A NOTE ABOUT CIVIL WAR AMPUTATION AND SURGICAL SETS…
Almost all of the text below was taken verbatim from the website medicalantiques.com. It is without question the most comprehensive source of information about medical and surgical antiques available on the internet. I would strongly encourage anyone interested in this area to pay a visit. At the site, you can also access a virtual tour of the Arbittier Museum of Medical History, created by Douglas Arbittier, M.D., which houses the most exquisite collection of medical and surgical antiques held in private hands.
The category of Civil War Cased Surgical Sets has been divided into Civil War-Period Amputation and Surgical Sets and U.S. Army Contract Sets.
Due to the large number of items within a relatively short time-frame (1861 – 1865), the category of Civil War Cased Surgical Sets has been divided into sub-categories: Civil War-Period Amputation and Surgical Sets (which I have defined as sets made in the years immediately preceding, or during the Civil War), and U.S.A Contract Hospital and Medical Department 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.