American Civil War Medicine & Surgical Antiques

Surgical Set collection from 1860 to 1865 - Civilian and Military

Civil War:  Medicine, Surgeon Education & Medical Textbooks

 Dr. Michael Echols  &  Dr. Doug Arbittier

 

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Civil War Confederate Medical Books & Surgical Manuals

Authors: Samuel Preston Moore, Edward Warren, J. Julian Chisolm, Worthington Hooker

Page Six

Unlike the Union Army, which contracted for surgical and medical publication during the Civil War, the Confederate States Army did not contract for publication of medical or surgical books.  There are really only three surgical text books which were published for use by the CSA surgeons during the War, they are by Moore: A Manual of Military Surgery; by Warren: An Epitome of Practical Surgery, for field and hospital; and by Chisolm: Manual of Military Surgery.  Original copies are in this collection.  Of course many of the surgeons who served in the CSA were educated in the north prior to the War and they would have had the benefit of owning Civil War medicine textbooks current at the time they entered the War.  How many were able to obtain new medical books published during the War is unknown, but most likely they were obtainable from bootleg sources in the north or were captured during raids on Union supplies.


A Manual of Military Surgery, (1863) by Samuel Preston Moore, M.D., CSA  (Extremely Rare)

Samuel Preston Moore graduated from the Medical College of the State of South Carolina in 1834 and quickly became assistant surgeon for the U.S. Army in 1835. This position required service in several frontier regions of the country including Missouri, Kansas, Florida, and the Texas-Mexico border. While serving in the Mexican War (1846-48), Moore met the future President of the Confederacy, Jefferson Davis, who was quite impressed with his organizational and disciplinary abilities.

Moore was promoted to surgeon in 1849 and remained in this position through the 1850s. However, like many Southern officers in the United States Army, he was in crisis while the country was on the brink of civil war. When his home state of South Carolina seceded, he resigned his post in the U.S. Army and moved to Arkansas to open a private practice and to avoid fighting against a country to which he had devoted so much of his life. However, he soon received personal requests from Jefferson Davis to join the Confederate army. Davis’s descriptions of the army’s unfortunate military situation and the lack of trained medical men eventually persuaded Moore to become Surgeon-General in 1861, a position he would hold for the duration of the war.

Moore’s A manual of military surgery (Richmond, Ayers & Wade, 1863) is a compilation of papers by surgeons which provides exact instructions with illustrations for performing operations. It was intended for use by inexperienced surgeons in the army.

Prepared for the Use of the Confederate States Army

Author: Samuel P. Moore, M.D.  A Manual of Military Surgery.  Published by: Richmond: Ayres & Wade, 1863. The only edition.  Original stiff paper binding.

 

With 30 drawing  plates and 174 individual figures, this was the first of only two illustrated military surgical manuals to have been compiled and printed in the Confederacy. 

 

During the Civil War, Dr. Moore was the surgeon general of the Confederate States Army Medical Department.  According to several inscriptions in this book, Moore presented this copy to George Washington Kyser while Kyser was serving at  Howard's Grove Military Hospital, Richmond, Virginia.  This genuine Confederate surgical manual is a remarkable artifact of the Civil War.  Additional information on Samuel P. Moore, M.D.

 

George Washington Kyser, Born: Aug. 26, 1841, Ackerville, Wilcox County, Alabama, Death: Jul. 20, 1911, Richmond, Dallas County, Alabama.  Dr. George Washington Kyser was educated in the old "Carlowville Academy" under Dr. Thomas Dill. In winter of 1860/61 he attended the Medical College of Mobile. The following fall Kyser entered Confederate service as a private with the AL Cavalry, Holloway's Co. (a.k.a., Crocheron Light Dragoons) under Gen Braxton Bragg.  In winter of 1864/65 he was sent to the Medical College of UVA, graduating in spring of 1865. He worked in base hospitals in Richmond and as Asst. Surgeon at Thomasville, NC. He remained until all sick were evacuated even thou he was paroled earlier on April 26, 1865. Dr. Kyser received his M.D. degree from the Medical College of Virginia.  Dr. Kyser then returned home to practice medicine in Richmond, AL.

 

The material of the cover is actually mottled and original as is the fabric spine.  Field size manual:

7 x 4 1/2 x 1 in.

 

Signature of G. W. Kyser

 

George Washington Kyser
 

 

Click to enlarge surgery photos from Moore's text book

    


An Epitome of Practical Surgery, for field and hospital, (1863), by Edward Warren, M.D., CSA  (Extremely Rare)

Edward Warren is one of the most bizarre and picturesque figures in the annals of American medicine, having passed through the successive transformations of country doctor, professor, surgeon-general and chevalier of the Legion of Honor. His journeys took him from the swamps of the Carolinas and the shores of the Chesapeake to the Nile and the Seine, practicing on three continents and received everywhere with acclaim.

