No. 5 Field Surgical Set

No. 5 Field Surgical Set, Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of American History

“Assistant Surgeon was the title given to the entry-level rank of commissioned physicians in the armies of both the North and the South. Men who received this rank normally had a medical degree and had passed an examination except during the early days of the war when the examination system had not yet been instituted for the volunteer regiments. Usually assistant surgeons were younger and had less medical experience than surgeons; some were recent medical school graduates. Physicians with considerable experience often became surgeons without holding the lower rank. But many assistant surgeons eventually were able to take and pass the examination for promotion to surgeon.

“Assistant surgeons served in both the field and the hospitals. Most regiments had a surgeon and an assistant surgeon, the latter in charge of most of the ordinary medical care of the soldiers. The assistant surgeon went into battle with his troops and set up a first aid or triage station just behind the lines. Here he did the initial treatment, such as bandaging wounds, stopping bleeding, splinting broken bones, and administering opiates or whisky as painkillers, so the patient could be moved to a field hospital or a general hospital for more extensive treatment.”

Glenna R. Schroeder-Lein. The Encyclopedia of Civil War Medicine. Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe, 2008, page 296