The Medical and Surgical History of the War of the Rebellion

The Medical and Surgical History of the War of the Rebellion, 1861-65 (the MSHWR) was a United States Government Printing Office publication consisting of six volumes, issued between 1870 and 1888 and “prepared Under the Direction of Surgeon General United States Army, Joseph K. Barnes”. The History was divided into three parts, each consisting of a medical history volume and a surgical history volume. The works detail tens of thousands of surgical cases and diseases occurring during the American Civil War (1861-1865).

The MSHWR included numerous statistical summaries relating to diseases, wounds, and deaths in both the Union and Confederate armies, almost all of the material formed from the reports of U.S. Army medical directors, surgeons, doctors, and hospital staff. The accounts are a basic source for medical data on the War and also comprise an important source of information relating to individual soldiers. The names of the surgeons who submitted these case studies are almost always included, so the books can be helpful in tracking where an individual surgeon was at various times.

Hundreds of etchings, wood engravings, charts, and tables, as well as many photographs and color plates (lithographs, chromolithographs, albumen photographs, heliotypes, and woodburytypes) accompany the approximately 3,000 pages of densely printed text. (Almost every reproductive process available at the time can be found somewhere within the six volumes.)

Publication of the MSHWR was preceded by publication of the "Reports on the Extent and Nature of the Materials Available for the Preparation of a Medical and Surgical History of the Rebellion" (Surgeon General's Office; War Department, J.B. Lippincott, 1865).

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