Civil War Medicine (and Writing)

Civil War Phrenological Profiles #1 - Abraham Lincoln - "The Face of a Well-Meaning Man"

2009-12-17T17:13:00.000-08:00

I'm pleased to continue my series on the origins and popularity of phrenology in the 19th century, especially during the Civil War. For a refresher, see Part I (Origins) and Part II (Americanizing Phrenology).

This post also introduces a new feature of the blog, in which I'll include engravings and extended excerpts of text from the phrenological profiles of leading wartime figures, as published in the American Phrenological Journal, a very popular feature of the day, and mnay of which I have in my own collection.

We begin with the central figure, Abraham Lincoln! This profile actually appeared in the October 1864 issue (it was a monthly), just before that year's elections. Indeed, the editors began with the following disclaimer:

"PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES - It is our intention to publish from time to time, portraits and descriptions of the several candidates nominated by the different conventions. We disclaim any mere party bias, but profess loyalty to the Government, and to look on from a higher stand-point. We may therefore take an impartial view of the different would-be "public servants," and describe them accordingly. When the times comes for the people to choose their officers of trust on phrenological principles, we shall feel a deeper interest. Then we may hope to have, not a set of noisy, drunken rowdies to fill important posts - but capable and honest men. Then we shall have in each department "THE RIGHT MAN IN THE RIGHT PLACE."

Lincolns' profile then begins with his physiognomy:

"Our portrait of Mr. Lincoln is from a recent photograph of Brady, and was engraved for our use. If not perfect, it is at least one of the best yet produced. Mr. Lincoln has a tall, spare, large-boned frame, with which his thin, prominent features perfectly correspond, and a head above the average size, and most fully developed in the superior portions. The reader will observe how high, long, and broad the top-head is, and how honest, truthful, and decided the accompanying expression of countenance. Mr. Lincoln has not a poetical or a sentimental organization, nor has been training been such as to foster romance or fancy. His whole make-up denotes a matter-of-fact mind. Taken separately, his features are by no means classical, but, in combination, they assume a very decided and strongly marked expression of character. Nor is this the repulsive face his enemies would make it out to be. On the contrary, it will pass, in all coming time, for the face of a well-meaning man. Let us look again at this not unattractive face which has been so much uncaricatured and so often held up in the South as that of a monster to frighten foolish people."

They then continue with some specifics of his phrenology:

"...and a forehead ample, but not ponderous, the perceptive faculties - Individuality, Form, Size, Order, Eventuality, and Locality - being among the largest; hence he is very practical, and abounding in facts. There is more mechanism than music indicated; more prose than poetry...there is, in Mr. Lincoln's face, when listening to pleasant and animated discourse, a most interesting and winning smile, the whole countenance being lighted up with a sunny and benignant glow."

What of that head?

"The size of the head is in fair proportion to that of the body...It is not the head of a fighter, and he can take no pleasure in combat or contention. Were there more of the lion in him he would be less patient and more executive...Mr. Lincoln has been called a gorilla, a Nero, etc., when the truth is he is far more like a lamb or a Howard, both in feeling and in character. He is called "slow." He is certainly not fast, but he proceeds cautiously, leaving it for circumstances or for Providence to indicate the when and the way to act."

What of his religion?

"He has large Benevolence, large Concientiousness, and large Hope. His Veneration is full, and his Spirituality average. His religion consists more in kindness an justice than in faith, humility or devotion. To do right and to do good are his leading moral characteristics. Socially he is strong in his attachments, constant in his affections, and wel adapted to wedded life. Intellectually, there is nothing wanting. His Causality is full, Comparison is large, and nearly all the perceptives large and active."

An Endorsement?

"In conclusion: he is open to conviction, true to his higher nature, and goverened by moral principle rather than by policy. He is firm, persevering, generous, kind-hearted, affectionate, intelligent with a high degree of strong, practical common sense. If not great, is he not good? If not the best man for the situation, where can you find a better?"

More profiles are coming over the next several weeks, including Winfield Hancock, U.S. Grant, John Wilkes Booth, George Meade, and more!

Meanwhile, Back at the Ranch...

2009-12-09T19:05:00.000-08:00

A couple of months ago I announced that I had started another blog to chronicle the research and writing I was doing for my current book project, Notre Dame in the Civil War: Marching Onward to Victory (The History Press, 2010). Here's a quick run-down of my posts-to-date:

Enjoy and I'll post more links as they come!

All I Want for Christmas is...A CHEMISTRY SET!

2009-12-02T18:42:00.000-08:00

As a chemist by day and a historiographer by night (and sometimes by lunch!) I always like those opportunities when the two worlds "collide"!

Some of my very first writing projects were with a great industry magazine put out by the American Chemical Society called Today's Chemist. Unfortunately it is now defunct, but I did get the opportunity to write some article for them a few years back, including "An Officer and a Chemist" (about the early history of the chemistry department at West Point), "A Chemist is Loyal, Helpful..." (about the history of the chemistry merit badge), and - the topic of this post: "Today's Toy Becomes Tomorrow's Trade," about the history of chemistry sets!

One of the great parts about writing the article was soliciting stories from chemists about their memories of chemistry sets...read the article and you'll see!

I also like to collect chemistry set ephemera, including old advertisements, some of which you'll see below...these are from the 1910s to the 1940s.

Enjoy!

Medical Department #31 - A Dangerous Toy for Christmas (in 1865!)

2009-11-22T08:41:00.001-08:00

The newest installment of my "Medical Department" column in The Civil War News has a definite holiday twist! It's about a toy that was very popular in 1865 and - as -it turns out - also very dangerous! Enjoy!

WHAT’S UNDER THE TREE IN 1865? (HINT: IT’S DANGEROUS!)
By James M. Schmidt
The Civil War News – “Medical Department” – December 2009

“The chemical toy which is now sold largely in many shops in this city, at prices ranging from threepence to one shilling each, is composed of a highly dangerous and poisonous substance… The material is a doubleheaded poisoned arrow, for it contains two poisonous ingredients…either of which will kill.” – Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain, 1865

With the holiday season just around the corner, I recently pulled a favorite old book off the shelf: Philip Van Doren Stern’s The Civil War Christmas Album (New York: Hawthorn, 1961). Among the illustrations are two pages of period ads for holiday gifts; some are for soldiers, including an “army watch,” “Union playing cards,” and personalized badges. There are also advertisements for children, including musical boxes and one that really caught my eye: “Pharaoh’s Serpents.”

The ad intrigued me in no small part because I’m a chemist by day, and I wondered if they might be an ancestor, so to speak, of the “black snake” fireworks (that anyone can buy today) which – upon lighting – expel a snake-like ash. They are, indeed; but they are a very dangerous ancestor! The “Pharaoh’s Serpents” were very popular during the 1865 Christmas season in America, having appeared in Paris earlier that year. Unfortunately, the 1860’s version of “black snakes” was composed of a very dangerous substance – mercuric thiocyanate – and by January 1866, newspapers carried reports of poisonings and even deaths!

That mercuric thiocyanate produced the fascinating expanding effect had been known for decades. In 1821, as a young medical student, the famous chemist Friedrich Wohler wrote that upon heating, the chemical could be seen “winding out from itself…worm-like…to many times its former bulk.” It became a staple of laboratory demonstrations, and in mid-1865, Scientific American magazine reported that “a very ingenious Frenchman has adopted the plan of putting little cones of the substance into boxes, and selling them for a franc apiece.” They soon became popular throughout Europe and – not surprisingly - appeared in America in time for the Christmas season in 1865.

As early as November 1865, however, scientists were warning the public of the possible dangers of the popular toy. The Lancet - the leading medical journal in Great Britain – described the chemical components of the toy, and declared:

“It is very necessary that persons with delicate lungs, or suffering from any disease of those organs, should be most careful not to inhale the products of the combustion of the “serpents' eggs”; and in all cases great care should be taken that the room in which these toys are burned be freely ventilated. So satisfied are the authorities in Prussia of their deleterious properties, that the Government has forbidden their sale except by persons who are specially authorized to sell poisons.”

At about the same time, English poet Charles Tennyson Turner - brother to the British poet laureate, Alfred, Lord Tennyson – teased his niece, Agnes, upon receipt of one of the toys, also hinting at their danger:

“I return you in a manner good for evil, viz., two respectable sonnets…in return for a poisonous serpent, for this Pharaoh's Serpent has got into the newspapers… and is represented as very dangerous for children and even adults. It is composed of the most deleterious material, and, moreover, looks like a sweetmeat, and whether burnt or inadvertently eaten by a hapless bairn, will work its woe. We have not tried it yet, partly because we thought a tiny or two of our village might like to see it. But we shall give it, knowing its awful character, in private and with precautions. What do you mean, you apparently harmless female hobble-de-hoy, by sending down to our unsophisticated village this fragment of ancient Egypt! Your horned poppy and shingle-grown nightshade are better.”

A humorous incident, reported in newspapers across the country in spring 1866, occurred when a fidgety boy in Quincy, Illinois, played with the toy in an unlikely place:

“A young man named Spencer went to church…with some matches and some ‘eggs of Pharaoh’s serpents’ in his pocket. The sermon was long and the young man became uneasy; the matches were lighted by the friction caused by his movements, the eggs hatched, and the serpents made their way out of his pocket, wriggling and squirming with a great and disagreeable smell of burning chemicals. The congregation were greatly scandalized, and the clergyman considered the illustration of his denunciations of the wicked a very feeble one.”

But all was not fun-and-games. Other papers carried a report on a terrible incident in which three men were killed in London, “while engaged in the manufacture of so-called ‘Pharaoh’s serpents,’ the composition having exploded.” At about the same time, The Boston Medical and Surgical Journal published descriptions of two case studies; in one, a woman presented herself with “eruptions” on her face and body, which the examining surgeon attributed to the gases from the “Pharaoh’s serpents” with which she had been playing.

In the other case, a woman arrived at Massachusetts General Hospital with similar skin eruptions. The journal reported that her son, “had broken up several of these ‘eggs’ in his pocket and had handled the fragments freely. She had mended his pockets the night before the eruption showed itself, and had removed the debris with her fingers without washing her hands before going to bed.” The doctor further declared that “violent inflammation of the lungs had ensued in one case after inhalation of the vapor arising from the combustion of these little toys, and that in Europe several cases of poisoning had occurred from eating them by mistake for bonbons.”

Like many “must have” gifts, the fascination with “Pharaoh’s serpents” began to wane by the next holiday season, due in no small part to reports of the dangers in playing with them. Other toys – many of them chemical tricks – were popular by Christmas in 1866, including “magic photographs,” “rainbow bubbles,” “Japanese fireworks,” and “crocodiles’ tears,” which consisted of potassium in a soluble casing that blazed when thrown into water.

Today’s “black snakes” are made of safer materials and continue to entertain (in fact, people began to suggest safer alternatives in 1866). Still, the 1865 toy left an interesting social, scientific, and medical legacy.

"After Action Report" - McHenry County (IL) Civil War Symposium!

2009-11-16T15:43:00.000-08:00

I had the great privilege of being invited to speak at the 2009 Fall Civil War Symposium put on by the great folks at the McHenry County (IL) Civil War Round Table (CWRT). The event was this past Saturday (14 November) and I had a wonderful time. As I've mentioned on the blog before, it was all the more enjoyable because it was my "hometown" CWRT when I lived in the far NW Chicago 'burbs, and it was just great to get to see some old friends!

I spoke first about my book, Lincoln's Labels, and got some great questions!

Next up was Fr. Robert J. Miller to talk about Jesuit chaplains during the war, whom he termed "God's Storm Troopers." It was a great lecture. I've been looking forward to meeting Fr. Miller ever since I saw his Abraham Lincoln Book Shop "Virtual Book Signing" event (see link here and go to 20 October 2007 event) about his book, Both Prayed to the Same God: Religion and Faith in the American Civil War. He also has a website.

