Portraits of the injured and maimed soldiers who survived the

Civil War | Dangerous Minds

Pvt. Samuel H. Decker, Company I, 4th US artillery. Double amputation of the forearms for
injury caused by the premature explosion of a gun on 8 October 1862, at the Battle of
Perryville, KY. Shown with self-designed prosthetics.

Civil War deaths are estimated to be between 600,000 and 750,000, carnage that
dwarfs all subsequent American wars by quite a wide margin. These numbers often
eclipse the legions of surviving veterans who made it through the War, and often too,
the crude battle-field medicine that offered little in the way of expertise or painkillers.
Amputations were incredibly common, since conditions were usually filthy and it
was safer to sever an arm or leg cleanly, rather than attempt to dress and redress a
ragged gunshot wound.
All the pictures shown are from the National Museum of Health and Medicines
Flickr, a fascinating archive, but perhaps not for the faint of heart. Some of them are
professional portraits, while others were taken at hospitals for medical records. The
handsome gentleman above is notable for his double-amputation and brilliant pros-
thetics of his own design. From their description:
He receives a pension of $300.00 per year, and is a doorkeeper at the House
of Representatives With the aid of his ingenious apparatus he is enabled
to write legibly, to pick up any small objects, a pin for example, to carry
packages of ordinary weight, to feed and clothe himself, and in one or two
instances of disorder in the Congressional gallery has proved himself a
formidable police officer.
Decker was anomalous, of course, as many injured soldiers came home to nothing
but poverty.
Ive tried to exclude any actual goresome of the recorded injuries could be consid-
ered pretty disconcerting. Though most of the open wounds are obviously in
monochrome, some are curiously hand-coloredIm not sure if its more or less dis-
turbing to see a gash of red painted onto a gangrenous sore. A few of the pictures are
just amputated limbs, so tread carefully.
Some of the more fascinating afflictions arent even what wed traditionally consider
war injures. Peter Shrup, for example, looks incredibly malnourished, and appears
to have a resulting case of Osteomalacianotice the thin, knock knees. And Neil
Wicksone of about 180,000 black soldiers to fight in the Civil War, by the wayhas
an advanced case of scabies, a parasitic mite that flourishes in dense populations,
causing a nearly unbearable rash by burrowing under the skinit was actually an
epidemic among Civil War troops.

Robert Fryer. Amputation of third, fourth, and fifth metacarpals. PVT, Company G, 52nd
New York Volunteers. Wounded March 25, 1865 at the Battle of Hatchers Run, Virginia

Jason W. Joslyn. Excision of head & 4 inches of shaft femur, prosthesis in place. PVT, Compa-
ny I, 7th New York Heavy Artillery. Injured at 1864 Battle of Cold Harbor

Hiram Williams. Amputation of leg and foot, shell wound. PVT, Company K, 98th Pennsyl-
vania Volunteers. Injured at the 1865 Battle of Appomattox

Neil Wicks. Scabies of both legs, PVT, Company C, 4th US Colored Troops

Sgt. Carlton H. Lovell, 14th New York Heavy Artillery. Wounded June 2, 1864 at the Battle
of Cold Harbor, Virginia. Photographed by H. Hirschinger at 388 Bowery, New York

H. F. Wallace. 1LT, Company I, 15th Michigan. Wounded April 6, 1862 at the Battle of
Shiloh, Tennessee

Thomas H. Mathews. Gunshot fracture of inferior maxilla & zygoma. CPL, Company I, 198th
Pennsylvania Volunteers. Wounded March 29, 1865 at the Battle of Petersburg

E. B. Gates. Amputation of the leg. CAPT, Company H, 4th Pennsylvania Reserves

Via Hyperallergic