Library of Congress – “Civil War field hospital at Fredericksburg, Virginia (1864)
Healing the Wounded Nation: Medicine During the American Civil War (1861–1865)
When the Civil War began in 1861, the United States faced challenges it had never experienced before. The war’s scale and destruction were unlike anything the country had seen, and its medical system was far from ready. Thousands of soldiers fell ill in overcrowded camps where sanitation was poor and clean water was scarce. Diseases such as dysentery, typhoid, and malaria spread faster than doctors could treat them, claiming more lives than gunfire or combat ever did.
At the time, medical understanding was still developing. Germ theory was not widely accepted, antibiotics didn’t exist, and infection control was mostly guesswork. Doctors relied on experience rather than science, and hospitals were temporary and poorly supplied. Yet, in the middle of this chaos, people adapted. Surgeons, nurses, and volunteers began to organize care more efficiently, learning from the countless injuries and illnesses they faced every day.
By the end of the war in 1865, medical practice in the United States had transformed completely. The experiences of countless doctors, nurses, and patients reshaped how the country approached surgery, emergency response, and hospital care. What began as a desperate struggle for survival became one of the most important periods of medical innovation in American history, a reminder that progress often comes from the most painful moments.
(Reilly, 2016; Goniewicz et al., 2021; Bollet, 2002)
(Thompson, 2015)
This exhibition explores how the American Civil War forever changed the way doctors and nurses understood health, surgery, and survival. The purpose of this exhibition is to show the medical side of the war , the part often overshadowed by battles and politics. Each section of this exhibition highlights a different part of that story: the tools surgeons used, the development of anesthesia, the creation of organized field hospitals, and the rise of nurses who shaped the future of public health.
This image shows a Civil War-era amputation kit : a wooden box lined with compartments that held a surgeon’s essential tools. Inside are bone saws, scalpels, forceps, clamps, and a tourniquet used to stop blood flow during limb removal. The instruments are made of steel and brass, kept in a compact case so army surgeons could easily carry them to field hospitals or battle sites.
This photograph captures a team of Union soldiers loading the wounded onto an army ambulance wagon. Introduced by Dr. Jonathan Letterman, the “Father of Battlefield Medicine,” this organized ambulance corps was one of the most significant medical innovations of the Civil War. Before its creation, soldiers often lay injured for hours or even days without medical attention, relying on comrades or civilians for help.
This small tin was used to store chloroform, one of the main anesthetics during the Civil War. Surgeons relied on it heavily during operations, especially amputations, to put soldiers to sleep and ease their pain. Before chloroform, surgeries were often done with little to no pain relief, which made operations extremely traumatic for soldiers and difficult for doctors. Chloroform was poured onto a cloth and held over the patient’s mouth and nose, causing them to lose consciousness in just a few seconds. This made it easier and faster for surgeons to work, especially when hundreds of wounded soldiers arrived from the battlefield. Despite the harsh conditions, the use of anesthesia showed that doctors were trying to be as humane as possible even in war.
This photograph shows rows of hospital tents stretching across a field, likely from the Army of the Potomac around 1863. Each tent served as a temporary ward for injured soldiers after major battles. The tents are arranged in orderly lines, reflecting the growing efficiency and organization of Civil War medicine. Early in the war, care for the wounded was chaotic where there was little coordination, sanitation was poor, and supplies were scarce. By mid-war, however, military medical departments began adopting systematic approaches inspired by figures such as Jonathan Letterman, who developed the first modern ambulance and hospital system.
This handwritten letter describes the conditions inside a Civil War regimental hospital and the efforts of nurses to provide care during widespread outbreaks of disease. The writer lists scarlet fever, typhoid fever, measles, and whooping cough as illnesses that filled the hospital tents, noting how the sick were “so dreadfully dirty” that it was “the most pitiful sight I ever looked upon.” Many of the soldiers she treated were young men far from home, and the emotional weight of caring for them is clear throughout her writing.
The story of Civil War medicine didn’t end when the fighting stopped. The systems built out of desperation, field hospitals, ambulance wagons, and triage stations, became the blueprint for modern emergency medicine. Dr. Jonathan Letterman’s organized ambulance corps, once used to rescue soldiers under fire, inspired the first city ambulance services that began appearing in New York and Philadelphia after the war. The lessons learned in chaos slowly transformed into permanent reforms: trained nurses, centralized hospitals, and the idea that quick, organized care could save lives even far from the battlefield (National Museum of Civil War Medicine, 2021; PBS, Civil War Medicine: A Nation Divided by Disease).