After a nice lunch, next up was Dr. Richard Zevitz, a professor in the Department of Cultural and Social Sciences at Marquette University in Milwaukee, WI. He is the author of several publications relating to the criminal justice field. Dr. Zevitz discussed the conditions that existed in most prison camps, the treatment of prisoners, and the justification used by the Union and Confederate governments to justify such treatment. He specifically discussed the POW camp at Camp randall in Madison, WI, which was actually a new subject to me.

Finally, Robert Girardi talked about "General Impressions," that is, what generals had to say about other generals, and many times it was pithy, biting, and uncomplimentary, which maf\de it all the more fun! Robert Girardi is a past president of the Civil War Table of Chicago (as is Fr. Miller!), and currently serves as the Vice President of the Salt Creek Round Table. He earned his MA in Public History at Loyola University of Chicago, and he has had a life long fascination with the Civil War. He is a well travelled speaker and audiences around the United States have experienced his presentations. Girardi has authored or edited seven books and is currently employed as a homicide detective by the Chicago Police Department. You can learn more about Robert and his books at his website.

Also there was Civil War bookseller Bob Murphy, who was kind enough to stock up on my books, as well as Fr. Miller's and Robert Girardi's several books.

It was a great time. Now it's on with the rest of my 2009-2010 speaking schedule! Austin, Youngstown, and Minneapolis, here I come!

A Primer on Phrenology in the Civil War - Part II - "Americanizing" Phrenology

2009-11-11T19:29:00.000-08:00

I'm pleased to continue my "primer" on the origins and popularity of phrenology in the 19th century, especially during the Civil War...see Part I (Origins).

Americanizing Phrenology

In 1832, Spurzheim began a lecture tour in the United States. Although phrenology was not entirely new to Americans, Spurzheim’s tour sparked an interest that spread very rapidly.

Indeed – phrenology had a special appeal to Americans:

Jacksonian America was ripe for ideas such as Spurzheim’s which provided a scientific – and (apparently) factual – basis for making each person the master of their own destiny. The individual was perfectable and phrenology offered a combination of the practical and ideal which could also lead to the perfection of society. Furthermore, it valued initiative and perseverance more than the preferential treatment that advanced the lives and careers of the privileged.

Spurzheim’s lectures became a national phenomenon but he died in Boston only two months into his American tour, and phrenology had lost one of its most effective missionaries.

However, others were there to take his place:

The Fowlers

Orson S. Fowler was studying for the ministry at Amherst and by 1832 was obsessed with Spurzheim’s theories of phrenology. A fellow student – Henry Ward Beecher – engaged in a friendly public debate with Fowler over the merits of phrenology, Beecher taking the negative.

Although Beecher won the debate, he startled his audience by immediately proclaiming himself a convert to phrenology.

Fired by his own interest and taking advantage of the nation’s interest, Fowler quit his religious studies and devoted his energies to crusading for phrenology. In a short time, he drew in his family as associates, includinghis brother, Lorenzo; his sister, Charlotte; Lorenzo’s wife, Lydia (Folger) and Charlotte’s husband, Samuel Wells. Their business – Fowler and Wells – became quite famous.

Due to their energies – and their business – they reduced the emphasis on the theoretical aspects of phrenology and introduced what they called “practical phrenology” – a science that reached out to everyone at all levels of society; not just the elite.

They took over the the American Phrenological Journal – which became the official organ of the movement. They also published many books, including The Self-Instructor (full text of 1857 edition here) – an instructional guide for the subject to use as a program of self-analysis and improvement. Each copy was designed as a self-contained introduction to phrenology, complete with philosophy, definitions, explanatory instructions, charts, diagrams, and illustrations. They also established a brick-and-mortar emporium – the “phrenological cabinet” – which became an essential sightseeing destination in New York, second only to PT Barnum’s museum.

Through their publications and instruction, they also gave birth to a large number of itinerant practical phrenologists. One authority has calculated that about 20,000 such phrenologists plied their trade in the 19th century. Whatever their number, they certainly visited almost every town, village, and city in the Union. One claimed that he had examined over 200,000 heads in his career.

One such phrenologist visited the hometown of Ulysses Grant when he was just a child, and his father remembered:

“When Ulysses was about twelve years old, the first phrenologist who ever made his appearance in that part of the country came to our neighborhood…they brought Ulysses forward to have his head examined. He felt it all over for some time, saying to himself: ‘It is no very common head! It is an extraordinary head!’…[a doctor] broke in with the inquiry whether the boy would be likely to distinguish himself in mathematics. ‘Yes,’ said the phrenologist, ‘in mathematics or anything else. It would not be strange if we should see him President of

Of course, Grant was an unknown at that time, but other more famous personalities did not just have their heads examined, but also accepted the science:

Louisa May Alcott, Susan B Anthony, John James Audubon, Charlotte Bronte, Charles Dickens, Winslow Homer, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Julia Ward Howe, Herman Melville, Edgar Allen Poe, Queen Victoria, and many others. Some even became models of certain faculties in the Self-Instructor. For example, Poe was the representative of “mental or nervous temperament”; Dickens displayed a large “organ of language”

Walt Whitman was associated with Fowler and Wells as early as 1846 and for a brief time was employed as a staff writer at the Journal. Whitman was read by Lorenzo Fowler in 1849 and it had a profound impact on the poet. He kept the chart until the end of his life and had it published several times. It was Fowler and Wells that published the first edition of Whitman’s famous collection, Leaves of Grass, which many see as something as a gospel of phrenology.

Lorenzo also did a reading of a then-15 year old Clara Barton. He boarded with the Barton during a lecture tour and Mrs. Barton took advantage of the stay to ask for advice on her hyper-sensitive and shy daughter, Clara. Lorenzo’s advice was to “Throw responsibility on her; she will never assert for herself – she will suffer wrong first – but for others she will be perfectly fearless.”

Coming soon - Part III - Phrenology and the Civil War!

A World War I Letter from the "Schmidt Collection" to Commemorate Veteran's Day

2009-11-10T17:37:00.000-08:00

A happy Veteran's Day to all our servicemen and women and veterans out there, including my Grandpa Alvin Weigel (WWII, 70th ID, 725th FAB, Battery B), my uncles (Air Force and Army, Vietnam and Cold War), my daughter's boyfriend, John (Marines, Iraq), and everyone else in my family who has served with honor.

Below is an interesting (and even cheeky!) letter from small (but growing!) collection of ephemera, written by an American doughboy on his way across the Atlantic. Enjoy!

(Undated)

(It's hard to put a heading to this letter because we don't stay in the same place - but I'll try)

On a large body of water (Name concealed by camouflage)

Location:

65(degrees) Fahrenheit
20(degrees) Centigrade

Going East

Time: (10 o'clock when I looked but it may be 12 now for all I know the way time flies on this boat. I hope it don;t change at meal time any more!)

Now I calculate it's nigh time to start the letter

Dear Roberta:

Please pardon the junk up above. I am the company censor, not only reading the letters of 250 men, but also my own. So I like to vary them a little to break the monotony. I may be conceited but I really enjoy reading my own letters most.

In fact what I read is mostly my own letters for part of my men can't read or write, you know. Rather fortunate for the censor. Then besides I have cautioned my men so carefully that when they do write they don’t write much. Also fortunate for me. Oh! Fine.

Oh yes! One thing I forgot in the heading - the date. But it is not best for official censors to give dates. I don’t know about making them. I can't talk French anyway. But my acting first sergeant taught it 4 years so I shall use him as my interpreter.

I still have your good letter which I answered from the guard house but I'll answer it again. It's the one with the touching close - the bit of verse about Lizzie. No, your hopes were realized. I had not heard it before.

I wonder if you are still keeping house. I had a hunch that your mother had gone to camp with Zibby and would spend the summer there. I would, had I been in her place. Knowing that the Gilmore family was in such good hands, she need not have worried. Probably by the time this letter reaches you, your mother and Zibby will have returned. I make a guess that this letter reaches you August 20th. See how close I come to it. So if your mother is back by then you will have plenty of time. To get ready for school. You only need a few days anyway. A sophomore needs less preparation anyway. Duck a few freshmen for me this fall, if you please.

Speaking of ducking, we have gotten along very nicely on our trip so far. This finishes our eleventh day. Thanks to the U.S. Navy we have not had to resort to swimming. Some of these perfect days with the sea very clam, I would not mind going for a row in one of these boats we have strung along the upper deck, or take a ride on a raft. But I'd hate to have to get up at midnight and take a dive, all for the sake of some sub captain getting an iron cross. I guess there are more of them getting wooden crosses than iron ones these days. The more the merrier.

When I wrote to Hazel I raved a lot about the wonderful U.S. Navy. I do in all my letters. So I won’t rave about it so much to you. All that I will say is that I am strong for that service. I've seen some mighty impressive things on this trip. There is one feeling that I do get from watching these ships, day by day, forging steady Eastward. That is the feeling that the Huns, with all their system and fiendish methods, can never stop the U.S. It's a confidence that you can't get in the training camps back home. And it's a confidence that will probably be greatly increased after we land in France and see the preparations our country has made and the work they are doing. That's the only time I feel serious, Roberta.

I am enjoying this trip so much that I sometimes find it hard to realize that there is a war ahead. I thought of it tonite while we sat at supper. All the navy officers, from lieutenants to senior grade to boatswain, chatting gayly, and we army officers feeling just as good but sobered a little by some wonderful old pieces that the steward was turning off on the Victrola. It seemed to me then sort of like a dream - until the sailors came in, making their rounds of closing the portholes to shut off all light. Then I came to earth again.

The time was moved up to that of our final destination today and it gave us a long evening. We are now 5 hours ahead of New York time, so the sun was unusually high at 7:30 when the boatswain's mate came swinging down the deck, blowing his queer sounding whistle and in a deep voice announcing - "There will be no more smoking above decks." These sailors, especially the old timers, are a great bunch. Most of the lads here are young and fairly new to the service. They are very optimistic and expect the war to be over very soon. So do the officers, except the captain, by rank a lieutenant commander, who thinks it will be six years. I hope he is far sighted (meant literally).

The time has gone by fast for me on this trip. I sure have enjoyed it. Have had more leisure time than I will have for some time after I land.

Our YMCA secretary on board is an interesting man. He is Prof. Lockwood , a teacher of English Lit. He was at Allegheny College for 15 years and claimed he is familiar with all of western Pennsylvania. Says he has made commencement addresses and prohibition talks and Teddy Roosevelt speeches all thru those counties. Did ever hear of him or hear him?

Have you people been to Pumpkintown yet? I'm wondering if by chance I shall see Clare over here. I had it sort of figured out that Hazel's brother might be somewhere in this convoy but he may have gone last week. Oh it’s a big world. Oh! Fine! Give my best regards to your father and to Hugh and Zibo and Gertrude and Franklin.

Sincerely,

Howard
Censored HZ Brant, 2nd Lt

A Primer on Phrenology in the Civil War - Part I - Origins

2009-11-08T11:03:00.001-08:00

Last month, at the Seventeenth Annual Conference on Civil War Medicine sponsored by the National Museum of Civil War Medicine, I had the great privilege and pleasure of delivering a lecture entitled, "It's All in Your Head: Phrenology and the American Civil War."

One of the best sources to learn about phrenology and the Civil War is the wartime pages of the American Phrenological Journal. Indeed, phrenology enjoyed its greatest popularity during the Civil War era, and during the war, the Journal published phrenological profiles of the senior members of the Union officer corps as well as leading politicians, commenting on how they manifested (or didn’t) the more than two dozen “organs” of the brain, such as courage, pride, vanity, perseverance, guile, etc.

I have many wartime issues of the Journal in my own collection, and over the next few weeks will be sharing some of these phrenological "readings" here on the blog. In advance of that, though, I thought a quick primer on 19th-century-phrenology would be helpful:

Definitions of Phrenology

Proper = A theory stating that the personality traits of a person can be derived from the shape of the skull; from φρήν, phrēn, "mind“and λόγος, logos, "knowledge."

