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

Living History at the National Museum of Civil War Medicine

December 9 @ 11:00 am - 4:00 pm EST

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Christmas and the Civil War

December 16 @ 2:00 pm - 3:00 pm EST.

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Museums By Candlelight

December 9 @ 10:00 am - 5:00 pm EST

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Women Soldiers in the American Civil War

January 6, 2024 @ 2:00 pm - 3:00 pm EST.

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living history day

old timey Christmas

Museums by candlelight

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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

Museums By Candlelight

December 9 @ 10:00 am

Enjoy free admission to the museum and an exclusive lager tasting during this special event!

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Living History at the National Museum of Civil War Medicine

December 9 @ 11:00 am

Civil War medical care comes to life with Blue Gray Hospital Association

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Christmas and the Civil War

December 16 @ 2:00 pm

Volunteer Brad Stone, portraying a Civil War Santa, discusses the history behind the celebration of Christmas during the Civil War.

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Discover History Firsthand

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

From Our Blog

Hanukkah During the American Civil War

December 4, 2023

American Jews took time to observe this holiday during the Civil War

Feeling the Effects of Rebellion–The Virginia Bread Riots

November 27, 2023

Food shortages in the South led to riotous women in the streets.

The Doctor and the Dictionary

November 13, 2023

Learn the amazing story of a Civil War veteran who helped compile the Oxford English Dictionary.

“Stop the Bleed”—The Essential Tourniquet

November 1, 2023

The history and use of an essential medical tool.

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Clara Barton made many powerful and influential fr

Clara Barton made many powerful and influential friends during her service in the Civil War, one such ally was Senator Henry Wilson of Massachusetts. At age 21, after several years of indentured servitude in New Hampshire, he moved to Natick, Massachusetts where he became a shoemaker. He became an abolitionist in 1836 after seeing slaves in Maryland on the way to Washington. Nearly 20 years later, he would win his election for the Senate, representing Massachusetts alongside Charles Sumner. In the early days of the Civil War, he met Clara Barton and they became close friends. Senator Wilson helped Clara secure supplies and transportation for her battlefield activities. They remained close friends throughout the war and while Clara was the head of the Missing Soldiers Office. In 1872, Wilson became Vice President during Ulysses S. Grant’s second term.

Image: Henry Wilson, Senator from Massachusetts, Thirty-fifth Congress, half-length portrait. Library of Congress

On the morning of December 7, 1941, Japanese aircr

On the morning of December 7, 1941, Japanese aircraft swooped in over American military facilities surrounding Pearl Harbor and other locations across the island of Oahu.

As bombs exploded, torpedoes detonated, and machine guns chattered, one of the worst military disasters in American history had begun. The Japanese assault left a trail of destruction across the island - battleships blasted and sunk, aircraft destroyed, havoc wreaked.

The human toll was ghastly. More than 2,400 soldiers, sailors, and civilians perished in the assault. Another 1,400+ were wounded.

Many of the wounded from the attack on Pearl Harbor were rushed to Tripler General Hospital at Fort Shafter, an Army hospital named for a medical officer who served during the Mexican-American War and in the Civil War. Charles Tripler served as the Medical Director of the Army of the Potomac from 1861 to 1862 before being replaced by Major Jonathan Letterman. Tripler died in 1866 and was posthumously awarded the rank of brigadier general.

Tripler General Hospital in Hawaii was named in his honor in 1920.

On December 7, 1941, 344 casualties were admitted to Tripler's wards - only 13 of them perished from their wounds. In an interesting twist, 39 of those patients being treated at Tripler General Hospital were later transferred to Letterman General Hospital in San Francisco, California for further care. That hospital was named for the man who replaced Tripler in the Army of the Potomac in 1862: Major Jonathan Letterman.

Source: Tripler Army Medical Center

(Photographs: (1) Explosion of the USS Shaw during the attack on Pearl Harbor - National Archives; (2) Tripler General Hospital in 1941 - US Army; (3) Surgeon Charles S. Tripler - National Library of Medicine)

#AmericanCivilWar #CivilWar #Medicine #MedicalHistory #HistMed #MilitaryMedicine #AmericanHistory #USHistory #History #MilitaryHistory #PearlHarbor #WorldWarII #WorldWar2 #WW2 #WWII #USArmy

Dr. Middleton Goldsmith experimented with a form o

Dr. Middleton Goldsmith experimented with a form of disinfectant during his service with the Army of the Cumberland.

