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National Museum of Civil War Medicine
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    NMCWM Open Wed-Sun and by Appointment



    The National Museum of Civil War Medicine is open Wednesdays-Sundays for walk-ins, and reservations on Mon-Tues.



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    Missing Soldiers Office Open by Appointment



    The Clara Barton Missing Soldiers Office is open for tours by appointment. Click for details on making a reservation.



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    Clara Barton Escape Room



    Help Clara Barton care for the wounded in the 30 minute escape room at the Museum. Click to learn more.



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    Remote Learning Resources



    Our online resources are designed to help educators and students discover and share the history of Civil War medicine



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Divided by Conflict. United by compassion.

Three sites, thousands of stories.

National Museum of Civil War Medicine

Clara Barton Missing Soldiers Office Museum

Pry House Field Hospital Museum

Upcoming Programs

Facebook Live – Examining Primary Sources with Dr. Peter Carmichael
November 16 @ 1:00 pm

Join John Lustrea and Professor Peter Carmichael as they take a live close look at several primary sources related to Civil War medicine.

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Irish American Civil War Songs and Music with Catherine Bateson
November 18 @ 1:00 pm

John Lustrea will talk with Dr. Catherine Bateson about Civil War music. They will cover why it was so important and it’s role in helping wounded recover.

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National Museum of Civil War Medicine Digital Seminar
November 21 @ 10:00 am

The NMCWM is excited to host a digital seminar featuring presentations from an esteemed group of speakers about medicine at the Battle of Gettysburg.

Learn More
View Full Calendar
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Whether students or seniors, our unique group tour experiences are for you.

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Discover History Firsthand

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

From Our Blog

‘Our Deaths on the Battle Field Were Not Many’: Disease in the 16th New Hampshire
October 22, 2020

Read the story of the 16th New Hampshire, a unit ravaged by disease but almost no battlefield deaths and how they remembered their service.

[More]

“The Direct and Logical Consequence” – Germ Theory and the Civil War
October 8, 2020

Germ theory might not have been discovered during the Civil War, but how close did doctors get? Read Kyle Dalton’s blog post to find out.

[More]

civilwarmed

Hospital knapsacks carried bandages, drugs, and in Hospital knapsacks carried bandages, drugs, and instruments that could be used for first aid on the field.

Image credit:
Original hospital knapsack, National Museum of Civil War Medicine collection, 2001.007.001

"The Surgeon at Work at the Rear During an Engagement," Harper's Weekly, July 12, 1862, page 436.

  #AmericanCivilWar #CivilWar #Medicine #MedicalHistory #HistMed #MilitaryMedicine #AmericanHistory #USHistory #History #MilitaryHistory #Museum #Museums
"I have been sleeping in our Ambulance since I hav "I have been sleeping in our Ambulance since I have been here, in fact for the last twelve months or more I have not had a tent in the time." - Dr. James A. Black, Assistant Surgeon, 49th Illinois Infantry.

"The first night we slept in our ambulance; no room in the small house, the only dwelling near, could be procured." - Ellen Orbison Harris, volunteer nurse

Stretchers and ambulances were intended for moving the wounded, but the difficult conditions of army life often saw them used for other purposes. There were strict (and often violated) orders against using ambulances for personal use, but there were no such protections for stretchers.

Dr. Myron W. Robinson of the 6th Connecticut relied on a stretcher for sleep in the trenches, which was better than his attendants got: "I am now lying in a cave or 'Bomb Proof' on a stretcher with seven men lying around on the ground to assist me in case of any necessity."

In a similarly dire situation, the nurse Sophrina Bucklin and the staff of her field hospital were reduced to using a stretcher for a dining table: "We were very soon supplied with a breakfast. We used for a table an old stretcher which was dirty and bloodstained. No one could tell how many dead and dying had been home upon it, as it gave evidences of having done considerable service."

Sources:
Black, Dr. James A., "A Civil War Diary: January 1, 1862-December 31, 1865," transcribed and edited by Benita K. Moore, Bloomington, IN: Authorhouse, 2008, page 253.