Humorous = "The science of picking the pocket through the scalp. It consists in locating and exploiting the organ that one is a dupe with." - The Devil’s Dictionary, Ambrose Bierce

Basic Principles of Phrenology

1) The brain is the organ of the mind (just as the ear is the organ of hearing)
2) The mind is not homogenous or a single unit, bur rather, is made up of independent and identifiable “faculties” – i.e. – individual capacities or character traits
3) These faculties lie at certain sites – or organs – of the brain – e.g., the organ for the faculty of “Benevolence” is located in the high frontal area of the brain
4) The degree of development of these organs affects the size and shape of corresponding areas of the skull

Therefore, someone who knows how to “read” the cranium according to these tenets has an instant and intimate knowledge of the person they are examining. The most exciting part of phrenology, though, was that one could “exercise” certain organs to increase or decrease a particular faculty, thereby perfecting oneself – and society.

Origins

Phrenology was the creation of Franz Joseph Gall, a prominent physician and physiologist in Vienna, Austria. In his student days, he began to suspect that correlations existed between certain features of people’s heads and their personalities and abilities.

From his observation, Gall gradually developed the science of phrenology and the basic principles described above. In 1802, the Austrian government condemned Gall’s ideas as atheistic, materialistic, and morally subversive, and forbade him from continuing with his lectures in the country. Thus effectively exiled, Gall embarked on a European lecture tour and gained an international reputation, eventually settling in Paris.

He brought with him a student and fellow lecturer: Johann Gaspar Spurzheim. Gall and Spurzheim began to go in different directions with their thoughts on phrenology. Gall’s view of mankind was rather aristocratic and pessimistic and he saw phrenology as a useful tool of the powerful elite who could learn to use phrenology as a tool to rule others more effectively.

Spurzheim, on the other hand, was more philosophical and saw phrenology as a social philosophy that served as a foundation to empower the entire human race – to perfect itself and its institutions. As such, Spurzheim was a new breed: more than a lecturer – indeed, a missionary, crusader, and apostle.

Spurzheim began his work by going to Scotland and England where he received a polite but not especially enthusiastic reception. However –a young lawyer – George Comb – became a dedicated convert and established a society. He was very dedicated and carried the message of phrenology throughout Europe and America. Indeed, when Spurzheim dies in 1832, Comb took his place as the world’s most prominent theoretical proponent of phrenology. By the late 1820s, many phrenological societies had been formed in various parts of Great Britain and they published widely and prolifically, resulting in a more positive reputation for phrenology in Britain, if not wholeheartedly popular.

One of the problems was that the science – such as it was – remained too theoretical to garner much ground or appeal, and the societies were small and served little function except as upper-class debating societies which matched Gall’s model more than that of Spurzheim. The question then, was how to awaken a more general interest and application to achieve a more widespread and popular base.

The answer to that questions comes soon in Part II - Americanizing Phrenology!

Touch the Elbow Reviews "Lincoln's Labels" and Interviews the Author (Me!)

2009-10-29T18:04:00.001-07:00

I want to thank Donald Thompson for posting a very kind (and very interesting!) review of my first book, Lincoln's Labels: America's Best Known Brands and the Civil War, on his popular "Touch the Elbow" blog this week.

Excerpts:

"What is less familiar are the efforts undertaken by privately owned companies to ramp up and quickly meet the needs of Union troops by providing...all that makes an army go. James Schmidt tells that story and tells it well, by focusing on select businesses that not only aided the war effort, added to their own profit margin, but still survive into the twenty-first century...

"I could go on and on, but why spoil the fun and surprises that come from reading a book that is not only interesting, but so chock full of well researched facts and subplots it'll have you begging for a sequel. It'll also have you wondering why no one thought to write this story before. I know I felt that way."

Donald followed up the review with an interview with questions that were insightful and fun! Read the 2-part interview here and here.

Thanks, Donald!

By the way, while you are at "Touch the Elbow," also take time to read his great interview with Tom McGrath, author of Shepherdstown: Last Clash of the Antietam Campaign.

Donald Thompson is also a co-author of Civil War Research Guide: A Guide for Researching Your Civil War Ancestor.

"Small time, but in that small greatly lived This star..."

2009-10-19T20:10:00.000-07:00

"Small time, but in that small most greatly lived
This star of England..."

So wrote Shakespeare in his Epilogue of Henry V. The same can be said of Col. Ulric Dahlgren, the subject of Eric Wittenberg's most recent book, Like a Meteor Blazing Brightly: The Short but Controversial Life of Colonel Ulric Dahlgren (Edinborough Press, 2009).

First, as a disclaimer, I'd suggest that it is hard for many people to provide a completely unbiased review of one of Eric Wittenberg's books in that there are many people who have benefited from his advice and scholarship...I happily count myself among that group, having received generous amounts of both. But I'll do my best.

Eric Wittenberg's Like a Meteor... is a tremendous story of natural qualities of daring, leadership, acumen, and other admirable qualities in a very young man: Ulric Dahlgren. He ably charts Dahlgren's life from restless youth to purpose as soldier in defense of the Union during the Civil War. He also describes the unprecedented access that Dahlgren had to the highest levels of political and military power in the country. The narrative drives towards the climax of Dahlgren's death on a raid into Richmond and the subsequent controversy surrounding papers found on his body. It may be that the casual Civil War enthusiast is not already aware of the so-called Kilptarick-Dahlgren raid, but once they are, they'll be compelled to learn more about this interesting story written by Eric Wittenberg and backed by very good research.

Some high points:

1) A good part of Dahlgren's early career as a soldier was under the command of Major General Franz Sigel. Sigel is often derided in the Civil War literature, but I find that Wittenberg treats him quite fairly.

2) The Gettysburg chapter - and Dahlgren's thrilling exploits in the campaign - are worth the price of the book. Wittenberg explains very well the importance of critical enemy intelligence that Dahlgren had a part in securing.

3) The Dahlgren Raid, of course, is well-covered. The loss and recovery of Dahlgren's body is an amazing story and is told very well by Wittenberg.

4) As if the Gettysburg chapter wasn't enough, Wittenberg "closes the deal" by providing a very honest assessment of Dahlgren's achievements, faults, vices, admirable qualities, lost promise, and more in the final chapter.

5) Excerpts from the letters and diaries of the younger and elder Dahlgren's are used to great effect throughout the book.

I have only a few critical comments, though they do not detract from my overall positive assessment of the book and a recommendation to read it:

1) I wish he would have developed a bit more the mistakes in Dahlgren's Fredericksburg Campaign exploits; he hints at them, it seems, but doesn't really develop a case for how detrimental they were.

2) I was somewhat put off by Wittenberg's quoting often from a sermon and memoir written by Dahlgren's minister and father after the death of the young hero as they are by definition hagiographic; that said, it's important to note that both Rev. Sunderland, and of course the elder Dahlgren, had been acquainted with "Ully" since his birth, and when they comment on his younger days, they compliment the text pretty well.

3) I wish the book had a closer touch of a copyeditor's hand...though not intrusive, the typos, etc., (esp. in the last chapters) could become distracting.

Nevertheless, this is a very fitting - and very honest - biography of an important personality and Mr. Wittenberg is to be congratulated.

Medical Department #30 - "Faces" (Civil War Surgical Photography)

2009-10-13T16:51:00.000-07:00

Here is another "oldie-but-goodie" from my archive of Civil War News "Medical Department" columns. Enjoy!

"FACES"
by James M. Schmidt
The Civil War News
“Medical Department” – May 2001

In Josephine Tey’s classic novel, The Daughter of Time, detective Alan Grant solicited his visitors for opinions on the portrait of King Richard III that rested by his hospital bed. One thought it the face of a saint, another a judge. Of all the opinions, Grant felt that the hospital matron came nearest the truth: a face "full of the most dreadful suffering."

Blair Rogers, M.D., gives a rare glimpse into the faces and suffering of the Civil War’s wounded soldiers in his recent article, "Reed B. Bontecou, M.D. - His Role in Civil War Surgery and Medical Photography" (Aesthetic Plastic Surgery, 2000, Vol. 24, pp. 114-129).

In the article, Dr. Rogers (once managing editor of the journal and now deceased), describes the career of Bontecou, a New York surgeon who contributed greatly to the use of photography to document Civil War casualties. The most interesting, and emotive, part of the article is the inclusion of more than forty photographs of wounded soldiers taken by Bontecou and his staff.

Reed Bontecou was born April 22, 1824, in Troy, New York. During his schooling, he demonstrated an exceptional aptitude for the natural sciences. His work was so expertly done that he was often entrusted with the teaching of botany and zoology, even though a student himself.

In 1842, Bontecou began the study of medicine under the tutelage of several prominent Troy physicians and surgeons, and from 1844 to 1845, he attended lectures at the Medical Department of the University of the City of New York. He finished his studies in Vermont at Castleton Medical College, receiving his M.D. in 1847.

When the Civil War broke out, Bontecou was commissioned a surgeon with one of the Union infantry regiments supplied by the Troy area, and performed his first field operations after the Battle of Big Bethel in June 1861. He was present at the famous battle between the Monitor and the Virginia, the capture of Yorktown, and was placed in charge of hospitals at Fortress Monroe, Virginia, and Beaufort, South Carolina.

In late 1863, Bontecou was ordered to Washington, DC, to take charge of the Harewood General Hospital, and was on duty there until it was disbanded in 1866. It was during his tenure at Harewood that he made his most important contribution: he is credited with being the largest contributor to the Army Medical Museum. The thousands of specimens and hundreds of photographs that Bontecou contributed became a major foundation of the museum, which subsequently developed into the National Museum of Health and Medicine (NMHM), in Washington, DC.

Bontecou’s photographs, however, had a more immediate impact than the museum’s mission. Dr. Rogers credits him with being the first to apply photography for clinical purposes, showing the condition of the wounded when the soldiers were first admitted to the hospital, and many times when they were discharged. Indeed, the photographs were invaluable in qualifying disabled veterans for pension payments.

Forty of the photographs taken under Bontecou’s direction are reproduced in the article; four per page over ten pages. Each is identified with the name of the subject, their state, and the nature of the wound. The photographs are divided almost equally among injuries to the head and face, the arms, the abdomen, and the hip or legs.

Dr. Rogers offers little comment on the individual photographs, even though they make up the bulk of the article. Instead, he invites the reader to study them carefully and reflect on the emotions they elicit. What is most immediate is a sense of the personal tragedy facing these men: going home blind, crippled, or deformed.

The article is actually the third in a series describing the earliest results of mid-19th century reconstructive surgery performed by pioneering surgeons, especially on wounded Civil War soldiers. The first was "The First Pre- and Post-Operative Photographs of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery: Contributions of Gurdon Buck (1807-1877)" (Aesthetic Plastic Surgery, 1991, Vol. 15, pp. 19-33). In it he describes the contributions of Buck, a New York City surgeon, and a pioneer in reconstructive surgery. The article includes more than thirty "before and after" photographs showing the results of these early attempts to improve the appearance of patients with severe injuries or birth defects. A few of the photographs are of wounded soldiers.

The second article, "The First Civil War Photographs of Soldiers with Facial Wounds" (Aesthetic Plastic Surgery, 1995, Vol. 19, pp. 269-283), includes photographs of nearly forty wounded soldiers, all with scalp or facial injuries, many of which had not been published since the Civil War. All three articles are superbly documented, offering opportunities for further research and study.

What did you see the last time you studied a photograph of a Civil War soldier (or citizen)? Bravery? Fear? Or just a face "full of the most dreadful suffering?"

A New Book Project...and a New Blog!

2009-10-06T19:36:00.000-07:00

I'm pleased to announce that I have signed a contract with The History Press (Charleston SC) for a book on the interesting and important role that the University of Notre Dame played in the American Civil War! Tentatively titled: Notre Dame in the Civil War: Marching Onward to Victory, the book is scheduled to be published in late 2010!

You'll be able to follow along with my research and writing (and maybe even help me!) by following my new blog, Notre Dame in the Civil War: Marching Onward to Victory! Add it to your blogrolls and tell your friends (especially if they are Notre Dame fans!).

Here is a synopsis:

Even the casual Civil War enthusiast can probably point to one or more colleges or universities that played a role in the American Civil War; a few that come to mind are the graduates of West Point and the Naval Academy who fought on both sides; the 20th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment, also known as the “Harvard Regiment,” as it was largely under the leadership of young Harvard grads; and Company A of the 11th Mississippi Infantry Regiment, also known as the “University Greys,” composed entirely of students from Ole Miss at Oxford.