Mortality rates from hospital gangrene were very high, over 40%, through most of the Civil War.

When Dr. Goldsmith applied bromine to gangrenous wounds, the mortality dropped to below 3%. This treatment was much heralded at the time, and the Medical Department published his findings in 1863, encouraging the adoption of bromine across the Union.

Even with this success, Dr. Goldsmith struggled to explain how it worked. You can find a first edition copy of his book on display in our museum

Image credit:
Detail of photograph of Dr. Middleton Goldsmith from "Archive of Items Belonging to Civil War Surgeon Middleton Goldsmith of Vermont," via Heritage Auctions, accessed September 15, 2022, <https://historical.ha.com/itm/autographs/military-figures/archive-of-items-belonging-to-civil-war-surgeon-middleton-goldsmith-of-vermont-a-descendant-of-declaration-of-independence/a/642-25126.s>.

Source:
Goldsmith, Middleton, "A Report on Hospital Gangrene, Erysipelas and Pyaemia: As Observed in the Departments of the Ohio and the Cumberland, with Cases Appended," Louisville: Bradley and Gilbert, 1863, accessed May 14, 2020, <https://www.google.com/books/edition/A_Report_on_Hospital_Gangrene_Erysipelas/vxS0AAAAIAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&bsq=germ&fbclid=IwAR1xwWZCEc4L_bsiIiWhzyspu3JtQozDPdhkeLQZBlu5VM-qGlNUz6jmyps>.

To be able to find missing Union soldiers in an ag

To be able to find missing Union soldiers in an age before social media, social security, or even military dog tags and standards of identification, Clara Barton and her team at the Missing Soldiers Office relied on the public for information. Names of missing soldiers would be compiled into “Rolls of Missing Men” to be sent out across the country in the hopes that a name would be recognized and the soldier could be identified. In total, 5 rolls were published by the Missing Soldiers Office, the image below shows a copy of the 5th and final roll.

You can also search those placed on each of these rolls by clicking the link below to view our museum’s database.

https://www.civilwarmed.org/explore/primary-sources/databases/missingrolls/

When an anthropomorphic rabbit is drafted, he turn

When an anthropomorphic rabbit is drafted, he turns to a shabby duck to serve as a substitute. When the duck calls the examining surgeon a "quack," the donkey doctor kicks him out the door.

Image credit:
Detail from "The adventures of a conscript as told by himself," c1863, Library of Congress, accessed September 15, 2022

An inspection of a famous Civil War hospital in Al

An inspection of a famous Civil War hospital in Alexandria, Virginia in 1862 revealed coffee deemed unfit for consumption.

Mansion House Hospital in Alexandria was a hotel-turned-hospital used during the Civil War and made famous by the PBS show “Mercy Street.” In September 1862, inspectors from the Soldier’s Union Relief Association held a meeting in Washington, reporting on the “abuses” they found in various military hospitals in the region.

This is their report on the Mansion House Hospital:

“Mansion House, Alexandria, visited by Messrs. Tilley and Ford. – The police of this hospital is reported to be excellent, and the surgical attendance good. The committee report that they witnessed inspection of the hospital by Surgeon Summers, the result of which was entirely satisfactory, and convincing to them that the surgeon in charge was determined to make this hospital all that such an institution should be.

"There is, however, a great defect in the rations served to the convalescents, the variety being about the same each day. The tea and coffee furnished is the same miserable, unwholesome trash furnished to nearly all hospitals by the Commissary Department – trash unfit to drench the meanest brute.

"For some days previous to their visit, the committee state that the bread furnished by the Government bakery at Alexandria had been poor, frequently sour. This, however, is probably not a usual occurrence as the bread from that bakery has generally been good.”

Source:
The “Evening Star” newspaper, Washington, DC, September 1862

Image credit:
People outside the Mansion House Hospital in Alexandria during the Civil War, Library of Congress.