But progress wasn’t shared equally. Black soldiers were often treated in separate hospitals, sometimes without proper supplies, while many enslaved people who escaped to Union lines were left without care at all. Even access to something as basic as anesthesia depended on where you fought, Union hospitals usually had chloroform or ether, but many Confederate surgeons ran out and had to rely on whiskey or restraint (Hentz, “Race and Medicine in the Civil War,” American Battlefield Trust, 2019; Adams, Doctors in Blue, 1952). These small but painful differences show that while the war pushed medicine forward, it also revealed how uneven compassion could be. The Civil War changed how America treated the wounded, but it also left a reminder that not everyone was treated the same.
National Museum of Civil War Medicine. https://www.civilwarmed.org
An online museum dedicated to preserving and explaining the medical history of the Civil War. It offers virtual exhibits, artifact images, and articles written by historians and medical experts.
Smithsonian Magazine – “Six Ways the Civil War Changed American Medicine.” (2015). https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/six-ways-civil-war-changed-american-medicine-180955626/
A short, engaging article that explains the major medical advancements that emerged from the Civil War, including anesthesia, hygiene, and hospital organization.
PBS – Civil War Medicine: A Nation Divided by Disease. https://www.pbs.org/
A documentary overview that explores how disease and poor sanitation shaped the outcome of the war and changed how Americans understood health and cleanliness.
Library of Congress – Civil War Medical Collections. https://www.loc.gov/collections
Provides access to original letters, photographs, and diaries from Civil War doctors and nurses, allowing readers to explore firsthand experiences of wartime medicine.
National Archives – Civil War Hospitals and Medical Records. https://www.archives.gov/
Includes government reports and official hospital records from the Civil War, offering insight into how military medicine became more structured and organized during the conflict.
My name is Malak, and I’m a Public Health major at George Washington University. I chose to focus on Civil War medicine because I’ve always been interested in how people respond to crisis especially when it involves health and survival. The more I learned about this topic, the more I saw how much progress came from moments of struggle. This project helped me connect history to the medical field in a real way. I was drawn to the stories of the doctors, nurses, and volunteers who worked in harsh conditions but still found ways to care for others. Their determination and compassion remind me why studying public health matters , understanding that it’s about improving lives, even when circumstances seem impossible.
Bollet, A. J. (2002). Civil War medicine: Challenges and triumphs. Galen Press.
Gabriel, K. (2011). Healers or horrors: Civil War medicine. Warfare History Network. https://warfarehistorynetwork.com/article/healers-or-horros-civil-war-medicine/
Goniewicz, K., Burkle, F. M., Horne, S., Borowska-Stefańska, M., Wiśniewski, S., & Khorram-Manesh, A. (2021). The influence of war and conflict on infectious disease: A rapid review of historical lessons we have yet to learn. Sustainability, 13(19), 10783. https://doi.org/10.3390/su131910783
Library of Congress. (n.d.). Clara Barton Papers: Letter page. Manuscript Division. https://www.loc.gov/resource/mss19224.00309/
Library of Congress. (n.d.). Civil War ambulance corps, wounded soldiers being loaded for transport. Civil War Photograph Collection. https://www.loc.gov
Library of Congress. (n.d.). General hospital encampment photograph. Civil War Photograph Collection. https://www.loc.gov
National Museum of Civil War Medicine. (n.d.). Chloroform tin. Civil War on the Western Border. https://civilwaronthewesternborder.org/national-museum-civil-war-medicine/chloroform-tin
Reilly, R. F. (2016). Medical and surgical care during the American Civil War, 1861–1865. Baylor University Medical Center Proceedings, 29(2), 138–142. https://doi.org/10.1080/08998280.2016.11929390
Thompson, H. (2015, June 17). Six ways the Civil War changed American medicine. Smithsonian Magazine. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/six-ways-civil-war-changed-american-medicine-180955626/
Wynn, J. (2017, February 12). “Don’t be afraid boys” – Evacuating the wounded. National Museum of Civil War Medicine. https://www.civilwarmed.org/evacuation/
National Museum of Civil War Medicine. “Primary Sources: Letterman, Evacuation and Ambulances.” CivilWarMed.org. Accessed October 11, 2025. https://www.civilwarmed.org/explore/bibs/evac/?utm_source
“Following the Rear: Travails of the Union Army’s Ambulance Corps.” Circulating Now, National Library of Medicine. Posted August 2, 2019. Accessed October 11, 2025.https://circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov/2019/08/02/following-the-rear-travails-of-the-union-armys-ambulance-corps/?utm_source
Schwalm, Leslie A. Medicine, Science, and Making Race in Civil War America. London: Routledge, 2023. https://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/76874?utm_source
“Anesthesia in the Civil War.” CivilWarMed.org. January 22, 2017. Accessed October 11, 2025. https://www.civilwarmed.org/anesthesia/?utm_source
U.S. National Park Service. “Jonathan Letterman.” nps.gov. Last updated July 28, 2025. Accessed October 11, 2025. https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/jonathan-letterman.htm?utm_source
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