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
Just Passing Through: A Travelers Guide to Civil War Frederick
August 7 @ 11:00 am
Downtown Frederick
During the Civil War, hundreds of thousands of soldiers, surgeons, and patients passed through Frederick. Find out how they described it on this walking tour.
Learn More
One Vast Hospital – Civil War Walking Tour in Downtown Frederick
August 7 @ 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
Learn More
One Vast Hospital – Civil War Walking Tour in Downtown Frederick
August 8 @ 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
Learn More
Medical Care on the Gettysburg College Campus
Read about the role of Gettysburg College in the treatment of the wounded after the Battle of Gettysburg.
[More]
A Q&A with Dr. Guy Hasegawa About His Latest Book on the Confederate Medical Department
Dr. Guy Hasegawa does a Q&A about his latest book “Matchless Organization: The Confederate Medical Department.”
[More]
![How helpful were amputations during the Civil War? Were wounded soldiers more likely to die from an amputation in the 1860s than they are today?
Prior to the war, amputations were relatively rare. As the war progressed, surgeons became more skilled at the procedure, and the mortality rate dropped to impressively low levels, comparable to today. But the conditions of battle could worsen, especially in siege conditions or grueling campaigns. You can see that uneven progress in the table below.
Amputation Mortality:
Pre-Civil War civilian amputations [U.K. and U.S.] – 50% mortality
Peninsula Campaign (March-July 1862) [U.S.] – 26%
Antietam (September 17, 1862) [U.S.] – 22%
Gettysburg (July 1-3, 1863) [U.S.] – perhaps 9%, though records are incomplete
Overland Campaign (May-June 1864) [U.S] – 13%
Siege of Petersburg (June-March 1865) [U.S] – 18%
Franco-Prussian War (1870-1871) [French] –76% mortality
Traumatic amputations today [U.S.] – 15%, 10% if a tourniquet is applied early and properly
Sources:
Bollet, Alfred Jay, M.D., "Civil War Medicine: Challenges and Triumphs," Tucson: Galen Press, 2002.
Ramirez, Christin, MD and Menaker, Jay, MD, “Traumatic Amputations,” "Trauma Reports: Practical, Evidence-Based Reviews in Trauma Care," May 1, 2017, Relias Media, accessed February 21, 2020, <https://www.reliasmedia.com/.../140552-traumatic-amputations>.
Image credit:
"U.S. Army medical wagon behind surgeon with surgical assistant administering anesthesia," Civil War, CP 1563, OHA 75 Otis Historical Archives, National Museum of Health and Medicine.](https://www.civilwarmed.org/wp-content/plugins/instagram-feed/img/placeholder.png)