Few institutions of higher education, though, can boast of the sacrifices made by the University of Notre Dame (UND). Over the course of four years, Notre Dame gave freely of its faculty and students as soldiers, sent its priests to the camps and battlefields as chaplains, and its sisters to hospitals as nurses. Though far from the battlefields itself, the war was still ever-present on campus, as Notre Dame witnessed fisticuffs among the student body, provided a home to the children of a famous general, responded to political harassment, and tried to keep at least some of its community out of the fray. When the war was over, a proud Notre Dame welcomed back several bona fide war heroes, mourned the loss of some who made the ultimate sacrifice, and became home to a unique veteran's organization.

While sketches of UND’s role in the Civil War have appeared in published school histories, memoirs, and/or biographies, they are usually brief or limited to one personality or aspect of the experience. Notre Dame in the Civil War: Marching Onward to Victory will be the first book to incorporate this interesting story into a comprehensive and unified narrative.

A number of personalities will be introduced and their roles discussed, but a few deserve special mention:Fr. Edward Sorin, the founder of UND, who shepherded the school through its wartime crises; Orville T. Chamberlain, a UND student who rose through the ranks of the 74th Indiana – from private to captain - and earned the Medal of Honor for bravery under fire at Chickamauga; Frs. William Corby and Peter Cooney, two UND priests who served with special distinction as chaplains in the war, one in the east and one in the west; the family of William T. Sherman, whose children attended UND during the war; and Schuyler Colfax, an Indiana Congressman seeking re-election during the war, who put political pressure on UND.

At the same time, larger issues – anti-Catholic prejudice, the draft, regional politics, the general experience of institutions of higher education in the period, etc. – will be addressed.

In addition to memoirs, school histories, biographies, and period newspapers, the book will rely heavily on material – much of it unexplored and unpublished - in the UND archives.

Civil War Medicine Conference Wrap-Up!

2009-10-05T16:54:00.000-07:00

This past weekend (Oct 2-4, 2009), I had the great pleasure and privilege of attending the 17th Annual Conference on Civil War Medicine organized by the National Museum of Civil War Medicine and held in Towson, MD. I had a terrific time and thought I would provide a summary of the weekend in this post.

It was all the more special for me as I got to see old friends, meet some new ones, give one of the lectures, and launch a new book!

On Friday afternoon, there were two very good lectures on prison conditions and medicine practiced in the prisons, with one speaker concentrating especially on Fort Delaware; a terrific lecture about John Allan Wyeth, M.D., a Confederate soldier who had a very distinguished post-war career in medicine. The last lecture was by C. Craig Caba, Chief Curator of the outstanding "J. Howard Wert Gettysburg collection." He brought with him a wonderful selection of Revolutionary War- era and Civil War-era medical artifacts, some of which are shown in the photographs here.

Friday evening's social hour was a special event as co-editor Guy Hasegawa, Pharm.D., and I were able to launch our new book, Years of Change and Suffering: Modern Perspectives on Civil War Medicine! It wasliterally "hot off the press" having shipped from the printer just the night before! I also signed copies of my first book, Lincoln's Labels: America's Best known Brands and the Civil War, now available in softcover!

On Saturday, Dr. Stephen Goldman gave an amazing lecture on post-traumatic stress syndrome in Civil War veterans, made some excellent points about the mental health challenges beings faced by soldiers, sailors, Marines, and airmen in Iraq and Afghanistan (they are not the same challenges in the two countries or among the various services), and - most important - discussed the ethical responsibilities of psychiatrists-as-historians (and vice versa). I followed with a well-received (thankfully!) talk on phrenology and the Civil War. The final lectures were on Civil War hospitals in "Mountain Maryland" and artificial eyes in the Civil War era, given byMike Hughes, one of a small group of practicing ocularists in the United States, that is - people who specialize in making and fitting artificial eyes!

Saturday afternoon was spent on a bus tour taking us to the National Museum of Dentistry in downtown Baltimore and then a short visit to Federal Hill, overlooking Baltimore Harbor.

Sunday saw three more lectures: a wonderful talk give by Bonnie Brice Dewhart about the medical education of her relative, Walter Brice, M.D., who served as asurgeon with 9th Tennessee Infantry, CSA...My good friend and collaborator Guy Hasegawa, Pharm D., gave an excellent presentation on "Preparation and Dispensing of Civil War Prescriptions" which included photographs from items in his collection and excellent advice for some of the living historians in the audience. Another lecture by Robert E. Mallin on women's health in the mid-19th century was also very interesting.

I can't say enough about the dedication of the staff at the National Museum of Civil War Medicine. They are all wonderful, from founder Dordon Dammann, D.D.S., to Executive Director and Deputy Director George Wunderlich and Karen Thomassen, to everyone else.

If you are not a member of the NMCWM, you should be!

"War Like the Thunderbolt" - HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

2009-09-28T16:28:00.000-07:00

When a writer's debut book (or the first book you've read, anyway) makes an impression on you, you naturally look forward to their next one. Recently, I've felt that way about nonfiction authors like James D. Hornfischer, whose Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors had me waiting (not so patiently) for his Ship of Ghosts. Likewise, novelists like Matthew Pearl and Louis Bayard - with debuts like The Dante Club and Mr. Timothy had me looking forward to their follow-ups The Poe Shadow and The Pale Blue Eye.

So it was with my anticipation of Russell S. Bonds' War Like the Thunderbolt: The Battle and Burning of Atlanta, after reading his first book, Stealing the General: The Great Locomotive Chase and the First Medal of Honor.

I recently finished War Like the Thunderbolt and all I can say is: WONDERFUL!

A quick - but important - disclaimer: I'm not your ordinary reader of Russell Bonds' books. He has been a kind and faithful correspondent for a few years now and has provided important advice for my own research and writing. Mr. Bonds was kind enough to mention me in the Acknowledgments of Thunderbolt, for pointing him to some sources relative to medical aspects of the book. With the disclaimer aside, I can still safely declare that Thunderbolt is indeed...WONDERFUL!

In many ways, Thunderbolt is a fitting sequel to Stealing the General, in no small part because the Georgia and Tennessee railroad networks are important strategic points in both books. As Atlanta played an important part in the trials of the raiders involved in the Great Locomotive Chase in Stealing the General, so is the city a very important player - a major "character," even - in Thunderbolt. Indeed, he begins the book by describing what most people (think they) know about the battle and burning of Atlanta: the dramatic burning scene in the film Gone With the Wind.

As for the battles of Atlanta, Bonds uses just the right amount of detail to avoid the minutiae that sometimes plagues battle narratives. Many people like the tactical detail, and that's fine. I don't have the patience for it. For my part, I very much enjoy small unit actions (company-level and smaller, even) when it comes to reading about WWII and other modern wars, but for the Civil War, brigade-level (and in the rare case, regimental-level) detail, suits me just fine. Thunderbolt mostly maintains this level, which - with excellent maps - makes following the battles easy, indeed.

Among the more interesting consideration to which he gives attention are the feuds - on both sides - engendered by petty arguments over promotion and rank, with generals resigning over the principle of "self-respect." The fact the resignations were almost uniformly accepted without reservation suggests that - in sports parlance - most of the resignations were "addition by subtraction."

If Bonds doesn't "rehabilitate" the wartime reputation of Confederate general John Bell Hood, he does treat him fairly, and makes a good case that he was not a "hard-fighting simpleton" but uses his orders and correspondence to prove otherwise.

Naturally, Union general William T. Sherman is also a major character and Bonds fairly - but thoroughly - assesses Sherman's decision-making in the expulsion of Atlanta's citizenry and the burning of the city.

The closing anecdote - which I won't give away - is easily the eeriest ending to any Civil War book I have ever read.

Well done, Russell Bonds, and I look forward to what comes next!

Civil War News Reviews Lincoln's Labels!

2009-09-22T17:51:00.000-07:00

I'm pleased to announce that The Civil War News published a very kind review of my first book, Lincoln's Labels: America's Best Known Brands and the Civil War, penned by Jeffrey D. Wert in the October 2009 issue, which will be in subscriber's hands soon!

It's all the more gratifying because Civil War News is where I got my writing "bona fides," as I've penned the "Medical Department" column on a regular basis since 2000! Kay and Pete Jorgensen - managing editor and publisher at CWN - have been extremely supportive of my writing and research efforts over the years, which I appreciate very much, indeed.

If you don't subscribe to The Civil War News, you should! You can learn how to get a sample issue here.

Excerpts:

"James M. Schmidt’s Lincoln’s Labels chronicles the roles of several renowned contemporary American corporations whose roots extended back to and even beyond the Civil War. But it was this conflict, as Schmidt writes, that significantly impacted the companies’ future success. The stories he recounts are fascinating and enlightening...

...Lincoln’s Labels is a solid work, well-researched and ably written. The subject is seldom addressed in most Civil War books, but the stories are worth retelling. This is a fine book and recommended for readers interested in aspects other than campaigns, battles, and military figures."

You can read the whole review here!

Thank You to Civil War News and Mr. Wert!

Read more reviews of Lincoln's Labels here:

Civil War Times magazine
Brett Schulte - TOCWOC
James Durney (also at TOCWOC!)
Rea Andrew Redd - The Civil War Librarian
Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
Andrew Wagenhoffer - Civil War Books and Authors
Michael Aubrecht - Pinstripe Press
Reader Testimonial
Advance Praise/Blurbs

Civil War Personals! (SWM Seeks...)

2009-09-08T18:45:00.000-07:00

I'm in the middle of a really interesting book, entitled Wanted-Correspondence: Women's Letters to a Union Soldier. The book is a collection of 150 letters written to soldier Edwin Lybarger (43rd Ohio Volunteer Infantry) from several different women who answered his "Wanted: Correspondence" personal advertisements placed in various newspapers.

I received the book as a kind gift from author Jennifer Wilke, who is Lybarger's great-grandaughter! Jennifer is working on a novel based on her ancestor's Civil War experiences, and you can learn more about it at her website and blog, where you can also learn more about - and see photographs of - Edwin Lybarger.

The book includes a well-written and interesting Introduction by Lucy E. Bailey, an assistant professor in the Women's Studies program at Oklahoma State University. She describes letter writing as important "war work" on the part of women during the war, and covers topics such as: the importance of letter-writing in the war, correspondence as "romantic work," the importance of exchanging photographs between men and women during the war, women and education in the mid-19th century, letter writing as education in itself, and Ohio during the Civil War.

I've included here some examples of "Wanted - Correspondence" advertisements.

The heartfelt letters to Edwin are mostly from women he knew (and one he would eventually marry), but Dr. Bailey discusses somewhat the risks that the female letter-writers took in sending correspondence, especially since they might be shared among other soldiers and gossip and rumor ensue. However, in my own research while reading the book, I think those risks were expressed very strongly by a Wisconsin officer who placed his own notice in the paper, warning women NOT to answer the ads:

Janesville (WI) Weekly Gazette - September 9, 1864, p. 17

Ladies, permit me to address a few lines to you through the Tribune, in regard to "correspondence" with soldiers and officers serving in the army of our country. We, the officers and soldiers of the army, need and deserve the sympathy and counsel of our mothers, wives, sisters, and lady acquaintances from the dear homes which we have left behind. From these, letters are always acceptable, and are read with a deep interest; and there is always a deep feeling of respect for the writers, and the dear old homes from whence they come. There is no levity or expression of vulgar thought, or lewd illusions to the writers of them - holy home thoughts of the dear ones whome we loved so well; and often have I seen the bronzed face of the veteran, as well as the fair cheek of the young recruit, flushed with manly pride, or over them flowing tears that spoke louder than words of true hearts and brave men. Not so when your cold, insipid, and stale letters are received. There is generally a shout of derision from many voices as your carfeully written nonsense is retailed out to a corporal, sergeant, private or maybe a negro servant; and could you hear their vulgar wit and coarse expressions over your letters, and at your expense, I think ladies, you would answer no more 'Wanted Correspondence, for mutual cultivation.' I trust, ladies, that this article may be of service to you, inasmuch as it will urge you to write only to those whom you know; and you may put it down for a fact that any officer or soldier advertising for lady correspondence, does so for no honorable or noble purpose. Ninety-nine of every hundred letters by officers and soldiers are treated with contempt and derision. Thus you see that your tender effusions, gushing out flowery and sentimental platitudes, are used to your disadvantage and injury.

