I have divided Civil War period amputation and surgical sets into two of the sub-categories: one for period sets (which I have defined as sets made in the years immediately preceding, or during the Civil War), and one for contract-issued sets.
Sets made for civilian use, even those with iron-clad provenance linking it to a physician known to have been a contract surgeon in the Civil War, are not necessarily a “Civil War surgical set”, unless there is serious documentation that it was definitely used by that surgeon during the war. Sets such as this do exist, and are usually ones that were handed down among family members over the years. Note that this is not necessarily limited to American-made sets; Southern physicians frequently purchased English or European-made sets, many of which equaled (or surpassed) the quality of those made in the northern states.
Apart from unquestionable documentation, the only set that can be definitively called a “Civil War Amputation / Surgical Set” is one that was manufactured as a result of a government contract during the Civil War years. The U.S. government had contracts with many firms to produce these sets, and they were made to military specifications. Military sets have different box construction than civilian sets, and have a varied, yet defined set of contents as dictated by the Medical Department. Some firms (Tiemann, Hernstein, Kolbe, Gemrig etc.) were “major” suppliers of sets to the Union Army. Others (Tiencken, etc. ) were “minor”, supplying a far smaller number of sets for use.
Furthermore, contract-issued sets (and sometimes instruments) were often marked “U.S.A. Hospital Department”, or “U.S.A. Medical Department.” This is an area that generates a lot of confusion among collectors, and deserves further explanation.
U.S.A MEDICAL DEPARTMENT vs. U.S.A. HOSPITAL DEPARTMENT
The Army Medical Department was in existence before, during, and after the Civil War. It actually started in Colonial times, and by 1818 was given its first chief, who was titled Surgeon-General. Throughout subsequent wars and conflicts, it was staffed by physicians in the Regular Army. After the outbreak of the Civil War, when volunteer troops were raised, each states’ regiment included one surgeon and one (later two) assistant surgeons. But these were volunteer physicians, not ones that were in the Regular Army. By August of 1861, shortly after the first battles of the Civil War, the U.S. Army Medical Department consisted of a startling paucity of physicians: 1 surgeon-general with the rank of colonel (Dr. Clement A. Finley), 37 surgeons with the rank of major, and 82 assistant surgeons with the rank of lieutenant (promotion to captain after 5 years) – only 120 medical officers. Though (relatively speaking) few in number, keep in mind that the most experienced surgeons were those in the Regular Army. In the years just before the Civil War and during the first year, some of the country’s major instrument makers (like Snowden and Brother) furnished sets to this small contingent of physicians. Following the Federal defeat at Manassas in the summer of 1861, and the grim realization the war might last years and not months, the ranks of physicians swelled. It now included physicians who were Regular Army, as well as volunteer army (i.e. regimental) surgeons, as well as “contract surgeons” – civilian physicians who were not part of a military regiment or unit, but who “signed on” for a specified period of time to serve as surgeons during the war. Some of these contract physicians did bring their own (civilian) sets with them, but due to the increased demand, the Army Medical Department also began purchasing standardized sets and instruments from major contract suppliers such as Snowden, Hernstein, Tiemann, Kolbe, and Gemrig.
So in short, sets marked with “U.S.A. Medical Department” could have been used before, during or after the Civil War. When trying to pin down a set to a specific period of time, one looks at the type and construction of instruments in the set, and the manufacturer’s trade label, when present. Many manufacturers moved shop and had several successive addresses over their lifetime, so the address on the label can allow one to narrow down set production to a specific time-frame. For reasons that will be noted below, sets made during the Civil War years marked “U.S.A. Medical Department” are actually rarer than ones marked “U.S.A. Hospital Department”.
The U.S. Army Hospital Department was created within the auspices of the U.S. Army Medical Department, so one can think of it as a subset of the Army Medical Department. While there are surgical sets marked “U.S.A. Hospital Department” that were used during the Mexican War, and books and instruments so marked that were made in the 1870’s, there is no doubt that the Army Hospital Department’s zenith was in the years during the Civil War, 1861 -1865. With the creation of the Volunteer Army following the fall of Fort Sumter, it was clear that the all of the manufacturers needed to suddenly ramp up production. Each state’s volunteer regiment had on its staff a regimental surgeon and one (later two) assistant surgeons.
Civil War surgical sets with the Hospital Department marking were purchased by the Federal government for use by both regular Army and U. S. volunteer surgeons in the Union military system. The need was so great during this time, that both major and minor manufacturers, under contract with the U.S. Government, rolled out surgical sets by the thousands to be used by regiments and hospitals. The end result is that sets marked “U.S.A. Medical Department” number FAR fewer than Hospital Department marked sets.
The “take home message” is this:
U. S. Army Hospital Department surgical or medical sets were made by American makers (Tiemann, Hernstein, Kolbe’, Gemrig, etc.) expressly for use ‘during’ the Civil War by Union Army surgeons.
U. S. Army Medical Department surgical or medical sets could have existed before, during, or after the Civil War and were made expressly for the Union Army.