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Civil War Blog

A project of PA Historian

John Peters – Saved By Surgeons, Pensioned, But Died in Soldiers’ Home in 1886

| October 21, 2016

John Peters was born in Ulster County, New York, but when the time came to serve in the Civil War, he was in Philadelphia, and it was there that he enrolled in the 115th Pennsylvania Infantry, Company I, as a Sergeant, on 9 April 1862.  Supposedly, he was commissioned a 2nd Lieutenant on 26 January […]

James Ferguson – An Army Surgeon’s Story to Save His Life

| October 10, 2016

On 29 January 1863, according to the U.S. Register of Deaths of Volunteers, James Ferguson, a Sergeant of the 142nd Pennsylvania Infantry, Company D, died at the Stanton General Hospital, Washington, D.C., of “vulnus sclopet,” an abbreviation of the Latin term, vulnus sclopeticum, for “gunshot wound.”  The treating surgeon who verified the death was John […]

Civil War Medicine – Re-enactors

| October 26, 2011

An exhibit sponsored by the Mütter Museum was part of the Civil War Sesquicentennial festivities at Franklin Square, Philadelphia, on the Fourth of July weekend 2011.  The Mütter Museum is part of The College of Physicians, located at 19 South 22nd Street, Philadelphia.   The history of the museum is as follows: In 1856, Thomas Dent […]

Pennsylvania Dutch & the Civil War – Medicine

| January 2, 2011

The previous post on the subject of the Pennsylvania Dutch language noted the words that were used to describe the religious life and ways of many of the people of the Lykens Valley.  This post deals with how the Pennsylvania Dutch people spoke of the medical issues they faced. Going to war meant that returning […]

Pvt. Peter W. Miller – Mental Health & the Civil War

| December 2, 2010

This story appeared in the Tyrone Daily Herald, Tyrone, Pennsylvania, on 29 July 1895: Being unable to longer keep the wolf from his door, Peter W. Miller, an aged and disabled veteran of the late rebellion, made the journey to Washington on foot, and after having shown Pension Commissioner Lochran the scars from wounds received […]