In many cases the officer or soldier takes pains to ascertain your true name, and then your letters not only reflect to your disadvantage, but bring disgrace to your friends. I know of one young lady who is the laughing stock of a whole regiment, andmany of them are or were friends and neighbors of hers, not two years ago. Her fair name and character are blighted, and one who as counted on her being something more than a friend to him in the future has cast her aside, and her letters of truth to him are unanswered, or returned unopened. Ladies, goodbye. Learn from this to do better. Write to your known and tried soldier friends and relatives, and none other.

I am, ladies, your friend and well-wisher,
E. V. Wilson, 1st Lieut., Co. H, 39th Reg't Wisc. Vol's

Medical Department #28 - Disease and Death in Northern Civil War Prisons

2009-08-28T18:23:00.001-07:00

THE SECRETS OF MY PRISON-HOUSE
By James M. Schmidt
The Civil War News – “Medical Department” – September 2009

And not a man of them that we shall take Shall taste our mercy

- Henry V, Act IV, Scene 7

Such was Henry V’s violent threat regarding the fate of prisoners in his hands after finding that England’s “boys of the luggage” had been mercilessly slain by his French enemy at Agincourt. Henry’s anger - born of Shakespeare’s hand – was echoed after the American Civil War as both sides pointed fingers at the other regarding the treatment of captured soldiers in the other’s hands. Names such as Andersonville, Belle Isle, and Henry Wirz resonated with Union veterans; likewise, the prisons at Rock Island and Elmira and officials such as William Hoffman elicited anger from Confederate veterans.

Given that atmosphere, the literature on Civil War prisons – memoirs, popular histories, and even scholarly work – has sometimes been high on polemics and light on analysis. Entering that fray – with more analysis and less rhetoric - is Dr. James M. Gillispie and his recent book, Andersonvilles of the North: The Myths and Realities of Northern Treatment of Civil War Confederate Prisoners (Denton: University of North Texas Press, 2008).

In Andersonvilles of the North, Dr. Gillispie provides a summary of the Northern version of their POW experience, the Southern version (especially as part of the Lost Cause Tradition), modern historiography on Civil War prisons, and an examination of the exchange system. In the main, Dr. Gillispie analyzes the conditions at nine major Union POW camps in detail to compile compare disease and mortality rates to similar rates in the Confederacy. A final chapter gives an overview of the state of knowledge about the causes of diseases in the Civil War era. Dr. Gillispie was kind enough to answer my questions about his interest in the Civil War and his research and conclusions about prison conditions.

Dr. Gillispie earned a Ph.D. in American History from the University of Mississippi - under the tutelage of Charles Reagan Wilson - and has taught history at Sampson Community College in Clinton, North Carolina, since 1999. He is the author of numerous articles and reviews on Civil War prison scholarship. He is also on the Board of the Averasboro Museum and is currently working on other projects, including a biography of Col. Thomas Purdie of the 18th North Carolina, which will also tell the story of Eastern Carolinians during the war. He is also co-editing a series of essays examining major Lost Cause myths and how some of the major ones have exerted a powerful influence on popular understanding of the Civil War.

Dr. Gillespie traces his interest in the Civil War back to his youth. “Having grown up in Virginia, it just seemed to me the Civil War was always around me,” he said, adding, “I suppose you could say the bug bit me early and never let go.” As a child, the Lost Cause image of plumed cavaliers and hard-hitting generals with names like “Stonewall” grabbed him and he imagined his 19th century ancestors as knight. In college, he became a History major with the idea of studying the Civil War more objectively to find out what it had really all been about and what it all meant, and realized it was as much a cultural event as it was a political or military one.

“My interest in Civil War prisons was sparked by pure necessity to be perfectly honest,” Dr. Gilliespie told me. “I was looking for a thesis topic and had to come up with something original to work on. It was then that I discovered that this area had been virtually ignored. Fortunately for me it was a topic that I really enjoyed researching,” he added. That research paid off – in my opinion – in an absorbing study that fulfilled his mission: using an evidence-based approach to dispassionately put to rest the myth that there was systematic starvation and poor medical care at Northern prisons as a matter of policy, without “whitewashing” what were certainly uncomfortable (and sometimes inexcusably deplorable) conditions.

Of special interest to readers of this column is that Dr. Gillispie approaches the topic primarily from a medical perspective. Indeed, he made extensive use of the Medical and Surgical History of the War of the Rebellion to compile disease and mortality statistics among the prisons and compare them to similar rates at the Confederacy’s premier Chimborazo hospital in Richmond. He also consulted dozens of archival sources containing wartime prisoner accounts as well as the best in secondary literature on Civil War prisons, including one of my favorites: Rebels at Rock Island (2000), written by my good friend and mentor, the late Benton McAdams.

Among Dr. Gilliespie’s most interesting – and important - resources are camp inspection reports by Union officials found in the Official Records (especially “Series II,” which contains correspondence, orders, reports, and returns relating to prisoners of war). It is especially in these reports that the myth of a systematic policy of starvation rations, inadequate shelter, and lackluster medical conditions is dispelled. Dr. Augustus M. Clark - Union Commissary-General William Hoffman’s prison inspector – made detailed reports on conditions at the various Union prisons throughout the war and had no qualms about recommending immediate changes to diet, sanitation, housing, or hospital conditions.

While Henry Wirz met the gallows after a post-surrender investigation and trial (such as it was) of his treatment of Union prisoners at Andersonville, Confederate veterans and historians alike decried the lack of accountability of Union “villains,” such as the (purportedly) tightfisted Hoffman, or Elmira’s post surgeon, Dr. E. F. Sanger. While Hoffman escaped any official censure, Dr. Gillispie describes in great detail how incompetent commandants and surgeons were quickly removed or reassigned based on unacceptable conditions at prison camps under their watch.

Regarding the health of Confederate prisoners, Dr. Gillispie makes the important point that they often arrived in Union prisons ill, wounded, exhausted, and/or malnourished, such that one Union surgeon declared that the inability of the South to adequately feed its soldiers “was the prime source of disease” among prisoners under Union watch. He also points to research in the modern field of “psychoneuroimmunology” which demonstrates that physical and psychological stress can also compromise health. Dr. Gillispie (and other modern writers) suggests that prolonged exposure to the elements, marches, and battles compromised the ability of soldiers on both sides to combat infection.

Although it is not a focus of his study, Dr. Gillispie reminds readers that Union prison camps could also be dangerous places for the guards. “Individual camp records on disease and mortality statistics make distinctions between guards and prisoners,” he told me. While guards probably enjoyed better health because of less-crowded quarters and less direct contact with contaminated prisoners, they “also ran a risk of getting ill and dying from things like pneumonia and smallpox just as the prisoners did,” Dr. Gillispie told me, adding, “the most dangerous place you could find yourself during the 1860s was a stationary military camp of any variety.”

I had some minor complaints after reading the book, including Dr. Gillispie’s use of some persistent myths, including the misleading statement that “Harvard’s medical school did not own a single stethescope,” which has since – like other such myths - been dispelled in modern studies, including Dr. Alfred Jay Bollet’s Civil War Medicine: Challenges and Triumphs (which Dr. Gilliespie did not appear to consult). These minor complaints do not detract from my high opinion of the book, and - to his credit - Dr. Gillispie does attribute disease and death in Civil War camps, hospitals, and prisons more to “tragic inevitability” (due to the state of knowledge at that time) rather than to incompetence on the parts of surgeons on both sides.

Finally, Dr. Gillespie acknowledges that his study is not the last word on Northern prison conditions; it intends to show that there is compelling evidence refuting the notion that Union prisons were purposely designed as death traps and that Northern prison officials were actually more humane than they’ve been given credit. “There were, no doubt, things I missed or overlooked,” Dr. Gillispie told me, adding that he hopes “others will take the book as something of a jumping off point to more completely examine places like Elmira, Camp Chase, and Johnson’s Island,” so that we have a much fuller view of what life was like in Union prisons during the war.

First Bull Run Medical Accounts - Letters to American Medical Times - #1

2009-08-26T19:00:00.001-07:00

Harry Smeltzer over at the excellent website and digital history project, Bull Runnings, does us all a favor with his growing archive of documents related to the First Battle of Bull Run, especially when he shares previously unpublished material, as he did recently with the report of Col. George S. Burnham, of the First Connecticut Volunteers.

Recently, Harry put out a call for contributions, and I'm happy to oblige in my own area of interest: Civil War medicine.

To be sure, a lot of medical material can be garnered from official documents such as the Official Records or the landmark Medical and Surgical History of the War of the Rebellion. Another great source is period medical journals. They often re-printed official reports, but - more important - they also published letters from readers. Such is the case with the American Medical Times, a kind of weekly "reader's digest" for the New York Journal of Medicine.

I've culled the 1861 issues (some in my collection but also available online through Google Books and archive.org) for Bull Run medical material, and will start with a July 26, 1861 letter ("special to the American Medical Times) written by Dr. Frank H. Hamilton, Surgeon, 31st Regiment NYSV (with more to come!):

BATTLE OF BULL RUN
ONE DAY'S EXPERIENCE ON THE BATTLE-FIELD

Camp Pratt, near Alexandria, Va.

July 26, 1861.

[Special Correspondence of the American Medical Times ]

I have had no time to write to you before, and I have scarcely the time now, but I have seized a few moments of leisure to give you a brief account of one day's experience upon the field of battle.

At half past two, Sunday morning, I was in my saddle, with my assistants by my side, and my ambulance was ready for the march. The column began to move at this early hour, but our Division, under General Miles, did not leave the encampment until after six o'clock A. M. We then followed the long train which had preceded us, and after a march of about three miles took up our position where the battle of the preceding Thursday was fought, upon the brow of a hill commanding a view of the whole valley in which lay the forces of the enemy. The 32d and the 16th New York Volunteers were ordered to support Lieut. Pratt's battery, Col. Pratt, of the 31st, acting as Brigadier- Gen, or commanding officer, while Lieut.-Col. Brown took charge of our own regiment, the 31st; subsequently Col. Pratt took charge of his own regiment and was ordered to support Major Hunt's battery.

As soon as the troops were fairly in position the batteries opened upon the enemy with shell, solid shot, grape, and canister. Their fire was very effective, but it was not answered until late in the afternoon. In the meantime my assistants aided me in selecting a place along the wood, in our rear, where a pretty deep cut or gorge, leading a little off from the main road, would enable us to dress the wounded without exposure. We all went to work with a will, with the help of the drummer boys, and had soon cleared the gorge of stones and bushes. Here we proposed to have the wounded brought on stretchers by the drummers and a few volunteer aids, who together composed my ambulance corps. We then placed our ambulance above and beyond the gorge, in the direction towards a log-house, which was situated one-quarter of a mile further off in the rear. We took down the fences to let the ambulance pass, and planted our red flags at the temporary depot, and at the log-house. We were all ready when we received notice of an expected charge of cavalry upon that road, and were requested to select a building on the opposite side of the road, as the enemy's batteries would range across the old log-house. Accordingly we hastened to make the change, and in a few minutes we had everything as well arranged in a snug wooden house, occupied by negroes, as if we were in Bellevue. The operating table was ready, the bed arranged, and the instruments, sponges, bandages, cordials, &c., in order.

