American Civil War Surgical Antiques

(A Private Collection - Research and Identification Project)

Civil War Era Surgical Sets, Surgeon's Swords & Images

Civil War Surgeon Education & Civil War Medical Text-books

Established 1995      .     Dr. Michael Echols

Preserving our American Civil War Medical and Surgical History

As seen in: Military Images, American's Civil War Magazine, Warman's Civil War Collectibles, Antique Week, Northeast Antiques, and various Antiques & Collecting publications

 

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Illustrated use of various antique surgical instruments

During the Civil War

By Dr. Michael Echols

Illustrations below are from the Civil War Hand-book of Surgical Operations, 279 pages, 1862, by Stephen Smith (1823-1922)  More on Civil War surgery manuals.

Stephen Smith's Hand-book was the most widely used surgical manual among the Union forces (The History of Surgery in the United States, Ira M. Rutkow, M.D.).

Additional photos of amputation instruments

An 1870 Gemrig catalog with diagrams of instruments.

Click on images to enlarge

A surgical set by Wade and Ford, typical of those used in the field during the Civil War.  See this Civil War set. drwoodscase.JPG (81636 bytes)
Various bullet forceps, extractors, and locaters.
  • 1. forceps as found in most surgical sets
  • 2. an expanding wire tip to grab mini ball bullet
  • 3. screw tip to bore into bullet (not very effective)
  • 4. ceramic tip for location of ball by feel and marking
  • 5. scoop type tip to acquire and remove a bullet
  • 6. forceps with ball held in tip
 dbulletextractors.JPG (42032 bytes)

dbulletforceps.JPG (23242 bytes)
Chain saw, needle with thread for threading the chain, and a needle director for going around the bone and pulling back the end of the chain saw.

The handle on one end of the chain is removed and then is attached to the thread and pulled around the bone.

 dchainsawneedle.JPG (34122 bytes)
Tourniquet used to apply pressure on the artery to stop or limit bleeding.  The knob is turned to increase the pressure and the strap is released with the locking buckle on top of the arm. dtourniquet.JPG (35783 bytes)
The chain, shown on the right, is attached to a thread or 'ligature', which is then threaded from the right to the left.  The ligature end is picked up with tweezers on the left and pulled through with the chain.  The handle is then re-attached to the chain and the bone sawed (resected) in half. dchainsawpassing.JPG (59893 bytes)
Hand-hold used to quickly cut the muscle into flaps which will be turned over the end of the bone. dcuttingleg.JPG (63640 bytes)

dhandholdofknife.JPG (51035 bytes)
The muscle is hand retracted and an amputation knife is being used to trim down to the bone prior to cutting the bone with a saw. damputation.JPG (30148 bytes)
A small amputation knife being used to cut between the joints during amputation of the fingers. dfingerampution.JPG (50419 bytes)
Lower leg cutting pattern to include flaps which will be turned over the bone stump. dlowerlegamputation.JPG (55507 bytes)
Use of large forceps for removing bone from hand.   dronguer.jpg (48969 bytes)
Ligature needle with handle used to pass a ligature (thread) through the muscle or around an artery during suturing after the amputation. dsutureneedle.JPG (26046 bytes)

 

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American Civil War Surgical Antiques 

This site contains the personal research notes and collection of private collector Michael Echols.  Dr. Echols is not a dealer and nothing on this site is for sale.  All content 'by Dr. Echols' and all photography on this Web Site is copyrighted 1995 - 2009 and may not be used on any other web site or in print without the expressed e-mail permission from Dr. Echols:  Contact   All rights reserved. 

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Site last updated: Thursday, July 02, 2009