty Publications

Mercy Street has no shortage of nineteenth century medical trivia. Dr. Foster repeatedly invokes his stellar medical education, which includes not only study in Philadelphia, America’s medical Mecca of that time, but also a grand tour abroad where he learned all kinds of fancy techniques from some of the great medical minds of the era. Similarly, we have been introduced to Anne Hastings, the alleged Crimean War nurse, her character no doubt causing many to brush up on their nineteenth century European history. [excerpt]

Sexual Healing: Nurses, Gender, And Victorian Era Intimacy, Anika N. Jensen

The Gettysburg Compiler: On the Front Lines of History

In the first episode of the new PBS series Mercy Street, nurse Anne Hastings is seen applying a plaster cast to a wounded soldier’s bare legs before a captivated audience of surgeons and hospital workers. This action seems trivial today, even unquestionable, but as the show progressed and more scenes portrayed this seemingly insignificant concept of touch, of intimacy between a female nurse and her male patients, its true magnitude became apparent. [excerpt]

Gettysburg College Journal Of The Civil War Era 2016

The Gettysburg College Journal of the Civil War Era

No abstract provided.

"The Honor Of Manhood:" Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain And Notions Of Martial Masculinity, Bryan G. Caswell

The Gettysburg College Journal of the Civil War Era

Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain is perhaps best known as the commander of the 20th Maine Volunteer Infantry during the Battle of Gettysburg. While depictions of Chamberlain's martial glory abound, little attention has been paid to the complicated motives of the man himself. This paper seeks to examine the unique ways in which Chamberlain interacted with Victorian conceptions of martial masculinity: his understanding and expression of it, his efforts to channel it, and his use of it as a guiding principle throughout the trials of both the American Civil War and his post-war life.

Playing Catch-Up: Jonathan Letterman And The Triage System, Bryan G. Caswell

The Gettysburg Compiler: On the Front Lines of History

Gettysburg has more than its fair share of heroes. While the overwhelming majority of these larger-than-life figures was intimately acquainted with the conduct of the Battle of Gettysburg, a few stand apart from tales of martial valor. The most famous, of course, is Abraham Lincoln, yet he is not the only man associated with the aftermath of Gettysburg. In the immediate aftermath of the battle, provisions for the care of the wounded and dying left behind by both armies were organized by Major Jonathan Letterman, Medical Director of the Army of the Potomac. [excerpt]

A Surgeon’S Duty, Andrew P. Carlino

Student Publications

Dr. Albert Gaillard Hall described a scenario in where he was tricked by his soldiers; “At our rendezvous, on three successive mornings, men reported sick, complaining of backache and headache, and with a very heavily coated tongue, but without other symptoms. Thinking it might prove an oncoming fever, I excused the first and second lots, and then saw that they were ‘old-soldiering the surgeon.’ Long afterwards one of the men explained the trick. The camp was surrounded by rose-bushes in bloom, and a liberal chewing of rose-leaves a little before sick call produced the effect I saw on the tongue. …

Engineering Victory: The Ingenuity, Proficiency, And Versatility Of Union Citizen Soldiers In Determining The Outcome Of The Civil War, Thomas F. Army Jr

Doctoral Dissertations

My dissertation explores the critical advantage the Union held over the Confederacy in military engineering. The skills Union soldiers displayed during the war at bridge building, railroad repair, and road making demonstrated mechanical ability and often revealed ingenuity and imagination. These skills were developed during the antebellum period when northerners invested in educational systems that served an industrializing economy. Before the war, northern states’ attempt at implementing basic educational reforms, the spread of informal educational practices directed at mechanics and artisans, and the exponential growth in manufacturing all generated a different work related ethos than that of the South. Plantation …

Competing Stories: The Gardner Saga Continues, Brianna E. Kirk

The Gettysburg Compiler: On the Front Lines of History

In 1893, two Philadelphia doctors from the Mütter Museum sent surveys to Civil War amputee veterans in order to compile records on their war amputations circa thirty years after seeing combat. One of those surveys found its way into the hands of Clark Gardner, a fifty-four year old double amputee vet who served in the 10th New York Heavy Artillery. (An introduction to Garnder can be found here.) Gardner’s responses to the survey are quite compelling and provided vivid details about his war amputations, the healing processes, difficulties he encountered, and artificial limb usage. [excerpt]