I now rode back to the field, and found we had had one slight skirmish, in which one man of the 16th had been wounded in the head, which Dr. Crandell, of the 16th, had already dressed. It was past mid-day and we were all tired, hungry, and thirsty. Exploring a garden in front and to the right of the batteries I found cabbages, beets, parsley, onions, sage, and potatoes; near by were chickens, and smoked hams in a deserted lodge. Water we found one-quarter of a mile to the left on the borders of the woods, within which lay the enemy, but the drummers brought water, and with the help of Mr. Nourse, Dr. Marvin, and my son, we soon made about four gallons of the best soup I have ever eaten. We had salt and pepper to season it, and good appetites to welcome it. We made also a large coffee-pot full of coffee, and found sugar to sweeten it. This we carried to the rear and fed out first to the Col. and his staff, and then to the line officers and men, as far as it would go, not forgetting ourselves and the drummer boy.

After this precious repast we carried whiskey to those soldiers who had been skirmishing, or who seemed especially to need it; for they were without shelter, under a sky of brass. To those who called for it also we sent or carried water in pails—such water as we could get The men never left their lines, except when ordered to act as skirmishers, and must have perished except for some such refreshments.

At about four or five p. m. a message was sent to us that the enemy were retreating, and that the day was ours, and I immediately returned to my hospital to order, of the black inmates of the South, supper for the Colonel's staff and my own. I was standing at the door, looking out towards the road, when I saw the regiments approaching in order, but rather rapidly; at the same moment came an order from Dr. Woodward, the intelligent and faithful medical director of our division, for me to fall back with my hospital to Centreville, about one mile further back, as the enemy were making an attempt to flank us on the left, in the direction of our division. I immediately had every thing replaced in the ambulance, and having paid Maria, the black woman, whose dinner we did not eat, we started for Centreville. We went along the same road with the troops, who were moving in good order, and without any appearance of alarm. At Centreville I took out my amputating case, general operating case, and medicine chest, and finding a large number of wounded already here, proceeded at once to dress their wounds, extract the bullets, etc. We were occupied for an hour or more in an old tavern. My assistants here were Dr. Lucien Damainville (first Assistant), Dr. — Brown, Mr. Marvine, medical student, Mr. Nourse, and my son Frank, who had been acting most of the day as the Colonel's aid. I think Dr. Arnt, of one of the Michigan regiments, was with us at this time. We had no bandages, no lint, no sponges, no cerate, and but very little water, and I think only one basin. Our first attention was directed to those already in the house. Stooping down as they lay crowded upon the floor, we inquired, "Where is your wound, my poor fellow ?" for they seldom called us until we came to their relief, nor did many of them utter a moan. There they lay silent, waiting their turn. Most of the wounds were made by spherical balls—some had gone through entirely, without breaking a bone or severing an artery—and to them we said, " Bravo, my boy, a noble wound, but no harm done. Mr. Nourse, apply a cloth, wet with cool water." Not a few, encouraged and strengthened by these words, got up, and came on foot to Alexandria and Washington. I saw several at Fort Runyon, from whom I had extracted balls from the neck, arms, and legs, the next morning when I arrived there, and they had walked the whole distance. Three or four had balls through their bodies, and had walked two or three miles to the village ; one was brought up with a wound in his thigh, who had lain on the field since the Thursday preceding. He will recover, I think.

From this building we went to a private house, which was also lull, and then to the old stone church. Here I met Dr. Taylor, of the 1st New Jersey Regiment, who was laboring most industriously, and Dr. _____ , a private, a very intelligent man, belonging, I think, to the 2d Michigan, and who, for his- extraordinary zeal and attention, deserves great credit.

In the old stone church the men were "lying upon every seat, between all the seats, and on every foot of the floor; a few on stretchers, perhaps three or four; a dozen or more on blankets—occasionally upon a litter, hay or straw, but mostly on the boards.

The scene here was a little different; it was dark; we had but two or three tallow-candles. The men had been waiting longer, and were in general more severely wounded; and, although now and then a man asked us to pass him, and to look first after some one lying near who was suffering more, yet from all sides we were constantly begged and implored to do something for them. After a little we concluded to take them in order as they lay, since to do otherwise rendered it necessary to consume time in going backwards and forwards, and we were constantly in danger of treading upon the wounded; indeed, it was impossible to avoid doing so. By this time we had found a hospital knapsack, and were pretty well supplied with bandages; but the time did not allow us to do much more at first, than to extract the bullets, and apply cool water dressings, with lint.

Only two amputations were made by myself; one below the knee, and one above the elbow-joint. Both of them, I confess, were done very badly, but I could, at the time, and under the circumstances, do no better. My back seemed broken, and my hands were stiff with blood. We still had no sponges, and scarcely more water than was necessary to quench the thirst of the wounded men. My assistants were equally worn out—Dr. Taylor alone seemed vigorous and ready for more toil.

At half-past twelve, or about that time, we went out to get a candle, to enable Dr. Taylor to amputate a man's arm at the shoulder-joint. Just then a regiment came up, and the Colonel was challenged by the picket. This reminded me that if we were to stay all night, as we had mutually agreed to do, we should need the countersign; but although we told him we were medical men, in charge of the wounded, and intended to stay, this was refused to us. The colonel told us that his was the last regiment covering the retreat.

We obtained a candle and went to the house where lay Dr. Taylor's patient, with his arm terribly shattered with a cannon ball or fragment of a shell. It was nearly torn off near the shoulder-joint, but the haemorrhage was trivial, he was dying of the shock. We gave him whiskey, the only stimulant we had, with water, dressed the wound slightly, and left him to his fate.

Dr. Damainville and I now lay down upon our backs upon the floor beside the wounded—we could do no more—our last candle was burning. Some of us had seen all the wounded, probably 250 in number, and done for them all that lay in our power. I had drunk some buttermilk and eaten a sandwich that Adjutant Washburn had held to my mouth once in the evening, but none of us had had any other food. I had sent Adjutant Washburn to overtake Gen. McDowell early in the evening, and to represent our condition, but he could not find him, and returned without help. The two bottles of whiskey taken by my son from the ambulance when we first came were already nearly distributed to the wounded. They had not a morsel to eat, the ambulances were all gone and had been for several hours. As we went into the street again, we found it was silent as the grave—the pickets even were gone, and except a few men so soundly asleep under the trees that we could not awaken them, there was no one left in the road. After a second consultation we determined to go also. My assistants and myself soon found our horses, but the servant was gone, and with him the bridles, nor could we after much search and loud and long shouting find him. I went back to the old stone church, and found one soldier just brought in, whose wounds I dressed, and then said aloud to the poor fellows within: " Thank God, my boys, none of you are very seriously injured; you will probably all get well." To which I heard one or two feeble responses: " Thank you, Doctor, thank you." I could not tell them I was about to leave them, and I trust in leaving them so I did them no wrong. I could be of no more service to them until morning, and then I presumed they would be in the hands of a civilized and humane enemy who would care for them better than we could. As I passed along out of the village I requested one gentleman who lived there to look after them, and also a family composed of a man and wife with two daughters. They all promised to do what they could.

Our instruments we could not take. There were five of us and two horses, and my son had sprained his ankle and could scarcely walk, so we went on towards Fairfax Court-House, and in half an hour we began to overtake the rear regiments, and soon I saw Dr. Woodward's cheerful face begrimed with dirt like our own. I told him how we had left the wounded. There was no remedy, said he. They must be left. We hurried on and at Fairfax Court-House overtook Gen. McDowell, to whom I at once reported the condition and number of the wounded, and requested to be sent back if he thought it best. He replied, " You have done right, keep on to Washington." As I was leaving the gate he sent a messenger to call me back, and to ask me if I were walking. I replied that I was. "Gen. McDowell has here ten or twelve ambulances," said he, "for the wounded, which he obtained by a dispatch to Washington. He wishes you to ride." From Fairfax I rode until our ambulance broke down, filled with wounded. The wounded were transferred to another ambulance, and I again took to my feet and occasionally to my horse. I reached Fort Runyon, opposite Washington, at about 10 A.m., and here washed my bloody hands and arms, for here I found the first water.

The wounded were scattered the whole distance from Centreville to Washington, not in large numbers, but here and there one could be seen walking by the aid of one or two associates. In reference to the ambulances, the occasion of their absence from Centreville was simply, that the drivers became frightened, and to turn them back would have been impossible. Nor do I think it would have been possible for Gen. McDowell to have sent one vehicle back beyond Fairfax at the time I saw him.

It is remarkable that most of the wounds seen by me were not of a character which would be likely to prove fatal. Perhaps the men most severely wounded were left upon the field, or were dressed by those noble surgeons who were near them, and some of whom lost their lives, while others gave themselves up as prisoners.

In no case did a wound seen by me require the use of a tourniquet, although some soldiers had their limbs tightly girded so as to have already occasioned great swelling and pain.

Most of the balls extracted were spherical; and of those which I removed, the majority were removed through counter openings, the balls lying close against the skin.

Nearly all the soldiers that I have seen since the battle, in Washington and Alexandria, are doing well.

I must not omit to state that after I had left, and when I supposed our whole party were in front of me, Mr. Nourse, acting assistant apothecary in our regiment, went back with three horses, and placing three wounded officers upon them, sent them off, for which he would accept of no compensation. He then walked himself the whole distance to Alexandria. This, with many other signal instances of this young man's courage, endurance, and humanity, deserves an especial notice.

My own regiment having, under its excellent commander, Col. Calvin E. Pratt, of Brooklyn, N. Y., covered the retreat of most of the forces, and especially of Hunt's Battery, which took up a new position near Centreville early in the evening, left the ground at 11 P.m, and returned in perfect order to its old encampment near Alexandria. Before they left they received five successive volleys from the enemy s infantry, but not allowing their own fire to be drawn they saved themselves and their battery from being overwhelmed and taken. I must regard the coolness and discretion of Col. Pratt under these circumstances, as the highest evidence of his capacity as a military commander.

Frank H. Hamilton. Surgeon 31st, Regiment, N. Y. St. V.

Medical Department #28 - Scratching Your Civil War Itch

2009-08-21T12:42:00.001-07:00

Here's an older "Medical Department" column from The Civil War News to add to the archives here on the blog!

THE FOUR YEAR ITCH
By James M. Schmidt
The Civil War News – “Medical Department” – October 2006

“There were two things that stuck closer than a brother; that was the itch and body lice or greyback as they were politely called…I had a bad case of the itch… it became very bad; so much that my hands were swollen and my fingers stood apart. Sores and yellow blisters came between them and they ran corruption. I could scarcely touch anything, my hands were so sore.”-Pvt. Milton Asbury Ryan, Co. B, 14th Mississippi, CSA

In his recent article, “The ‘Army Itch’: A Dermatological Mystery of the American Civil War” (Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology, August 2006, Vol. 55, No. 2, pp. 302-8), Thomas G. Cropley, M.D., provides an excellent review of this chronic, painful, and epidemic skin condition that plagued Private Ryan and thousands of other soldiers, North and South. The article includes a chronology of the disease, extensive excerpts from the writings of period physicians who saw and treated the disease, and a description of the treatments used.

[Note that since the time this article first appeared in The Civil War News in October 2006, Dr. Cropley has authored another interesting article: "Dermatology and skin disease in the American Civil War," Dermatol Nurs, 2008 Feb;20(1):29-33.]

Dr. Cropley received his M.D. from the University of Virginia and completed his residency at Harvard University. (At this writing) he is currently Professor of Medicine at the University of Massachusetts Medical School and director of the school’s Dermatology Residency Program. In addition to his own clinical and teaching work, Dr. Cropley is also deputy editor of the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology. Earlier this year at their annual meeting, the History of Dermatology Society awarded him its Samuel J. Zakon Award (First Prize) for his research and paper on army itch.

Dr. Cropley (who is named “Thomas” after Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson) has been interested in the Civil War for a long time and his interest in Civil War medicine is an outgrowth of his interest in medical history in general. “I grew up in West Virginia, very close to the battlefields of the 1861 Kanawha Valley campaign,” he told me. “My grandfather, an unreconstructed ‘Reb,’ used to take me out hunting for artifacts like Minie balls and the like.” Dr. Cropley also speaks a number of foreign languages (including Gaelic!) and plays the bagpipe competitively.

