The following information
regards surgical sets owned
by 'contract' physicians and surgeons. The first two pages, in yellow,
is data from the National Archives obtained by Richard Cies, and the rest is directly from the Medical and
Surgical History of the War of Rebellion database to support the use of
'contract' surgeons and the existence of U. S. Army Form No. 18 used to pay
contract physicians.
The big point to consider
is whether or not contract surgeons performed surgery, and if so, did they
bring their own instruments as pointed out in the yellow pages.
Personally I think contract physicians were used in an auxiliary role to maintain patients
and other than the first few months of they War, were not allowed to perform
major surgery on any patients. Surgery or amputations were only performed by
U. S. Army certified surgeons and assistant surgeons and you need to ready
the following:
The Truth about Civil War Surgeons by Dr. Jay Bollet
The reason this
information is so important and needs further study is because of all the
surgical sets that are floating around out there, which are claimed to have
been used during the Civil War by contract surgeons. No one can prove
it, but this information would certainly point toward the possibility...
A summary on the left of the facts
discussed in the hand-written document
Click on images to enlarge
Documentation from the Medical and
Surgical History database: Army Form No. 18
O.R.--SERIES III--VOLUME
IV
CORRESPONDENCE,
ORDERS, REPORTS, AND RETURNS OF THE UNION AUTHORITIES FROM JANUARY 1, 1864,
TO APRIL 30, 1865
APPENDIX.
EXTRACTS FROM GENERAL
REGULATIONS OF THE ARMY,
ARTICLE XLI.--Public
property, money, accounts, and contracts.
1304.
When it is
necessary to employ a private physician as medical officer, the commanding
officer may do it by written contract, conditioned as in Form 18 (Medical
Regulations, U. S. Army), at a stated compensation, not to exceed $50 a
month when the number of officers and men, with authorized servants and
laundresses, is 100 or more; $40 when it is from 50 to 100; and $30 when it
is under 50.
1305. But when he is
required to abandon his own business, and give his whole time to the public
service, the contract may be not to exceed $80 a month, and not to exceed
$100, besides transportation in kind, to be furnished by the Quartermaster's
Department, where he is required to accompany troops on marches or
transports. But a private physician will not be employed to accompany troops
on marches or transports, except by orders from the War Department, or in
particular and urgent cases by the order of the officer directing the
movement, when a particular statement of the circumstances which make it
necessary will be appended to the contract.
1306. And when a private
physician is required to furnish medicines, he will be allowed, besides the
stipulated pay, from 25 to 50 per cent. on it, to be determined by the
Surgeon-General.
1307. In all cases a
duplicate of the contract will be transmitted forthwith by the commanding
officer to the Surgeon-General, and the commanding officer for the time
being will at once discontinue it, whenever the necessity for it ceases, or
the Surgeon-General may so direct.
1308. The physician's
account of pay due must be sent to the Surgeon-General for payment, vouched
by the certificate of the commanding officer that it is correct and
agreeable to contract, and that the services have been duly
rendered. But when it cannot conveniently be submitted to the
Surgeon-General from the frontier or the field, it may be paid on the order
of the commanding officer, not to exceed the regulated amount, by a medical
disbursing officer, or a quartermaster.
OFFICE
COMMISSARY-GENERAL OF PRISONERS,
New York City, February 19, 1862.
Maj. W. S. PIERSON,
Commanding Depot of Prisoners of
War, Sandusky, Ohio. MAJOR:
Yours of the 15th (*)
with Doctor Woodbridge's acceptance of the appointment of medical officer at
the depot at $100 per month is just received. I send a telegram to you
requesting you to employ him immediately. Make a contract with him according
to Form 18, medical regulations, specifying that he is to receive the fuel
and quarters of an assistant surgeon. When I return to Sandusky I will
approve the contract and forward it to the Surgeon-General. If I should not
return you can forward it as having been made by my order. While the men are
suffering with the mumps it may be well to quarter some of them in the
officers' block nearest to the gate, north side, in the inclosure.