Tales From A Boston Customs House: “Worthy” Suffering, S. Marianne Johnson

The Gettysburg Compiler: On the Front Lines of History

Despite Francis Clarke’s argument that men who suffered in exceptional ways, such as amputees, were regarded as national martyrs and held up as the emblem of sacrifice to the nation, this argument cannot be applied wholesale to all exceptional sufferers in the post-war North. Although men who lost limbs in battle were often remembered in terms of glory and treated as national heroes, those who suffered in non-heroic ways, such as prisoners of war and the victims of non-combat related accidents, were often treated as less deserving of honor. [excerpt]

Tales From A Boston Customs House: “Living Monuments”, S. Marianne Johnson

The Gettysburg Compiler: On the Front Lines of History

The image of the amputee is a classic one in the memory of the American Civil War. Francis Clarke has argued that the long-suffering and sacrificial Union amputee became a national martyr to the righteousness of their cause. While this view was manifested in various ways throughout the postwar North, the case of double-arm amputee Lewis Horton serves to give depth insight into–and possibly push back against–this argument. [excerpt]

Tales From A Boston Customs House: Recovering From Trauma, S. Marianne Johnson

The Gettysburg Compiler: On the Front Lines of History

After losing both arms in a gunnery accident aboard the USS Rhode Island in 1863 and being told he would not live, Medal of Honor recipient Lewis Horton resolved that he would recover and be with his family again soon. The double amputation, completed within an hour of the accident, was successful, but Horton lost a significant amount of blood and could merely wait and hope. Eighty days after amputation, the ligatures — cords left in the limb to hold arteries closed until they had sufficiently healed — were removed, and healing commenced quickly. Shortly after, he was discharged and …

Bacteria And Politics: The Application Of Science To The Yellow Fever Crisis In Reconstruction New Orleans, Polly M. Rolman-Smith

University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

The emergence of germ theory during the nineteenth century transformed Western medicine. By the 1870s, public health officials in the American South used germ theory to promote sanitation efforts to control public health crises, such as yellow fever epidemics. Before the discovery of mosquito transmission of yellow fever, physicians of the late nineteenth century believed the disease was spread by a highly contagious germ. Prominent medical practitioners of New Orleans, such as Confederate Army veteran Dr. Joseph Jones, used available scientific knowledge and investigation to attempt to control yellow fever during the Reconstruction period, a period rife with political and …

Richard D. Dunphy: Under The Knife, Kevin P. Lavery

The Gettysburg Compiler: On the Front Lines of History

Within four hours of Richard Dunphy’s grievous wounding at the Battle of Mobile Bay, both of his arms had been amputated. In a medical survey, he described the “extraordinary pain” that lasted “for about three weeks.” There was “a great quantity of pus, and twelve pieces of bone or splinters came out” from the wound for months after the surgery. Though the pain was great, it faded in time. The psychological and social effects of the operation, however, never went away. [excerpt]

Do You Doodle?, Natalie S. Sherif

Blogging the Library

If you were, are, or will become a student, then you have probably thought about doodling during class. Fear not! We are not the only generation to draw in the midst of a lecture. Today’s research escapade led me to investigate George Currier’s notes from his time as a student at the Medical Department of Pennsylvania College. [excerpt]

A Hypochondriac Investigates The Evolution Of Medicine, Natalie S. Sherif

Blogging the Library

This exhibit will open to the public in February 2014, but until then I have my work cut out for me. I am currently researching various aspects of medical history spanning from the mid-1800s, through the Civil War, to WWI. Thus far I have read accounts of women volunteers during the American Civil War, important changes that went into effect during WWI, and an overly detailed description on how to perform tooth extractions according to the latest science of the 1860s. [excerpt]

George Engelmann’S Barometer: Measuring Civil War America From St. Louis, Adam Arenson

Adam Arenson

In the Civil War Era, German-American botanist George Engelmann regularly measured St. Louis's pressure and temperature--both literally, as a scientist, and figuratively, in his observations on the nation's politics. This essay uses this doubling to explore the place of St. Louis within Civil War America.

Transylvania Medical Alumni Served Both Sides During The Civil War, Charles T. Ambrose

Microbiology, Immunology, and Molecular Genetics Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

A Transylvania Medical Graduate Searches For His Sons After A Civil War Battle, Charles T. Ambrose

Microbiology, Immunology, and Molecular Genetics Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Yandell, David Wendel, 1826-1898 (Sc 333), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid and scan (Click on "additional files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 333. Photocopy of a letter written by Dr. David Wendel Yandell to General Albert Sidney Johnston, concerning projected Confederate hospital facilities at Bowling Green, Kentucky, 1861. Explanatory note about the item from William Roberts Wood to Margie Helm.

