Second, there are
U. S. Army Medical Department sets, which were
used by Army surgeons before, during, and after the Civil War.
With Medical Dept. marked sets you have to figure out when the set was
made via the maker address or style of the case and instruments, but
based on the age distribution of the Medical Department sets
seen today, I believe the vast majority of these sets were
purchased immediately before or during the first year of the
War. Yes, there are some U.S. Army Medical Department
instrument sets which may have been purchased and marked during
the War. The U.S. Army Medical Department engraved sets
may have just been a matter of the Medical Department ordering
military surgical sets out of a different budget than the budget
approved by congress to run the whole War effort and then assigned to the Hospital
Department purveyor bureaucracy.
At the start of the Civil War the
number of surgical sets would have been limited as there was not the need
that occurred with the start of the War. In 1861, the U.S.
Army Medical Department consisted of only one surgeon-general (colonel),
thirty surgeons (major), and eighty-three assistants (lieutenant).
Three of these surgeons and twenty-one assistants resigned "to go
South," and three assistants were dismissed for disloyalty. In
August, 1861, ten additional surgeons and twenty assistants were
authorized, and a corps of medical cadets was formed, not to exceed
fifty in number, to be employed under the direction of medical officers
as dressers in hospital. (Refer to: 'The
Medical
Department' By Major Charles Smart, Surgeon U. S. A. for further
details.)
Assuming the Medical
Department owned enough surgical sets for each surgeon, they may have
only had 100 'U.S.A Medical Department purchased and thus marked surgical sets in the whole Army
when the War started. We know the Army ordered something over 4,900
surgery sets during the War, which would have been attributed to
the Hospital Department purveyor budget, and some of those sets were unused and sold for
surplus at the the end of the War.
Dr. Richard Satterlee, in his role as
Medical Purveyor of the United States Army, placed contracts with
numerous instrument makers for the fabrication of cased instrument sets
and related military surgical equipment. During his tenure,
Satterlee requisitioned over 4,900
amputation and general operating cases, 1,150 cases of trephining,
exsecting, post-mortem, and "personal" instruments, 12,700 minor
surgery, and pocket operating sets.
(Rutkow, p. 120, Civil War, American Surgery, an Illustrated History)
State Volunteer Militia
purchased surgical sets:
Prior to the Civil War, in
addition to the regular army, there were hundreds of organized
state volunteer militias, most of which had a system of
surgeons, all of whom may have purchased military style surgical
sets for their personal use, or they could have simply used
existing civilian style surgical sets. There was no
organized state government procurement of medical supplies for
each volunteer militia unit, thus we have a varied source of
surgical sets in each state.
This third and minor source
of 'government', but
not 'Federal', military-style sets are those purchased by the state volunteer
militias. These sets are
a minor source of possible military-style sets
purchased for or by various state voluntary militias
existing prior to and during the first year or so of the Civil War. The state
militias were later mustered into the Regular Union Army and
would have used Regular Army purchased equipment as needed from
that point on.
The various American and
non-American
instrument makers of the time could have made sets for any of the state
militia groups before the War or during the first year before
the Med. or Hosp. Dept. purveyors ordered the 4,900 sets for the
Federal Union Army and Navy. This would
account for the small number of military sets we see from
regional makers like Rees, Brinkerhoff, Goulding, Otto,
Shurtleff, etc early in the War. These regional makers
could have provided military-style sets for their local militia
volunteers, but were never under contract to supply the
main-stream military sets ordered and used by the Union Army
during the War due to their inability to supply the large
numbers of instruments ordered from major manufacturers in
New York (Tiemann, Hernstein) or Philadelphia (Kolbe', Kern, Gemrig).
The vast
majority of instrument makers in 1861, other than someone like Tiemann, were not geared for large
scale production, but rather crafted individual hand-made instruments
which were custom ordered by the surgeon or put-up in cases for sale as
a design by 'doctor so-and-so'. Other 'makers' imported instruments
from England and France to assemble sets as requested by a given doctor
or retail outlet such as a pharmacy or apothecary dealer.