Medical and Surgical History of The War of The Rebellion

Medical And Surgical History Of The War Of The Rebellion

The Medical and Surgical History of the War of the Rebellion, 1861-65 (the MSHWR) was a U.S. Government Printing Office publication consisting of six volumes published between 1870 and 1888 and “prepared Under the Direction of Surgeon General United States Army, 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 (1861-65).

The MSHWR included numerous statistical summaries relating to diseases, wounds, and deaths in both the Union and Confederate armies, almost all of the material formed from the reports of U.S. 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 etchings, wood engravings, charts, and tables, as well as many photographs and color plates (lithographs, chromolithographs, albumen photographs, heliotypes, and woodburytypes) 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.)

Publication of the MSHWR was preceded by publication of 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, J.B. Lippincott, 1865).

The MSHWR was reprinted (1990-92) as The Medical and Surgical History of the Civil War (Broadfoot Publishing Company; editor, James I. Robertson, Jr.).

In addition to original printings and the reprinting, the MSHWR is also available on CD and on the internet (see External links).

Read more about Medical And Surgical History Of The War Of The Rebellion:  The Volumes, See Also

Famous quotes containing the words medical, surgical, history, war and/or rebellion:

    “They said I’d never get you back again.
    I tell you what you’ll never really know:
    all the medical hypothesis
    that explained my brain will never be as true as these
    struck leaves letting go.”
    —Anne Sexton (1928–1974)

    “With all the surgical skill and the vital rays lavished on him he should talk like a—like a congressman at a filibuster.”
    —Kenneth Langtry. Herbert L. Strock. Prof. Frankenstein (Whit Bissell)

    “A poet’s object is not to tell what actually happened but what could or would happen either probably or inevitably.... For this reason poetry is something more scientific and serious than history, because poetry tends to give general truths while history gives particular facts.”
    —Aristotle (384–323 B.C.)

    “Another danger is imminent: A contested result. And we have no such means for its decision as ought to be provided by law. This must be attended to hereafter.... If a contest comes now it may lead to a conflict of arms. I can only try to do my duty to my countrymen in that case. I shall let no personal ambition turn me from the path of duty. Bloodshed and civil war must be averted if possible. If forced to fight, I have no fears from lack of courage or firmness.”
    —Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1822–1893)

    “The one point on which all women are in furious secret rebellion against the existing law is the saddling of the right to a child with the obligation to become the servant of a man.”
    —George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950)