Army itch, referred to as “camp itch” in the Confederate army, was a disorder that baffled military physicians of the day. The “mystery” is that medical opinion at the time was divided over the true nature of the disease: some thought it to be epidemic scabies, others thought it a unique malady, and still others considered it to be a mix of the many skin conditions that plagued the armies due to poor hygiene. There was no dispute over the seriousness of the itch: at best it was a nuisance, but Cropley notes that it often reduced the effectiveness and morale of afflicted troops to a dangerous degree.

In the main, Dr. Cropley’s paper includes accounts on army itch drawn from the writings of nearly twenty army surgeons and civilian physicians. The excerpts are drawn from period publications such as Medical and Surgical Reporter and the Confederate States Medical and Surgical Journal. Reading the accounts gives witness to several important characteristics of the disease: first, the itch was debilitating – in addition to painful lacerations, the incessant itching was exhausting in itself; second, many of the physicians noted that the disease spread to the local population after an army passed through; third, most soldiers waited too late to approach their medical team about the disease.

“We see this nowadays, too,” Dr. Cropley told me. “Scabies is insidious. The itching is tolerable at first, and patients generally do not seek medical attention. Later, the itch becomes maddening, and it is at that point that patient seeks care.” He suspects that many soldiers with itch did not report for surgeon's call, as they were unlikely to be relieved from duty or treated in many cases.

In the article, Dr. Cropley notes some of the treatments for the itch, including sulphur-based alkaline ointments or washes, to which were added cooling or astringent compounds. Arsenicals and mercury were also used, and while effective were almost certainly toxic. Short on sulphur due to its use in the manufacture of gunpowder, the Confederates established an interesting clinical experiment at Richmond’s Chimborazo Hospital to evaluate alternative treatments. Topical application of strong decoctions of native plants such as poke root, broom straw, and slippery elm were found to be helpful.

Dr. Cropley also told me that the military’s itchy encounters did not end with the Civil War. “Epidemic scabies always follows the population disruptions of wartime,” he said. “The United States Army has had an ongoing scabies eradication program in Kosovo and Bosnia for the last 10 years or so. I have heard from colleagues that Afghanistan and Iraq have significant scabies as well.” Dr. Cropley added that these modern outbreaks are mostly in the local population and not in military personnel, but they still require the attention of Army dermatologists attending to civilians.

Dr. Cropley told me there are many other interesting dermatological mysteries to be found in studying the Civil War. To him, one of the more interesting stories regards General Henry W. Halleck's itchy elbows. “Halleck apparently had the disconcerting habit of rubbing his elbows, especially when under stress,” he told me. “Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles in particular found this annoying and even commented on it in his diary.”

So why did Halleck rub his elbows? “Itchy elbows can be due to a number of causes, and the scratching behavior can be a habit rather than a response to an actual itch,” Dr. Cropley told me. He added: “Halleck's medical record is pretty short, but the thing that caught my eye was his statement in a fall 1864 letter that he was having his annual trouble with itchy, watery eyes.”

Dr. Cropley believes that Halleck might have been suffering from seasonal allergic keratoconjunctivitis (“hay fever”). “Hay fever is an atopic disease and is frequently accompanied by atopic dermatitis,” he told me. “Atopic diseases often worsen under stress, so I think, but I can't prove, that Halleck had atopic dermatitis as the cause of his itchy elbows.”

Learning more about Halleck’s mysterious condition sounds like a historical itch that Dr. Cropley is destined to scratch, and I’m predicting another award-winning paper about a Civil War-related dermatological story in his future.

[Many thanks are due to Mr. Michael Gay, Ann Arbor, Michigan, for kindly granting permission to use the opening quote, which appears in his great grandfather’s unpublished memoir, “Experience of a Confederate Soldier in Camp and Prison in the Civil War, 1861-1865.”]

Civil War Times Magazine Reviews "Lincoln's Labels"!

2009-08-13T14:20:00.000-07:00

It's hard to put into words how gratifying (and humbling) it was to see that Civil War Times magazine - the "grand-daddy" of all Civil War enthusiast publications - published a review of my first book, Lincoln's Labels: America's Best Known Brands and the Civil War, in their October 2009 issue, which is in subscriber's hands now and should be on newsstands soon.

It's all the more gratifying because the review was written by Jason Emerson, an author/historian whose work I really admire. His books include The Madness of Mary Lincoln and Lincoln: The Inventor (which I reviewed several months ago in a blog post). Jason has several other works in progress, including a biography of Robert Lincoln. You can learn more about him at his website, here.

Excerpts:

"[The] business end of the war and its personal ramifications - previously overlooked in the vast literature - is now the subject of an utterly original and fascinating book, Lincoln's Labels: America's Best Known Brands and the Civil War, by James M. Schmidt...

"Schmidt's book is a combination of military and business history that examines the war from a refreshing perspective...As such it opens up history to readers and enthusiasts of topics beyond the battles and personalities of the war..."

Needless to say, I appreciate Jason Emerson's positive assessment of the book, and also appreciate the fact that Civil War Times saw fit to publish the review.

It makes the hard work - such as it is - worthwhile, and inspires me to work harder still, all the while enjoying reading, researching, writing, and speaking about the Civil War and understanding fully that it is a privilege to see my work in print.

Read more reviews of Lincoln's Labels here:

Brett Schulte - TOCWOC
James Durney (also at TOCWOC!)
Rea Andrew Redd - The Civil War Librarian
Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
Andrew Wagenhoffer - Civil War Books and Authors
Michael Aubrecht - Pinstripe Press
Reader Testimonial Advance Praise/Blurbs

The Rubber Chicken Circuit!

2009-08-10T17:14:00.000-07:00

Over the past ten years I have had the great pleasure and privilege of giving presentations to Civil War Round Tables and other organizations. Over the years I've learned a lot of lessons, have hopefully improved as a speaker, and still get a great amount of joy at being invited and even more pleasure from meeting new people.

My very first lecture was almost ten years ago. I gave a talk to my local group - the McHenry County (IL) Civil War Round Table in the far NW Chicago 'burbs - about the Battle of Wilson's Creek.

This retrospective look at my time on the "rubber chicken circuit" is prompted by an invitation that I am very excited about and that has me coming "full circle":

I will be talking to my old friends at the McHenry County Civil War Round Table at their annual Fall Symposium this year, on November 14th. It will have been more than 5 years since I moved from Chicagoland to Houston, and at least that long since I've seen many of my fellow members, although I have tried to keep in touch. I am looking forward to it very much.

I followed that first lecture a few years later with a presentation to the same group on the interesting and important role played by the University of Notre Dame in the Civil War. That lecture started the next part of my "speaking career": being invited to speak to other local groups, and so I had the great privilege of giving the same talk to other groups in the Chicagoland area over the next few years, including the Lake County and Northern Illinois CWRTs.

In the meantime, I began to write my medical column for The Civil War News, which led to some invitations from around the Midwest, including the terrific folks at the St. Louis (MO) and Mahoning Valley (OH) CWRTs, who also heard my Notre Dame presentation.

A few years elapsed before I began speaking again in earnest, but the publication of my first book - Lincoln's Labels: America's Best Known Brands and the Civil War (Edinborough Press, 2008) - afforded an excellent opportunity to hit the road again.

Indeed, there's only thing more pleasing (and humbling) than being invited to speak: being invited back to speak again! So, with the publication of Lincoln's Labels, I had the great pleasure of revisiting my friends at the Northern Illinois Civil War Round Table and meeting new friends across Texas in Dallas, Fort Worth, and Waco.

Readers of this blog know that one of my passions is Civil War medicine, and I've had the great pleasure of attending - and speaking at - the 2007 (St. Louis) and 2009 (Chattanooga, TN) annual meetings of the Society of Civil War Surgeons.

Here is what I have scheduled so far for the remainder of this year and the beginning of next:

October 2-4, 2009 - Towson, MD - 17th Annual Conference - National Museum of Civil War Medicine
November 14, 2009 - Huntley, IL - McHenry County Civil War Round Table (CWRT) Fall Symposium
December 10, 2009 - Austin (TX) CWRT
December 14, 2009 - Youngstown, OH - Mahoning Valley (OH) CWRT
January 19, 2010 - Minneapolis, MN - Twin Cities CWRT

If you follow this blog, read my column in The Civil War News, want to learn more about Lincoln's Labels, or just want to have a (guaranteed!) enjoyable evening, please mark those dates on your calendar and make sure you introduce yourself!

Likewise, if you are making speaker plans for your own organization in the coming year, please keep me in mind, and feel free to contact me (jschmidt at lexpharma dot com) if you have any questions.

Brett Schulte at TOCWOC Reviews Lincoln's Labels!

2009-08-03T17:56:00.000-07:00

I want to thank Brett Schulte for posting a very kind review of my first book, Lincoln's Labels: America's Best Known Brands and the Civil War, on his very popular TOCWOC blog today!

Excerpts:

"With Lincoln’s Labels, Jim Schmidt has created a fascinating look into what some famous companies of today were up to during the Civil War, one which will appeal to a much wider audience than most Civil War books could ever hope for...

"There were some truly engaging stories told in Lincoln’s Labels...As a result, this book will surely appeal to a much wider audience than your typical battle or campaign study...In fact, I encourage readers who are looking to get friends and family into the study of the Civil War to introduce them to Lincoln’s Labels. Who knows what might happen as a result?"

I couldn't ask for more in the way of an endorsement...Thanks, Brett! And keep up the GREAT work at TOCWOC!

For more reviews of Lincoln's Labels, please see:

James Durney (also at TOCWOC!)
Rea Andrew Redd - The Civil War Librarian
Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
Andrew Wagenhoffer - Civil War Books and Authors
Michael Aubrecht - Pinstripe Press
Reader Testimonial
Advance Praise/Blurbs

Medical Department #27 - Civil War Snake Oil - Part IV - Patent Medicines and Civil War Veterans

2009-07-29T13:40:00.000-07:00

In the first and second installments of this series, I described the rising popularity of so-called “patent medicines” up to the years of the Civil War and the booming numbers of nostrums during the war and after. In Part III, I described Abraham Lincoln’s own interesting association with “quack medicines,” from his days as a lawyer in Springfield, to his inauguration, his presidency, and many years after his assassination.

In this concluding part of the series, I describe how patent medicine firms marketed their wares specifically to Civil War veterans in the post-war years, and – as during the war – counted on testimonials from the erstwhile soldiers to prop up their “snake oil” to the American public.

PATENT MEDICINES AND THE CIVIL WAR

PART IV – “PINK PILLS FOR PALE VETERANS”
By James M. Schmidt
The Civil War News – “Medical Department” – August 2009

Two Union army veterans – Z. C. Patten and T. H. Payne - wasted little time getting in on the patent medicine action. After they were mustered out of the army in Chattanooga, they remained in the city and opened a stationery business and soon after purchased the Chattanooga Times, which was burdened with debt. The ambitious Patten then bought the recipe for “Thedford’s Black Draught,” a laxative tea first formulated in the 1840s by Dr. A. O. Simmons and then passed to Simmons’ son-in-law, J. H. Thedford in the mid-1850s.

Patten then began selling Black Draught through his “Chattanooga Medicine Company,” concentrating his sales in country stores that dotted the landscape of the ex-Confederacy, with a few border-states added for good measure. His association with the Times provided an ideal venue for advertising. The company’s Black Draught and “Wine of Cardui” (for “female complaints”) become Southern staples.

Aging veterans attached their names to Black Draught testimonials, including this one from a 1916 issue of Confederate Veteran:

“I am an old Confederate veteran, 67 years of age…I am hale and hearty and can swing a 14-inch plow all day long…I don’t allow myself or my family to get sick…When I get up in the morning and have a bitter taste in my mouth or a dull headache, I take a dose of Black Draught after eating a little breakfast, another dose at noon and another at night, and it has never failed to cleanse my stomach and liver.”

The firm has remained in Chattanooga to this day. In 1969, it went public, and adopted the name “Chattem” (NASDAQ = CHTT). It no longer sells Black Draught or Cardui, but readers are no doubt familiar with many of its products, including Gold Bond Powder, Selsun Blue, Aspercreme, and other popular consumer goods. Even more fascinating is that the current CEO of Chattem, Zan Guerry, is a descendant of Z. C. Patten!

