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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Haunted History at the National Museum of Civil War Medicine

Hear ghostly tales while touring the “most haunted building in Frederick” on Halloween weekend.

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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

Medical specimens from Patrick Doyle, Richard Hughes, and John Delany (left to right) on display at the National Museum of Civil War Medicine from the collection of the National Museum of Health and Medicine

On Tour – Medical Specimens from the Maryland Campaign

October 29 @ 10:00 am

John Lustrea will trace the stories of three wounded soldiers of the Maryland Campaign for the Museum’s next edition of the “On Tour” series

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Frederick MD 1862-Civil War Medicine & Clara Barton Museum

One Vast Hospital – Civil War Walking Tour in Downtown Frederick

October 30 @ 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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Carty- Civil War Medicine Museum

Haunted History at The National Museum of Civil War Medicine

October 30 @ 7:00 pm

National Museum of Civil War Medicine

Hear ghostly tales from the past while touring the darkened galleries of the “most haunted building in Frederick” on Halloween.

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Discover History Firsthand

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

From Our Blog

Dr. Susan La Flesche Picotte: The First Indian Doctor

October 14, 2021

Susan La Flesche Picotte broke intersectional barriers as a woman, as an American Indian, and as a medical doctor in the 19th century

“When Will it End”: A Civil War Surgeon and His First Experiences with War at Antietam

September 14, 2021

Read about Surgeon William Child’s first experience of war at the Battle of Antietam – the bloodiest day in American history.

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Dr. William B. Wall, surgeon of the 33rd Mississip

Dr. William B. Wall, surgeon of the 33rd Mississippi, witnessed the "desperate & furious" Battle of Franklin in 1864. In a letter to his wife, he wrote:

"About light the next morning I visited the battlefield. The sight was indeed a melancholy one such as I will not attempt to describe. You can only judge how sad I felt."

Source:
"Letter from Wall, William B.," Civil War Soldiers Letters and Diaries Archive, accessed July 20, 2020, <http://www.soldierstudies.org/index.php?action=view_letter&Letter=516>.

Image credit:
Detail from "Dead Confederate Soldier," Timothy O'Sullivan, 1864, Library of Congress, accessed July 20, 2020, <https://www.loc.gov/pictures/collection/cwp/item/2012647825/>.

Charles Tydings Surgeon in the Confederate Army

Charles Tydings
Surgeon in the Confederate Army

Born: October 27, 1831, in Bath County, Kentucky
Served: Assistant Surgeon, 9th Kentucky Cavalry, 1863 to 1865
Died: May 20, 1886, in Newcomb, Tennessee

Tydings was one of three brothers who served in the Confederate Army as officers. He had been a druggist before the war, and passed the Army Board of Medical Examination in Chattanooga in July 1863 to become an Assistant Surgeon.

He served throughout the war and surrendered in Washington, Georgia, in 1865.

(Photograph: Courtesy of Terry Klima)

Evacuating Confederate wounded after the Battle of

Evacuating Confederate wounded after the Battle of Ball's Bluff near Leesburg, Virginia in October 1861

“On receiving news at Warrenton of the great battle of the 21st, I immediately started with Surgeon Shuford for Leesburg, a distance of 35 miles, over the most intolerable roads. As we approached the town within twelve miles we began to find every house containing our sick and wounded.

We ministered to them through the night and hurried on to the town. In two hours an ambulance train of 17 wagons was sent by Gen. Beauregard, with an escort of 30 cavalry troops, for conveying the wounded and sick to Warrenton.

The train was delivered to me, and with the efficient aid of Mr. Caskey, Chaplain of the 18th Mississippi regiment, we got as many on the way to the Mississippi Hospital as could be taken prudently. As many as could be moved were also taken from the residences on the road. Dr. Banks, of Clinton, Miss…, volunteered to go ahead and provide all along on the road for the coming train, and then to hasten to the Hospital to see that room was arranged and comforts prepared for the sufferers.

At once gentle hands were at work; and the people of our State will never be able to know their indebtedness to the excellent women who devote their time and strength in nursing and caring for their sick…”

- Dr. C.K. Marshall to Col. M. McAfee, November 1, 1861; published in the “Weekly Mississippian” of Jackson, Mississippi on November 20, 1861

C.K. Marshall had established a hospital for Mississippi soldiers at Warrenton, Virginia in September 1861. In the wake of the Battle of Ball’s Bluff on October 21, 1861, Marshall and his medical team evacuated wounded and sick Mississippi soldiers from Leesburg to the hospital at Warrenton. The hospital occupied the interior of an old church and a hotel near the courthouse in Warrenton.

Confederate forces suffered 155 casualties in the fight at Ball’s Bluff. Many of those wounded were from Mississippi regiments involved in the battle.

(Photograph: A street scene in Warrenton, Virginia in front of the Fauquier County courthouse in 1862 – Library of Congress)

This is a “Form for Examining a Recruit” which

This is a “Form for Examining a Recruit” which was filled out by Inspecting Surgeon John H. Mackie on October 16, 1862.

The subject was a 25-year-old recruit named James Smith from Biddeford, Maine, who listed his occupation as a laborer. The only area of concern listed is where it is noted that he is missing one upper incisor. Civil War surgeons performing medical inspections on recruits were particularly interested in teeth, as infantrymen were required to rip open cartridges with their teeth in order to discharge their weapons

He was approved.

(Form: National Museum of Civil War Medicine collection)

"Those bright autumnal days! And at night the blaz

"Those bright autumnal days! And at night the blaze of a thousand campfires lighting up the forest tops, while from 10,000 voices rang out the never ending chorus of the Union army [singing] John Brown's Body."

- Civil War nurse and relief worker Clara Barton describing her days and nights with the Army of the Potomac in the fall of 1862.

(Illustration: Nighttime camp scene during the Civil War, Library of Congress)