Very respectfully, your
obedient servant,
W. HOFFMAN,
Lieut. Col. Eighth
Infantry, Commissary. General of Prisoners
EMPLOYÉS.
140. Employés will be
paid, at the end of each calendar month, on receipt rolls
(Form 18), in
duplicate, which they must sign with their own hands. One person can sign
for another only by a power of attorney, a copy of which must, in each case,
accompany the signature.
141. When employés are
not present at the district headquarters to sign the receipt rolls, their
accounts may be made out on separate vouchers. (Form 19.)
SPECIAL ORDERS No.
90.
HDQRS. DEPT. OF THE
TENNESSEE,
Young's Point, La., March 31, 1863.
* *
* * * * * * *
*
VIII. The commanding
officer of the Sixteenth Army Corps will cause to be built on one of the
islands of the Mississippi somewhere between Columbus, Ky., and
Memphis, Tenn., a suitable log or frame prison for the accommodation of
1,000 prisoners. The island so occupied will be garrisoned by such a force
as the corps commander may deem necessary for the safe-keeping of all
prisoners intrusted to them and for holding the post. One
contract
physician will be habitually kept to take charge of the sick in prison
and more should the number requiring medical attendance make it necessary.
The expense of building such structure will be defrayed by the
quartermaster's department from funds received through the provost-marshal's
department.
* *
* * * * * * *
*
By order of Maj. Gen.
U.S. Grant:
JOHN A. RAWLINS,
Assistant
Adjutant-General.
COLUMBUS,
OHIO, August 14, 1862.
W. A. HAMMOND, Surgeon. General U.S.
Army:
Allow me to draw your
attention to Camp Chase. There are now 1,600 prisoners; one regiment and
two-thirds three-months' men on guard duty. Two new regiments are nearly
filled. Orders, No. 65, has brought to camp over 3,000 sick soldiers to be
examined. The regimental surgeons are busy inspecting their own men and
taking care of them. Up till now we got along by employing a
contract
surgeon and using the paroled surgeons. They are now ordered to report to
their regiments, and therefore we now need more help. A first-class man with
five good assistants ought to be appointed for this post at once. The
examination of sick soldiers being very important ought not to be intrusted
to poor hands. A first-class man cannot be procured at the usual rate. Do
give me authority to organize a staff for above camp and what compensation
will you allow? There are now more than 500 soldiers waiting examination.
Answer immediately.
GUSTAV C. E. WEBER,
Surgeon-General.
CASE 312.--A private of Co. C, 54th
Massachusetts, a colored man, was wounded and made a prisoner in the
assault on Morris Island on July 11, 1863. A fragment of a shell from
Fort Wagner struck the upper and outer part of his right thigh, and
fractured the neck and head of the femur and the rim of the acetabulum,
and extensively lacerated the soft parts in its exit through the
posterior part of the thigh. The patient was conveyed to Charleston on
the afternoon of July 12th, and was placed in a hospital hastily
prepared for the reception of wounded colored prisoners.
The contract
surgeon in charge of the hospital reports that the patient's
condition, in view of the terrible wound he had suffered, was remarkably
good, and that the symptoms of shock were unusually slight. On July
13th, the third day after the reception of the injury,
Surgeon R. A.
Kinloch, P. A. C. S., saw the case, and amputated at the hip joint
by Manec's method. The knife being entered midway between the anterior
superior spinous process of the ilium and the great trochanter, and
carried downward and inward until its point emerged just in front of the
ischium, was made to form a large antero-internal flap; the soft parts
on the outer and posterior part of the thigh were then divided by a
semicircular incision from without inward, and the head of the femur was
then disarticulated. The patient bore the operation well, but a few
hours subsequently there was extreme depression, and the case terminated
fatally on the following morning, July 14th, twenty hours after the
operation.
Again, the point of interest for my
research is to determine if contract physicians brought their own
instruments or not. Apparently in the early months of the War,
they were encouraged to bring their own instruments, but as supplies
increased, they were not.
