Pvt. Samuel H. Decker, Company I, 4th US artillery. Double amputation of the forearms for injury caused by the premature explosion of a gun on 8 October 1862, at the Battle of Perryville, KY. Shown with self-designed prosthetics.
Civil War deaths are estimated to be between 600,000 and 750,000, carnage that dwarfs all subsequent American wars by quite a wide margin. These numbers often eclipse the legions of surviving veterans who made it through the War, and often too, the crude battle-field medicine that offered little in the way of expertise or painkillers. Amputations were incredibly common, since conditions were usually filthy and it was safer to sever an arm or leg cleanly, rather than attempt to dress and redress a ragged gunshot wound.
All the pictures shown are from the National Museum of Health and Medicine’s Flickr, a fascinating archive, but perhaps not for the faint of heart. Some of them are professional portraits, while others were taken at hospitals for medical records. The handsome gentleman above is notable for his double-amputation and brilliant prosthetics of his own design. From their description:
He receives a pension of $300.00 per year, and is a doorkeeper at the House of Representatives… With the aid of his ingenious apparatus he is enabled to write legibly, to pick up any small objects, a pin for example, to carry packages of ordinary weight, to feed and clothe himself, and in one or two instances of disorder in the Congressional gallery has proved himself a formidable police officer.
Decker was anomalous, of course, as many injured soldiers came home to nothing but poverty.
I’ve tried to exclude any actual gore—some of the recorded injuries could be considered pretty disconcerting. Though most of the open wounds are obviously in monochrome, some are curiously hand-colored—I’m not sure if it’s more or less disturbing to see a gash of red painted onto a gangrenous sore. A few of the pictures are just amputated limbs, so tread carefully.
Some of the more fascinating afflictions aren’t even what we’d traditionally consider “war injures.” Peter Shrup, for example, looks incredibly malnourished, and appears to have a resulting case of Osteomalacia—notice the thin, “knock knees.” And Neil Wicks—one of about 180,000 black soldiers to fight in the Civil War, by the way—has an advanced case of scabies, a parasitic mite that flourishes in dense populations, causing a nearly unbearable rash by burrowing under the skin—it was actually an epidemic among Civil War troops.
Robert Fryer. Amputation of third, fourth, and fifth metacarpals. PVT, Company G, 52nd New York Volunteers. Wounded March 25, 1865 at the Battle of Hatcher’s Run, Virginia
Jason W. Joslyn. Excision of head & 4 inches of shaft femur, prosthesis in place. PVT, Company I, 7th New York Heavy Artillery. Injured at 1864 Battle of Cold Harbor
Hiram Williams. Amputation of leg and foot, shell wound. PVT, Company K, 98th Pennsylvania Volunteers. Injured at the 1865 Battle of Appomattox
Neil Wicks. Scabies of both legs, PVT, Company C, 4th US Colored Troops
More after the jump…