Born in North Carolina in 1828, he was educated at the University of Virginia. In 1851 he received his MD from Jefferson Medical College and began to practice in Edenton, North Carolina. He then journeyed to Paris in 1854-55. In 1861 he was editor of the Baltimore Journal of Medicine; from 1860 to 1861, he was professor of materia medica at the University of Maryland; in 1867 he reorganized Washington University Medical School, Baltimore and was professor of surgery 1867-71; in 1872 he was one of the founders of the College of Physicians and Surgeons in Baltimore and served as professor there in 1872-73. Governor Vance of North Carolina appointed him surgeon-general of the state and medical inspector of the Confederate States from 1861 to 1865. In 1875 he settled in Paris and died there in September 1893.

His rare and important text, Epitome, was used by nearly every Confederate medical officer.  In writing it, Warren consulted a number of leading texts and made no claim to originality. A second edition was planned, but never published.

See additional information on Edward Warren

Author: Warren, Edward, M.D. 1828-1893.

 

SURGEON GENERAL OF THE STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA, FORMERLY PROFESSOR IN THE UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND.

An epitome of practical surgery for field and hospital.

Published: Richmond, Va., West & Johnston, 1863.

Edition: 1st ed. Original stiff paper binding.

Subject: Surgery, Military, Confederate Army.  391 pages, no drawings, all text.

Field size manual: 7 3/4 x 4 3/4 x 1 1/4 in.

 

   

Signed on inside of front cover:

  "Medical, Raleigh, 1863, Confederate States"

 

  

Publication Data

Index pages from Warren's manual, click on images to enlarge

 


Manual of Military Surgery (1862) by J. Julian Chisolm, CSA (Extremely Rare), Regulations of the Medical Department of the Confederate States

Julian Chisolm (1830-1903) was the foremost surgeon in the Confederacy.  His important military surgery manual went through three editions and is regarded as one of the most famous artifacts in the history of Civil War medicine. At the outbreak of the Civil War he received the first Confederate military commission issued to a medical officer and attended the wounded at Fort Sumter. His Manual was presented to the Confederate Surgeon-General, Samuel Preston Moore, while the Battle of Bull Run was being fought.

Additional information on John Julian Chisolm, M. D.

Civil War anesthesia relative to Porcher and Chisolm for ether and chloroform

 

Author: Chisolm, J. Julian (John Julian), 1830-1903.

A manual of military surgery, for the use of surgeons in the Confederate States army; with an appendix of the rules and regulations of the Medical department of the Confederate States army. Confederate States of America. War Dept.   Published: Richmond, Va., West & Johnson, 1862. Edition: 2d ed.  446 pages.  Plus an appendix which contains the Regulations for the Medical Department of the Confederate States.  For a total number of pages: 514.  Field size: 7 1/2 x 5 1/4 x 1 1/4 in.

 

 

   

Publication Data, Preface and Index


Human Physiology: Designed for Colleges and the Higher Classes in Schools and for General Reading; (1859), by Worthington Hooker, M.D.  Marked: Hospital Department, C.S.A.

This 1858 text was published by Pratt, Oakley & Co., N.Y., and is marked for the "Hospital Department, C.S.A."  Just as the Union Army Medical and Hospital Departments had libraries, so did the Confederate Army.  This text is marked with a stencil mark on the title page.  These stencils were made of metal and then used to mark library books or other materials  The distinctive breaks in the fonts and distortions indicate the use of the metal cut-out stencil and rolled ink stamp.  An example of a Civil War type of stencil below:

       

Examples of a name stencil kit like those used during the Civil War:

Worthington Hooker, M.D. was an instructor in medicine at Yale College before the Civil War.  One would assume this text book was contributed to the Confederate States Army Hospital Department at some point during the War by a doctor trained in the north, which was the pre-War norm.  It was most likely placed in a Hospital library for use by doctors or attending staff.  It is a basic science text, not surgery.

 .

Hand-cut Stencil mark for "Hospital Department, C. S. A."

 

Description and review of the text from publisher, Pratt, Oakley & Co.,1859 brochure listing in the back of this book.

       

Registration by the author in 1854 on page opposite the title page

   

From the title page, the stencil stamp of the:

  "Hospital Department, C. S. A."


Continue to  Page 7

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American Civil War Medicine & Surgical Antiques

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