Haunting Portraits of Civil War Casualties

Men missing legs, arms, fingers and toes – these compelling portraits show the disfigured and maimed bodies of soldiers wounded in battle during the Civil War.

While an estimated 600,000 to 800,000 were killed in the four-year long war, it is also infamous for the high number of amputations doctors carried out on wounded soldiers.

A blood-curdling range of saws, knives and sharp hooks were used to administer surgery to maimed fighters – an estimated 60,000 amputations were completed between 1861 – 1865.

Top, surgery notes state Private Columbus G. Rush had his legs amputated for gunshot injuries sustained on March 25, 1865, at the Battle of Petersburg, Virginia. Above, Samuel Irwin, of the 67th Pennsylvania Volunteers, had his right arm cut off at the shoulder joint.

 

 Pictured top wearing a support apparatus and right without it is Private Joshua S. Mason, who had four inches of his humerus, or upper arm bone, removed

Amputations were undertaken quickly, without anesthetic and using large saws similar to those now used to cut tree branches.

The soldiers’ treatment is a far cry from the kind of high-tech care such as flying-helicopters and battlefield operating theatres that injured soldiers available for use in modern warfare.

In many of the portraits, men are pictured without legs, arms or fingers. Others have had damaged bones removed in operations leaving them significantly disfigured. 

The Civil War occurred at a time when the importance of sterilization in surgery was not as well known as it is today, or circumstances prevented it.

Given the high number of wounded soldiers coming through the battlefield doctors’ surgeries, amputation was often the quickest and most efficient way of preventing deadly infections, such as gangrene, seen below.

 Private John L. Gray (left) from the Virginia Infantry holds his foot aloft, showing where gangrene has infected a gunshot wound. Above, Captain David D. Cole shows a stump where his leg was amputated following a complete separation of the knee joint at the Battle of Amelia Courthouse.

Private Hiram Williams (top) had his leg and foot amputated due to a shell wound sustained in the Battle of Appomattox Court House. Above, J.H. Jaycox from the New York volunteers had five-and-a-half inches of his humerus removed.

Private Francis Furber (top) had the lower third of his humerus removed, while above, Private Robert Fryer had his third, fourth and fifth fingers cut off following the Battle of Hatcher’s Run, Virginia.

 

 Top, Private Jo. F. Ames was wounded at the Battle of Gravelly Run, Virginia on 31 March 1985. He required a ligation – the tying off – of a main artery in his neck which supplies blood to the head. Pictured above is Private John Trombley, from the Michigan Volunteers, who had his humerus removed following the Battle of Wilderness.

 Top, Sergeant Hector Sears from the Ohio Volunteers, was another to have six inches of his humerus removed. Above, an unidentified man poses showing a long scar running down his upper arm.

-Daily Mail