A Dose of Civil War Medicine

As Civil War battles raged around central Maryland in 1862, the city of Frederick served as a refuge for the sick and wounded. In fact, following the nearby battles of South Mountain and Antietam, more than 9,000 injured Union and Confederate soldiers poured into Frederick for medical attention. Residents, who numbered some 8,000 at the time, turned 27 buildings, including churches, schools and hotels, into makeshift hospitals in an effort to care for the soldiers.

Today, that rich history is remembered at the National Museum of Civil War Medicine—the only museum of its kind. Housed in a former three-story furniture store on Frederick’s Patrick Street—which once manufactured wooden coffins—it eloquently tells the story of the medical side of the Civil War, in which some 620,000 Americans lost their lives. Dramatic dioramas and detailed displays give equal weight to the Confederate and Union sides and the roles of surgeons and nurses during the war.

The museum also tells the story of the advances made in medicine during the conflict—the use of ether and chloroform during surgery, the growing awareness of the importance of cleanliness, the strides made in plastic surgery and orthopedics, and the first development of a medical evacuation system that became the model for those in use today. Surprisingly, most deaths weren’t from combat; two-thirds of those who died from 1861 to 1865 died of disease, not bullets and bayonets. But that’s just a small part of the museum.

Founded in 1990 and opened to the public in 1996 after a $3 million fund-raising campaign, the museum found an appropriate home in Frederick, “a town that takes its history seriously,” says Elizabeth Shatto, coordinator of Frederick Historic Sites Consortium. The organization features more than two dozen sites, including the Barbara Fritchie House, a monument to former resident and Star-Spangled Banner author Francis Scott Key, and the nearby Monocacy National Battlefield, where Union Gen. Lew Wallace blunted Gen. Jubal Early’s drive on Washington.

Today, however, a look at Frederick offers a blend of old and new. The downtown’s tree-lined streets speak of peace and prosperity. Antique stores, specialty shops, and sidewalk cafes invite visitors to linger and sit awhile. Fifty blocks of the downtown make up the Frederick Town Historic District and some of its two- and three-story brick buildings date back to Colonial days.

The city, in fact, has long imposed a limit on the height of new buildings, so the tallest structure in Frederick (pop. 40,148) is just six stories. That was done, says George Wunderlich, director of the medical museum, to protect the skyline created by “the clustered spires of Frederick,” described in John Greenleaf Whittier’s poem Barbara Fritchie, as standing “green-walled by the hills of Maryland.”

The city’s devotion to historic preservation is what convinced Dr. Gordon Dammann, a 58-year-old Illinois dentist, to choose Frederick as the site for a museum dedicated to the Civil War’s medical history. A self-described Civil War buff, Dammann first thought of Antietam National Battlefield as a potential site for his extensive collection of medical artifacts while participating in an historic re-enactment there in the 1980s. That didn’t work out, but during research he learned of the significant role Frederick had played as a medical hub. After a visit to the city, which brought a “tremendously friendly reception,” planning for the museum began.

“This is a great town to be in,” Wunderlich says. “We fit here. The town likes what we do, and we like the direction they’re going.”

Dammann feels the same way, describing the museum’s location in Frederick as “a perfect fit. The town, the state of Maryland, everyone, has been very good to us,” he says.

But that’s the way it is in Frederick, where thousands of wounded once found succor and kindness, and today’s visitors will find a different hospitality, but no less warming welcome.

Former American Profile editor Richard Matthews writes from his home in Goshen, Va.

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