The Civil War

Over the course of the Civil War, an estimated 476,000 soldiers were wounded by bullets, artillery shrapnel, or sabers and bayonets.  The most common wounds suffered by Civil War soldiers were from the bullets fired by muskets.

Over the course of the Civil War, three out of four surgeries (or close to 60,000 operations) were amputations. This earned surgeons throughout the armies a reputation of being “butchers” when in fact amputations were one of the quickest, most effective ways for surgeons to treat as many patients as possible in a short amount of time.

The chances of survival for an amputation depended on where the amputation was performed and how fast medical treatment was administered after the wounding. Many amputations over the Civil War occurred at the fingers, wrist, thigh, lower leg, or upper arm. The closer the amputation was to the chest and torso, the lower the chances were of survival as the result of blood loss or other complications. Many surgeons preferred to perform primary amputations, which were completed within forty-eight hours of the injury. They had a higher chance of survival rather than intermediary amputations which took place between three and thirty days.

For more information about amputations during the Civil War visit https://www.battlefields.org/learn/articles/amputations-and-civil-war