Illustration in The Medical and Surgical History of the War of the Rebellion, Prepared in Accordance with the Acts of Congress, Under the Direction of the Surgeon General Joseph K. Barnes, United States Army. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1870-1888.

From the beginning of the Civil War, the office of the Surgeon General instituted a systematic plan to collect complete documentation of battlefield injuries. Army doctors were asked to send specimens to the Army Medical Museum in Washington. In addition to specimens, physicians were required to complete detailed reports on treatments. When veterans filed pension requests, these requests were forwarded to the Surgeon General’s Office, where an attempt was made to verify the disability based upon the reports and specimens. After the war, the reports were compiled into a heavily illustrated set of six volumes of over 6000 pages, estimated to cost over $100,000 to print. The books were used by doctors after the war as case studies for dealing with traumatic injuries, particularly orthopedic injuries.