What Medicines Were Used?
Medical and surgical material available on the firing line was practically carried by the surgeon in his case known as the surgeons field companion , and by his orderly in the hospital knapsack , a bulky bag weighing about twenty pounds when filled. Medicines were carried in pill form, often insoluable with results uncertain. The liquid form was difficult to carry and often lost. Soluble tablets were unknown. In the event of a battle, the assistant surgeon and one or more detailed men, supplied with lint, bandages, opium pills, some morphine, whiskey and brandy, would establish an advance or dressing station just beyond musket fire. Civil War surgeons not only had iodine but also carbolic acid, and a long list of disinfectants such as bichloride of mercury, sodium hypochlorite, and other agents. Anesthetics were almost always used in operations or the dressing of painful wounds. It was practically universal in the Union, and very seldom unavailable in the Confederacy. However, there ar
