{{italic title ''The Medical and Surgical History of the War of the Rebellion, 1861–65'' (the ''MSHWR'') was a

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

Government Printing Office The United States Government Publishing Office (USGPO or GPO; formerly the United States Government Printing Office) is an agency of the legislative branch of the United States Federal government. The office produces and distributes information ...

publication consisting of six volumes, issued between 1870 and 1888 and "prepared Under the Direction of

Surgeon General United States Army The Surgeon General of the United States Army is the senior-most officer of the U.S. Army Medical Department (AMEDD). By policy, the Surgeon General (TSG) serves as Commanding General, U.S. Army Medical Command (MEDCOM) as well as head of the ...

, Joseph K. Barnes". The History was divided into three parts, each consisting of a medical history volume and a surgical history volume. The works detail tens of thousands of surgical cases and diseases occurring during the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states ...

(1861–1865).

The ''MSHWR'' included numerous statistical summaries relating to diseases, wounds, and deaths in both the

Union Union commonly refers to: * Trade union, an organization of workers * Union (set theory), in mathematics, a fundamental operation on sets Union may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Music * Union (band), an American rock group ** ''Un ...

and Confederate armies, almost all of the material formed from the reports of

U.S. Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cl ...

medical directors, surgeons, doctors, and hospital staff. The accounts are a basic source for medical data on the War and also comprise an important source of information relating to individual soldiers. The names of the surgeons who submitted these case studies are almost always included, so the books can be helpful in tracking where an individual surgeon was at various times. Hundreds of

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wood engraving Wood engraving is a printmaking technique, in which an artist works an image or ''matrix'' of images into a block of wood. Functionally a variety of woodcut, it uses relief printing, where the artist applies ink to the face of the block and ...

s, charts, and tables, as well as many photographs and color plates ( lithographs,

chromolithograph Chromolithography is a method for making multi-colour prints. This type of colour printing stemmed from the process of lithography, and includes all types of lithography that are printed in colour. When chromolithography is used to reproduce ...

s, albumen photographs, heliotypes, and

woodburytype A Woodburytype is both a printing process and the print that it produces. In technical terms, the process is a ''photomechanical'' rather than a ''photographic'' one, because sensitivity to light plays no role in the actual printing. The process ...

s) accompany the approximately 3,000 pages of densely printed text. (Almost every reproductive process available at the time can be found somewhere within the six volumes.)

Editions and reprints

Publication of the ''MSHWR'' was preceded by publication of the ''Reports on the Extent and Nature of the Materials Available for the Preparation of a Medical and Surgical History of the Rebellion'' ( Surgeon General's Office;

War Department War Department may refer to: * War Department (United Kingdom) * United States Department of War (1789–1947) See also * War Office, a former department of the British Government * Ministry of defence * Ministry of War * Ministry of Defence * D ...

, J. B. Lippincott, 1865). The ''MSHWR'' was reprinted (1990–1992) as ''The Medical and Surgical History of the Civil War'' ( Broadfoot Publishing Company; editor, Dr. James I. ("Bud") Robertson, Jr., Alumni Professor of History,

Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University Virginia Tech (formally the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University and informally VT, or VPI) is a public land-grant research university with its main campus in Blacksburg, Virginia. It also has educational facilities in six regi ...

Blacksburg, Virginia Blacksburg is an incorporated town in Montgomery County, Virginia, United States, with a population of 44,826 at the 2020 census. Blacksburg, as well as the surrounding county, is dominated economically and demographically by the presence of ...

). In addition to original printings and the reprinting, the ''MSHWR'' is also available on Compact Disc (CD) and on the internet/World Wide Web (see "External links").

The volumes

* ''Part I, Volume I: Medical History (1870)'' Prepared under the direction of Joseph K. Barnes, Surgeon General, United States Army, by J.J. Woodward, Assistant Surgeon United States Army. Consists of a series of statistical tables summarizing the monthly reports made to the Surgeon General regarding the Sickness of the Army, Deaths, and Discharges and is arranged into two groups: Part I refers to "Sickness and Mortality of White Troops" and Part II to "Colored Troops." * ''Part I, Volume II: Surgical History (1870)'' Prepared, under the direction of Joseph K. Barnes, Surgeon General United States Army, by George A. Otis, Assistant Surgeon, United States Army. Covers wounds and injuries of the head, face, neck, spine, and chest. Includes a chronological summary of engagements and battles. * ''Part II, Volume I: Medical History (1879)'' Prepared under the direction of Joseph K. Barnes, Surgeon General, United States Army, by Joseph Janvier Woodward, Surgeon, United States Army. Covers diarrhea and dysentery; Case studies and heliotype illustrations of diseases and sections of tissue, etc. * ''Part II, Volume II: Surgical History (1876)'' Prepared under the direction of Joseph K. Barnes, Surgeon General, United States Army by George A. Otis, Assistant Surgeon, United States Army. Covers injuries of the abdomen, pelvis, flesh wounds of the back, and wounds and injuries of the upper extremities. * ''Part III, Volume I: Medical History (1888)'' Prepared under the direction of Surgeon General John Moore, United States Army, by

Charles Smart Charles is a masculine given name predominantly found in English and French speaking countries. It is from the French form ''Charles'' of the Proto-Germanic name (in runic alphabet) or ''*karilaz'' (in Latin alphabet), whose meaning was "f ...

, Major and Surgeon, United States Army. Covers medical statistics; camp fevers typhus,_etc..html"_;"title="typhus.html"_;"title="typhus">typhus,_etc.">typhus.html"_;"title="typhus">typhus,_etc.and_other_Miasma_theory_of_disease.html" ;"title="typhus">typhus,_etc..html" ;"title="typhus.html" ;"title="typhus">typhus, etc.">typhus.html" ;"title="typhus">typhus, etc.and other Miasma theory of disease">miasmatic diseases; scurvy; diseases attributed to non-miasmatic exposure; and other diseases such as nostalgia, army itch, poisoning, alcoholism, and venereal diseases; Includes one small folding map. * ''Part III, Volume II: Surgical History (1883)'' Prepared under the direction of Joseph K. Barnes, Surgeon General United States Army by George A. Otis and D.L. Huntington. Covers "Wounds and Injuries of the Lower Extremities", "Miscellaneous Injuries", "Wounds and Complications", "

Anesthetics An anesthetic (American English) or anaesthetic (British English; see spelling differences) is a drug used to induce anesthesia ⁠— ⁠in other words, to result in a temporary loss of sensation or awareness. They may be divided into two ...

", "The Medical Staff and Materia Chirurgica", and "Transportation of the Wounded".

External links

The ''MSHWR'' at the

Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music, ...

:
Part I, Volume I

Part I, Volume II

Part II, Volume I

Part II, Volume II

Part III, Volume I

Part III, Volume II
The ''MSHWR'' at the

National Library of Medicine The United States National Library of Medicine (NLM), operated by the United States federal government, is the world's largest medical library. Located in Bethesda, Maryland, the NLM is an institute within the National Institutes of Health. Its ...

:
Part I, Volume I through Part III, Volume II
History books about the American Civil War American Civil War documents Military medicine books Series of books American Civil War medicine Medical data sets

Contents

Editions and reprints

The volumes

See also

External links