National Museum of Civil War Medicine - National Museum of Civil War Medicine

NMCWM Open Thursday - Sunday

The Museum is open for walk-ins Thursday - Sunday, and by appointment only Monday - Wednesday.

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Weekend Walking Tours

Join Museum Docents for walking tours of Downtown Frederick every Saturday and Sunday April-October at 2:00.

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The Confederate Army Medical Department

Dr. Guy Hasegawa presents his latest book "Matchless Organization: The Confederate Army Medical Department."

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Save an and Arm and a Leg

Donate to help restore and preserve prosthetic limbs in our collection. Click for details.

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Missing Soldiers Office Open For Appointments

The Clara Barton Missing Soldiers Office is open by appointment only. Click for details.

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Divided by Conflict.

Three sites, thousands of stories.

National Museum of Civil War Medicine

Clara Barton Missing Soldiers Office Museum

Pry House Field Hospital Museum

Upcoming Programs

Dr. Guy Hasegawa and his latest book "Matchless Organization: The Confederate Medical Department"

Book Talk – The Confederate Army Medical Department with Dr. Guy Hasegawa

August 14 @ 12:30 pm

On August 14, join Dr. Hasegawa for an in-person presentation on his latest book “Matchless Organization: The Confederate Medical Department”

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Frederick MD 1862-Civil War Medicine & Clara Barton Museum

One Vast Hospital – Civil War Walking Tour in Downtown Frederick

August 14 @ 2:00 pm

Walk in the footsteps of doctors, nurses, and civilians who cared for 8,000 wounded soldiers in Downtown Frederick with Museum docents

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Frederick MD 1862-Civil War Medicine & Clara Barton Museum

One Vast Hospital – Civil War Walking Tour in Downtown Frederick

August 15 @ 2:00 pm

Walk in the footsteps of doctors, nurses, and civilians who cared for 8,000 wounded soldiers in Downtown Frederick with Museum docents

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Discover History Firsthand

Take a closer look at artifacts that reveal how history was made.

From Our Blog

Medical Care on the Gettysburg College Campus

August 2, 2021

Read about the role of Gettysburg College in the treatment of the wounded after the Battle of Gettysburg.

A Q&A with Dr. Guy Hasegawa About His Latest Book on the Confederate Medical Department

July 28, 2021

Dr. Guy Hasegawa does a Q&A about his latest book “Matchless Organization: The Confederate Medical Department.”

civilwarmed

Inside Fort Delaware, Confederate prisoners-of-war

Inside Fort Delaware, Confederate prisoners-of-war attempted to make life in captivity bearable. Amid the fort's squalid conditions, they formed clubs, staged entertainment, and published their own handwritten newspaper - "Prison Times."

Read the full story: https://slate.com/human-interest/2013/06/confederate-pows-produced-handwritten-newspaper-at-fort-delaware.html

(Image: J.W. Hibbs, Geo. S. Thomas, Wm. H. Bennett, A. Harris. Prison Times, 1865. Four-page manuscript newspaper, 12 1/4 x 7 3/4 in. Misc.MSS.Fort Delaware. The collections of the New-York Historical Society.)

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Marvin Lincoln, a staunch abolitionist, agent of t

Marvin Lincoln, a staunch abolitionist, agent of the underground railroad, and former associate of John Brown, patented this prosthetic on this day in 1863 for soldiers who lost their arm in battle.

The U.S. Army soon adopted the "Lincoln Arm" as their preferred choice for disabled veterans. It remained in use into the First World War.

We are lucky enough to have an original Lincoln Arm in our collection.

Image credits:
Original Lincoln Arm, National Museum of Civil War Medicine, 2010.26.2.

Advertisement, "The Boston Medical and Surgical Journal," Vol. CLXXIII, No. 1, July 1, 1915, page v, via Internet Archive.

M. Lincoln, Artificial Arm, No. 39,487, Patented Aug 11, 1863, United States Patent Office.

This detail from an Edwin Forbes sketch shows an o

This detail from an Edwin Forbes sketch shows an old farmhouse turned into a US Army hospital near the Cedar Mountain battlefield on the evening of August 9, 1862. Near the farmhouse, dozens of wounded soldiers lay awaiting medical treatment.

US military surgeons worked amid chaotic conditions to treat more than 1,400 wounded soldiers.

(Sketch: Edwin Forbes - Library of Congress: https://www.loc.gov/item/2004661434/)

Amid the chaos and carnage of a Civil War battle,

Amid the chaos and carnage of a Civil War battle, there was little time for reflection on the sights, sounds, smells, and emotions that overwhelmed the senses.

But after the battle was over, the survivors could take a moment to review the events they had just participated in. They often continued ruminating on those hellish moments of combat for years after the conflict.

The historian for the 10th Maine Volunteer Infantry provided such a reflection in the regiment's history published six years after the conclusion of the Civil War. In his remembrance of the Battle of Cedar Mountain, fought on August 9, 1862, Major John M. Gould took time to remember the scenes he witnessed on that bloody day. He noted particularly about how soldiers reacted in the horrific seconds when they were struck by bullets and artillery.

His writing provides a modern reader with a fleeting glimpse into the cauldron of Civil War combat and the devastating toll taken by the weaponry of the day:

"The behavior of those who were hit appeared most singular, and as there were so many of them, it looked as if we had a crowd of howling dervishes dancing and kicking around in our ranks.

The bullet often knocks over the man it hits, and rarely fails by its force alone to disturb his equilibrium. Then the shock, whether painful or not, causes a sudden jump or shudder.

Now as every man, with hardly an exception, was either killed, wounded, hit in his clothes, hit by spent balls and stones, or jostled by his wounded comrades, it follows that we had a wonderful exhibition. Some reeled round and round, others threw up their arms and fell over backward, others went plunging backwards trying to regain their balance; a few fell to the front, but the force of the bullet generally prevented this, except where it struck low down and apparently knocked the soldier’s feet from under him.

Many dropped their musket and seized the wounded part with both hands, and a very few fell dead.”

The 10th Maine suffered heavy casualties at Cedar Mountain: 39 men killed, 134 wounded, and 6 captured.

Source: "History of the First - Tenth - Twenty-ninth Maine regiment" by John M. Gould, 1871.

"The Virginia Quickstep" "The Tennessee Trots"

"The Virginia Quickstep"

"The Tennessee Trots"

Civil War soldiers came up with a variety of amusing names for the condition that most plagued them. But the disease was deadly serious. Doctors in the Union Army diagnosed more than 1.5 million cases of diarrhea during the American Civil War.

In the Confederate Army, diarrhea and dysentery were the most common ailments reported by soldiers in the field. These diseases were worsened by poor diet, food poisoning, and contaminated drinking water.

(Illustration: A Confederate camp. Library of Congress)

Mount Pleasant Hospital in Washington was one of t

Mount Pleasant Hospital in Washington was one of the capital's first hospitals built for the purpose of treated sick and injured soldiers.

It was established in the spring of 1862 and treated patients until August 1865.

(Lithograph: Courtesy of the Library of Congress)

#AmericanCivilWar #CivilWar #Medicine #MedicalHistory #HistMed #MilitaryMedicine #AmericanHistory #USHistory #History #MilitaryHistory #CivilWarMedicine #MedicineMuseum #MedicalMuseum #Museum #Museums #NonProfit