American Civil War Medicine & Surgical Antiques

Surgical Set collection from 1860 to 1865 - Civilian and Military

Civil War:  Medicine, Surgeon Education & Medical Textbooks

Dr. Doug Arbittier

 

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Tiemann Civil War Military Small Amputation Set

During the first year of the Civil War, a small amputation set was specified by Dr. Frank Hamilton in his book on Military Surgery.  The amputation set was very limited in scope, but was meant to be part of 'field preparations' as shown by the following list:

 Practical Treatise on Military Surgery, (1861) by Frank H. Hamilton, M.D. 

Additional information on:  Frank Hastings Hamilton

See pages from this manual regarding instruments found in Civil War surgical sets.

Dr. Frank Hamilton's list of field instruments from his book.  Note the listing of an Amputating Set. 

Given the Tiemann maker label with a 63 Chatham address, military latch and the type of instruments in this set, I believe this is an example of the type set Hamilton described in his text book.  George Tiemann was a major supplier of surgical instruments during the Civil War and the 63 Chatham address was his address immediately before and during the first three years of the War:  1855-63/64: 63 Chatham and 44 Eldridge.

The size of the mahogany amputation case is (15 1/2 x 5 x 2 1/2 inches ) with unengraved brass plate and most important, the sliding military latch which indicates a special order from Tiemann.

A single military sliding brass latch instead of bilateral military latches on front of the case

 

 

The section holding the bone forceps, metacarpal saw, and capital saw is about 1 in. high, removable, and sits on top of the lower half of the case.

All instruments are marked with Tiemann in the old English style font

The prongs of the tourniquet lock are cast brass at this point, as opposed to the blued steel seen in later military tourniquets

Suture needles

See article on use of suture needles


Tiemann Dissection Set and Hernstein Leather Pocket Surgical Kit

With the above Tiemann amputation set, was a Tiemann  dissection/post-mortem set, and a Hernstein & Son, leather pocket surgical kit. 

Both the Tiemann dissection set and the Hernstein kit have maker labels which date them to the same time frame as the Tiemann amputation set.  Since they were all obtained from the same source and family, it is assumed they were owned by the same doctor and those three items would be consistent with a surgeon in the field during the first year of the War.  At this point, the larger surgical sets seen on this site would have been relegated to rear area hospitals or large field hospitals.

Go to the Hernstein leather roll-up leather kit

Go to the Tiemann Civil War era dissection (post-mortem) set

 

Medical Antiques Index

American Civil War Medicine & Surgical Antiques Index

 

Topical Index for American Civil War Surgical Antiques 


 

Contact Dr. Arbittier with questions or if you have Civil War medical related items for sale

 

 

Civil War Medical Collections    Sitemap for entire website 

 

Direct links to all medical & Civil War collections on this site           

American Surgical Sets:

Pre-Civil War:  1 | 2  -   Post-Civil War:  3  -  Civil War 1861-1865:  4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8   INDEX

Medical Text-Books:

1 | 1a | 2 | 2a | 3 | 3a | 4 | 4a | 5 | 5a | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 9a | 10 | 11 | 12    INDEX

Surgeon General's Office Library printed catalogues: 1840 | 1864 | 1865
Medical Lecture Cards: 1a | 1b 2 | 34 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21    INDEX

Medical Faculty and Authors:

INDEX

Navy Surgeon Exams:

1863 Navy Surgeon Applicant Exams with Biographies   INDEX ONE | INDEX TWO

Surgeon CDVs, Images

Surgeon's Medical Service Swords, and Pistols

Army: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8    INDEX    

M.S. Surgeon Swords and Pistols:  1 | 2 | 3 | 4  INDEX

Navy: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8   

Hosp Dep't Bottles, Tins, 

U.S. Army Pannier:

1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6

American Civil War Medicine & Surgical Antiques

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Please note: information on this site may not be normally referenced as this is an active and long-term educational research project.  Personal notes may not be properly cited for publication.  Various articles are digitally reproduced under the 'fair-use act' of the copyright laws and are intended for educational purposes only.  Many citations are from Google digital 'books' and can be traced backwards via a search of a unique string in the citation.

 

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Last update: Tuesday, July 16, 2024