Mrs. [Ellen] John Harris in Moore, Frank, "Women of the War: Their Heroism and Self-Sacrifice," Hartford, Conn: S.S. Scranton & Co., 1866, page 191

Robinson, Dr. Myron W., "Letters and Journal of a Civil War Surgeon, Stewart J. Petrie editor, Raleigh: Pentland Press," 1998, page 120.

Bucklin, Sophronia E., "In Hospital and Camp: A Woman's Record of Thrilling Incidents Among the Wounded in the Late War," Philadelphia: John E. Potter and Company, 1869, page 285.

Image credit:
"Scenes from the Battle-Field at Gettysburg, PA. - Untitled variant of the Second Corps Hospital," Gettysburg College Special Collections.

  #AmericanCivilWar #CivilWar #Medicine #MedicalHistory #HistMed #MilitaryMedicine #
"A Visit to the Culpeper Hospital" "Culpeper, C.H "A Visit to the Culpeper Hospital"

"Culpeper, C.H., November 13, 1861
Editors Dispatch: 

I enjoyed a few days ago, a visit to the hospital at Culpeper C.H. Allow me to give you a hasty sketch of it for the benefit of those who have friends there. 

It gave me pleasure to see such comfortable arrangements made for our sick. By the indefatigable efforts of Dr. Green, the surgeon of the post, very comfortable winter quarters have been secured for 800 men. Each ward is well ventilated and lighted; also, supplied with excellent stoves, competent nurses, and good medical attention. There is an air of neatness and good cheer truly refreshing to see. 

Among all the different wards perfect discipline seems to prevail, each department being carefully overlooked by the surgeon in person, who is truly 'the right man in the right place' – doing not only his duty, but his whole duty. Should he succeed in carrying out his plans for other improvements, his hospital will, I am sure, rank among the first for comfort, conveniences, and order. 

Since the 7th of June he has returned to the army more than 3,000 convalescent men, being a proof of skillful practice and good nursing. 
It will cheer the hearts of the ‘loved ones at home’ to know that gentle hands are administering to the wants of their absent ones. It was pleasant to see ladies who had left their happy firesides carefully watching by their sick beds, gently supplying their wants, and by their sympathy smoothing the rugged pathway of the soldiers… 

Too much praise cannot be award to the ladies of Culpeper for their noble institution, the ‘Ladies’ Depository.’ They are dispensing hourly blessings upon the poor soldier, either tempting his failing appetite with delicacies or wrapping his chilled body in comfortable clothes. 

With many difficulties to overcome, their work still goes nobly on; they falter not, but with heart and soul pursue their labors of love and mercy… In my appreciation of the good people of Culpeper I know that I am rendering ‘honor to whom honor is due.'"

(Photograph: A street scene in Culpeper, Virginia in 1862 - Library of Congress)
“’Where is the hospital?’ ‘The hospital, “’Where is the hospital?’

‘The hospital, sir? Every house in the town is a hospital; you cannot go amiss for one.’” 

And this seemed to be literally true.” 

This exchange was recorded by a Sanitary Commission agent working in Williamsburg, Virginia in the aftermath of the battle that took place there in May 1862. In that spring campaign, Williamsburg became a vast hospital for wounded Union and Confederate soldiers. 

Such a fate became frightfully common for American communities as the Civil War raged on. Residents of communities in the contested zones watched their homes and properties first become hellish battlefields and then become refuges for the men mangled and torn apart in the fray. 