Ms-015: Frederick H. Kronenberger, Company G, 2nd Regiment New Jersey Volunteers, Christine M. Ameduri, Sidney Dreese

All Finding Aids

The bulk of the collection consists of 26 letters written by Kronenberger to his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Charles Kronenberger, and aunts and uncles Hill and Ludwig while posted at Camp Perrine, Trenton, New Jersey, in December 1863, and from a camp near Brandy Station, Virginia between January and April 1864. His letters tell about his need for stamps, hats, shirts, vests, a rubber blanket and ink. He states that he likes hard tack. He writes about visiting friends in other units, receiving letters from family and friends, sending money to his parents, sending photographs of himself and receiving photographs, …

Ms-041: Thomas Meiser, Company F, 93rd Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteers, Christine M. Ameduri

All Finding Aids

The bulk of the collection consists of letters written by Thomas to his grandfather and grandmother. It includes miscellaneous correspondence including four letters written to Thomas from his grandparents during his service in the 31st Regiment (Emergency). The collection also includes various bonds, receipts and subpoenas as well as business correspondence relating to George Person (or Parson), Thomas’s grandfather. It contains various tintype photos, mainly of Thomas’s descendents, and a wallet from a bank in Lebanon. Lastly, it contains copies of research relating to Thomas Meiser, transcriptions of his letters as well as a Senior Paper written by Christopher Culig, …

Ms-020: The Papers Of John H. Warner, Melodie A. Foster

All Finding Aids

The John H. Warner collection consists of thirty-eight letters written by Warner to family members and friends during the period October 1, 1862 - May 5, 1865. The affectionate, optimistic letters provide a picture of camp, and later hospital life during the Civil War through the eyes of a young soldier from New York.

Special Collections and College Archives Finding Aids are discovery tools used to describe and provide access to our holdings. Finding aids include historical and biographical information about each collection in addition to inventories of their content. More information about our collections can be found on our …

From Bangor To Elmira And Back Again: The Civil War Career Of Dr. Eugene Francis Sanger, Andrew Macissac

Maine History

Bangor's Dr. Eugene Francis Sanger holds a dubious claim to fame in the annals of Civil War history. Having joined the Union medical corps largely to advance his own career; the abrasive surgeon moved from post to post, frustrated by lack of discipline among field staff and by lack of recognition from his superiors. In 1864 Sanger became the chief medical officer at the Elmira Prison Camp in New York, a northern counterpart to the infamous Andersonville Prison. Was Sanger responsible for Elmira 's unconscionable mortality rate? The historical record is ambiguous. Andrew Maclsaac grew up in Mexico, Maine, and …

Knox-Wise Family Papers - Accession 591, Knox-Wise

Manuscript Collection

The Knox-Wise Family Papers includes a land grant issued to John Knox in 1768; diaries written by Dr. John Knox [1792-1859] covering the 1840s and 1850s; James N. Knox [1806-1880] covering 1859-1880; and William D. Knox [1847-1928] covering 1869-1928; indentures, deeds, receipts, court summonses and other papers of Hugh Knox [1757-1821], sheriff and justice of the peace in Chester County, South Carolina (ca. 1780s and 1790s); correspondence of James N. Knox, correspondence, and other professional papers of Dr. John Knox; correspondence, and other papers of William D. Knox, Superintendent of Education in Chester County from 1896-1928. Papers of various other …

0208: Thomas H. Barton Biography, 1977, Marshall University Special Collections

Guides to Manuscript Collections

This collection is composed of a typescript copy of a portion (pages 74-87) of “Autobiography of Dr. Thomas H. Barton, the self-made physician of Syracuse, Ohio, including a history of the Fourth Regt. West Va. Vol. Inf’y, with an account of Col. Lightburn’s Retreat” published by Charleston, West Virginia Printing Company in 1890. The document does not cover Barton’s personal life, and only discusses his time as a doctor for his regiment in the Civil War. The autobiography discusses military matters primarily but does go into details as to a physician’s life in the camps and treatment of wounds sustained …

Introductory Lecture Delivered Before The Class Of Jefferson Medical College, By Professor J.B. Biddle. Monday, October 9, 1865., J. B. Biddle

Jefferson Medical College Opening Addresses

No abstract provided.

Confederate Voucher For Medicine, W H. Elliot

John P. McGovern, MD Collection

Voucher for one dollar, receivable as cash for medicines, redeemable in confederate notes, issued by W.H. Eliot, Druggist and Apothecary. See more at John P. McGovern, MD Collection of Texas Historical Medical Documents and its finding aid.