What tools were used for amputations in civil war field hospitals and how were they used ?
During the Civil War, medicine was a hit or miss affair, most injuries resulted in the loss of a limb, if not life. Typically amputation was performed using a surgical saw, which is very similar to a hacksaw. Also buckets of sand were used, the sand was dumped on the floor to soak up the excess blood to help prevent the surgeon from slipping and hot tar was also used infrequently to be placed over the open wound and prevent bleeding, fire was also used as a means of cauterization. The procedure is as simple as it sounds, patients were commonly unconcious due to the severity of their injury’s and awakened days or hours later to find an arm or leg missing, if the soldier/sailor was unfortunate enough to be awake, then he was given a few shots of whiskey or bourban if it was available and then given a rawhide strip, or even a stick to bite down on while the procedure took place. In most cases, men who did not die before or during the operation died in the weeks following due to infection.