Source: “Hospital Transports: A Memoir of the Embarkation of the Sick and Wounded from the Peninsula of Virginia in the Summer of 1862,” by the Sanitary Commission, 1863. Accessed through Google Books

(Illustration: The Battle of Williamsburg, May 1862 from “The Soldier in Our Civil War: A Pictorial History of the Conflict, 1861-1865… edited by Paul F. Mottelay and T. Campbell-Copland; with an introduction by Robert B. Beathl, New York: Stanley Bradley Pub. Co., 1893; available in the UWRF University Archives and Area Research Center (E 468.7 .M68 1893). Accessed through: https://thecivilwarandnorthwestwisconsin.wordpress.com/2012/05/15/1862-may-14-battle-of-williamsburg/

  #AmericanCivilWar #CivilWar #Medicine #MedicalHistory #HistMed #MilitaryMedicine #AmericanHistory #USHistory #History #MilitaryHistory
The Petit screw tourniquet was an indispensable to The Petit screw tourniquet was an indispensable tool for surgeons performing capital amputations in the Civil War.

Image credits:
Petit tourniquet, National Museum of Civil War Medicine collection, 2011.008.001 

Detail from "Hospital Scene," George Stacy, 1861, Library of Congress.

  #AmericanCivilWar #CivilWar #Medicine #MedicalHistory #HistMed #MilitaryMedicine #AmericanHistory #USHistory #History #MilitaryHistory #Tourniquet #StopTheBleed
A Veterans Day tribute to the soldiers of the "Gre A Veterans Day tribute to the soldiers of the "Great War" and of the American Civil War. 

"We had trenches during the Civil War, trenches where it as worth life to raise your head above the parapet and I remember one trench system in which the opposing armies were fully as close together as any I have heard of in France.

But the boys from over there have a deep regard for us old veterans. They have been through the terrible mill and they realize that it’s no child’s play. They know we suffered and although at times they may think that they saw the more terrible times[,] usually after a few minutes talk they will admit that the Civil War was no picnic…

We veterans of the Civil War are proud… that a great percentage of the soldiers of this war were sons or grandsons of the men who fought in the Civil War."

- A Civil War veteran comparing World War I combat to what he experienced in the American Civil War.

(Photo: A pair of unidentified men in uniform - one Civil War veteran and one veteran of World War I. Library of Congress)

#VeteransDay #Veteran #Veterans #WorldWarI #FirstWorldWar #WWI #WW1  #AmericanCivilWar #CivilWar #Medicine #MedicalHistory #HistMed #MilitaryMedicine #AmericanHistory #USHistory #History #MilitaryHistory
National Museum of
Civil War Medicine
48 East Patrick Street
Frederick, MD 21701
(301) 695-1864
Regular Hours
Wed - Thurs: 10:00am - 4:00pm
Fri - Sat: 10:00am - 5:00pm
Sun: 11:00am - 5:00pm
Mon-Tues by appointment
Last admittance to the galleries at 4:15 pm
Closed on New Year's Day, Easter, Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, and at 2 pm on New Year's Eve.
Clara Barton
Missing Soldiers Office
437 7th Street NW
Washington, DC 20004
(202) 824-0613
The Museum is open by appointment only
Last admission at 4:30 pm
Closed on Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, and New Year's Day. Closing early on New Year's Eve.
Pry House Field
Hospital Museum
18906 Shepherdstown Pike
Keedysville, MD 21756
(301) 432-6352
Regular Hours
11:00am - 5:00pm
The Pry House is closed for the 2020 season due to NPS guidelines
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American Alliance of Museums (AAM) National Parks Service (NPS) General Services Administration (GSA) City of Frederick MD U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command (USAMRMC) Uniformed Services University of Health Sciences Heart of the Civil War Heritage Area Visit Frederick Maryland
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  • Visit
    ▼
    • National Museum of Civil War Medicine in Frederick, MD
    • Clara Barton Missing Soldiers Office Museum in Washington, DC
    • Pry House Field Hospital Museum on Antietam National Battlefield
    • Group Tour
  • Remote Learning Resources
  • Explore
    ▼
    • Primary Sources
    • Artifacts Revealed
    • The Blog
    • Health Care Heroes
    • Videos and Digital Exhibits
    • Museum Publications
    • Bring the Museum to You
    • Ask A Question
  • Events
    ▼
    • Calendar
    • Ongoing and Upcoming Series
    • Annual Conference
    • Letterman Award
  • Support
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    • Become a Member
    • Donate
    • Volunteer