Vintage Military - Part 109

Civil War

Today is Veterans Day, and we have some really vintage veterans – from the Civil War.

The U.S. Civil War lasted from 1861 to 1865.  Afterwards, the U.S. Government published a set of books called The Medical and Surgical History of the War of the Rebellion.  It was a record of Civil War medical issues in six large volumes, covering camp diseases, epidemics, battlefield wounds, surgical procedures, and amputations.  Today we see some illustrations from the book.  These are lithographs made from photographs of wounded soldiers.  All of the soldiers in these 6 photos suffered "gunshot fractures of the femur".

Above, Captain D. Lewis, 8th Ohio (left) and Private A. F. Dinsmore, 3rd Michigan (right).

Lieutenant J. Buckley, 140th New York (left) and Private J. Hamilton, 1st Delaware (right).

Sergeant A. Ryder, 121st New York (left) and Private T. Miller, 116th Pennsylvania (right).

Private H. E. Gumberts, 136th Indiana (left) and Private H. Shetter, 7th Wisconsin (right).

Private J. Durst, 69th New York (left) and Private M. Burns, 28th Massachusetts (right).

Private R. Hanlon, 5th U.S. Cavalry (left) and Private J. O'Connor, 16th Michigan (right).

It's interesting to see the men's hairstyles that were current 160 years ago (not much different from today) and the facial hair (mustaches were popular).  Also, although it's difficult to tell in some of the images, most if not all of these men were uncircumcised.  Circumcision for non-Jews was not promoted in the U.S. until the late 1800s.