Another well-known nostrum that made a splash among veterans was “Dr. William’s “Pink Pills for Pale People.” The medicine was invented in 1886 by Dr. William F. Jackson, an Ontario physician. In June 1890, another Canadian – pharmacist George T. Fulford – purchased Jackson’s patent for $53. Fulford invested heavily in advertising (more than $300,000 in the first years alone!) and was soon selling millions of boxes a year in Canada. Fulford then formed a partnership with a Schenectady, New York, businessman to market the pills in the United States.

Fulford claimed a remarkable number of cures for his “Pink Pills,” including anemia, bronchitis, headache, indigestion, lumbago, neuralgia, rheumatism, and St. Vitus’ Dance. In the mid-1890s, the Schenectady branch sent out a 4-page marketing pamphlet to Union veterans (the author has the brochure in his collection). Three of the pages had color prints or sketches to provide the reader with fond memories of their service. Inside, the brochure invited veterans to “please fill out and return this list of questions” so that they could be advised on a cure by return mail, free of charge:

Were you WOUNDED during the War?

If so, HOW and WHERE?

Do you attribute your present ill-health to your war experiences?

How has it affected you, and what is the nature of your disease?

The brochure also reminded veterans:

“It is not alone those who were wounded who deserve our sympathy: it is the great majority WHO WERE NOT, but who contracted the seeds of disease in Southern swamps and prisons, and who have as a consequence lost their health before their time – THESE are as deserving of sympathy as their wounded comrades and should have equal reward.”

“Pink Pills for Pale People” also garnered veteran testimonials, including this one found in an 1898 issue of American Gardening:

“I served three years in the 124th Illinois…The strain of army life did its work in undermining my health…For some time I suffered from general debility and nervousness…My brother is a doctor, but all his efforts to help me failed…Finally, having read articles regarding cures…by Dr. Williams’' Pink Pills for Pale People, I decided to try them. That was in 1896. I bought a box and took the pills according to instructions. Just four days later, I had the happiest hours I had known for years…”

Given the stakes at hand (patent medicine sales grew to nearly $80 million by the turn of the century), it is not surprising that soliciting testimonials from veterans had clever, cunning, and downright ugly aspects. For example, Dr. Coutant – the maker of a very dubious deafness cure – promoted his nostrum through the testimonials of one Henry Farrar. Under the banner headline, “His Hearing Was Restored,” Coutant’s ads showed sectional sensitivity: in Northern newspapers, Farrar was a “Civil War veteran” shown in the garb of the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR), declaring that his “beloved bugle…led troops to many a victory.” In Southern papers, however, Farrar was shown in civilian dress, identified simply as a musician, whose “beloved cornet…helped in his career.”

More sinister was the practice of “testimonial brokers” who solicited testimonials on a contract basis, earning as much as $5,000 by soliciting endorsements from senators ($75 a pop) and congressmen ($40) and influential men in the War Department. One such broker bragged that there were “easy-going congressmen” who would “sign their names to anything” and “a lot of broken-down army veterans” hanging around Washington, who would – for a few dollars - “go their old army officers on a basis of old acquaintance sake and get testimonials.”

The Comstock Medicine Company engaged in a more innocent practice: in the late 1880s, the company took advantage of the growing popularity of Confederate currency by printing advertisements for its “Dr. Morse’s Indian Root Pills” on the back of facsimile rebel $20 bills!

Sometimes, testimonials could get veterans into hot water. Comrade J. R. Ketchum – a veteran with the GAR in Missouri – used his Post letterhead to commend a patent medicine to the nostrum’s maker in Maine. The medicine company quickly distributed facsimiles of the letter throughout the country. GAR members were forbidden to use the badge of the Order or the letters “G-A-R” in advertisements for any private business. Ketchum was gently reprimanded for his careless mistake.

In another case, reported in an 1897 issue of the Boston Medical and Surgical Journal, a Massachusetts veteran had given “a testimonial to a patent-medicine manufacturer, stating that he had been entirely cured by his nostrum. It seems that he was receiving a pension for the ills of which the medicine cured him, and that when the authorities learned of his recovery, his pension was cut off.” The Journal wondered “Is he likely to suffer relapse? And if he does will he get back his pension?"

A British medical journal, seeing reports of the veteran’s plight in American papers, had the answer: “[The authorities] would, we imagine, be more likely to recommend him a further course of the patent remedy which had proved so efficacious before.”

Almost Perfect - Willard Schmidt - 1955

2009-07-24T09:30:00.001-07:00

A couple of years ago, I put up a short post about the passing of my great uncle, Willard Schmidt, a former pitcher for the Cardinals and Reds in the big leagues.

The recent perfect game pitched by Mark Buehrle of the Chicago White Sox brought back two good memories:

1) Being a fan of the Sox - I lived in the far NW Chicago 'burbs from 1995-2004 and picked the Sox as my new team to root for (having been a lifelong Royals fan)...that's not easy (maybe it is) when your entire family is Cubs fans. I got to see several games at new Comiskey and Buerhle (and Paul Konerko) is among the few, if only, players left from the teams I rooted for.

2) Not so much a memory, because I wasn't even born yet, but I sure would have liked to have been there: the *almost* perfect game that rookie Willard Schmidt pitched against the Cubs in early September 1955...20 straight outs into the 7th inning before the roof caved in...must have been exciting for Willard and the fans, though. Who is to blame? Either Ernie Banks or some dopey Cubs fan who jinxed Willard by talking about a perfect game while it was in progress...don't you know that's taboo?!

Enjoy this newspaper clipping from the September 5, 1955, issue of the Salina (Kansas) Journal.

Medical Department #26 - "Turning a Blind Eye"

2009-07-10T12:32:00.000-07:00

Did you know that eye injuries have gone from less than 1% of total wounds in the Civil War to greater than 10% during modern operations, including those in Iraq and Afghanistan?

It is due in no small part because of the hot, dirty, and dustry conditions. The emergence of IEDs and the use of lasers have also contributed to an increasing number of eye injuries. Indeed, recent news reports describe injuries - including permanent blindness - from green lasers (or "dazzlers") being used in the campaign.

To carry on with the theme, below is an older "Medical Department" column of mine about the eye problems that Jefferson Davis suffered.

TURNING A BLIND EYE
By James M. Schmidt
The Civil War News – “Medical Department” – February 2007

When it comes to having your photograph taken, do you have a “good side”? Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederate States of America, did. Davis fought health problems for a good part of his life, including a nearly fatal bout with malaria in 1836. He was seriously ill again in the winter of 1857-1858, and by February he began suffering from a relapse of a chronic inflammation of his left eye. The disease was so bad that a visiting ophthalmologist commented “I do not see why this eye has not burst.” As a result, most photos of Davis are in right profile, thus hiding his left eye.

In their article, “The Eye Disease of Jefferson Davis (1808-1889)” (Survey of Ophthalmology, Nov-Dec 2006, Vol. 51, No. 6, pp. 596-600), Dr. Richard W. Hertle and Robert Spellman use historical evidence from multiple sources to propose a diagnosis for Davis’s eye condition and consider how the disease could have influenced military and political decisions during the Civil War. Dr. Hertle has also written about eye injuries and the Civil War in general in a previous article entitled “Ophthalmic Injuries and Civil War Medicine” (Documenta Ophthalmologica, 1997, Vol. 94, pp. 123-137).

Dr. Hertle is a native of Brooklyn, New York. He earned a bachelor's degree at Ohio State University in 1979 and his medical degree in 1984 at Northeastern Ohio Universities College of Medicine. After internships and fellowships at hospitals in Ohio he was a resident at Boston University Medical Center. He has also taught at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and was a senior scientist at the National Eye Institute of the National Institutes of Health . Presently he holds a number of appointments, including Chief of the Division of Pediatric Ophthalmology, and Professor of Ophthalmology, at the University of Pittsburgh’s School of Medicine.

Dr. Hertle’s co-author, Robert Spellman, is his nephew. Robert (affectionately known to his uncle as “Bobby”) is a senior at Monsignor Bonner High School in Upper Darby, Pennsylvania. Robert has been involved in Civil War living history for about five years. “He was fascinated by my passion for the Civil War and this became a part of our relationship,” Dr. Hertle told me. Robert has also worked at the Civil War Library and Museum in Philadelphia.

Dr. Hertle became interested in Jefferson Davis’s eye condition after reading William J. Cooper’s biography, Jefferson Davis, American (Knopf, 2000). “I read Cooper’s book and found hints of his problem,” he told me, adding “This was the impetus for trying to find out exactly what he had and how this may have influenced some of his decisions.”

They begin the article with a brief biography of Davis as soldier, politician, and statesman, and then turns to a discussion of the eye disease that can be traced back to his first bout with malaria. About a dozen years later, during a relapse, Davis suffered a “severe eye attack” such that, in the words of his wife Varina, he could not “bear a ray of light on either eye.” Documents show that the disease recurred almost annually from that time and through the Civil War.

In a severe relapse in1858, Davis was seen by two famous eye physicians of the time – Drs. Robert Stone and Isaac Hayes. Stone described the condition of Davis’s left eye in detail, including “ulceration of the cornea,” “abscess of the eye,” and “hypopyon” (a collection of pus cells in the aqueous humor). It was Hayes who commented that he couldn’t see why Davis’s eye had not already burst. Davis was given treatments of the day, including “quiet” and bandages soaked in herbal remedies; he also underwent eye surgeries in 1859 and 1860.

Next, Dr. Hertle puts on his clinician’s hat, and discusses a possible diagnosis of Davis’s disease. He feels that it can be divided into at least two parts – a primary disease and the secondary consequences of the inflammation and, not surprisingly, the treatments. In Dr. Hertle’s opinion, the list of possible primary diseases is long, and includes no less than a dozen infectious agents. Using a combination of anecdotal and scientific evidence – including modern studies – Dr. Hertle and his nephew conclude that Davis suffered from “herpes simplex keratouveitis,” a condition that remains a major cause of injury to the eye.

An especially interesting part of the article concerns the authors’ opinion that Davis’s eye condition had consequences during the Civil War, especially during the spring and early summer of 1863. At that time, Davis was confined to his home for weeks at a time, and the disease thus interfered with his duties as President of the Confederate States. Coincidentally, it was also a pivotal period in military planning for the Confederacy. The authors argue that the eye disease, or perhaps medicines used in the treatment, impaired Davis’s decision-making ability resulting in poor advice to and poor communication with senior military commanders such as Lee and Pemberton.

Dr. Hertle has been a history buff for a long time - an interest that he inherited from his father. “I have been an amateur Civil War historian since about 1990, when, during my training I was faced with taking care of many trauma patients,” Dr. Hertle told me. He recognized a common theme throughout history: the influence of war on rapid developments in medical innovation and practice. “The Civil War was particularly interesting as a focal point for change in the pre-microbiologic era,” he told me, adding “The more we look at the Civil War period the more firsts in medicine and surgery become apparent.”

Jefferson Davis’s is not the only interesting eye-related story in the Civil War. “Benjamin Butler had strabismus (“lazy eye”),” Dr. Hertle told me, adding that “there were also great advances in prosthetic eyes as a result of the War.” He noted that discoveries regarding the neurology of the visual system were part of larger investigations and observation of battlefield injuries and diseases on the brain seen at large specialty hospitals in which patients with neurological diseases were cared for.

Modern war, including the present war in Iraq, poses some particular challenges when it comes to military ophthalmology. Indeed, eye injury rates in battle have been increasing over the last 150 years. Data from the U.S. Army’s Center for Health Promotion and Preventive Medicine show that ocular injuries have gone from less than 1% of total injuries in the Civil War to 13% during operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm.

“I think that ‘high tech’ instrumentation and desert warfare require special visual and ocular motor skills and protection, respectively,” Dr. Hertle told me. “The acceptance by the armed forces of refractive surgical procedures (e.g., LASIK and radial keratotomy) has allowed our soldiers to go into battle without the need for specific optical correction such as spectacles and contact lenses.” He added that the dry, dusty and intense UV rays in the present theaters of conflict can be detrimental to the health of the ocular surface, lens, and retina.