Battlefield medicine from the Civil War to WWII. Fascinating photographs reveal the history.

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[h=1]War wounds: Fascinating photographs reveal the history of battlefield medicine from the Civil War to WWII[/h]

• The first images show the brutal devastation of the Civil War and soldiers who have faced amputations
• Then some of the photgraphs detail the First World War, including an improvised hospital in a wrecked church
• The War in the Pacific is also covered, with soldiers being transported on stretchers made from bamboo

 

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Enthralling old-fashioned photographs have emerged that delve into the realities and consequences of war for the American people from the Civil War to World War Two.
The vintage stereo cards show groups of soldiers lying lifelessly in the middle of a field during the Civil War and an American army doctor wounded in France helplessly lying on a bench.
Other images include a heroic medical officer attending to injured American soldiers and impaired US Army Signal Corps waiting at a mobile hospital for evacuation in Australia during WW2.

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These confederate soldiers, pictured in Fredricksburg, Virginia were wounded in the Battle of the Wilderness in 1864

 

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These dead confederate soldier lies in a trench beyond a section of chevaux-de-frise near Peterburg, Virginia in April 1865

 

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This Army surgeon in attending wounded soldiers in a field hospital during the Spanish-American war in 1898

 

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Another photograph depicts wounded soldiers being treated in an old, war-torn, church in France in 1918.
The Civil War took place between 1861 to 1865, when Abraham Lincoln was serving as 16th American president.
At the start of the Civil War, the demand for portrait photography was high.. A Scottish photographer, Alexander Gardner, decided to cover the war.



Gardner took what was thought to be the last photograph of the president, only five days before his assassination.
After the war, Gardner's employer and fellow photographer, Matthew Brady, established a gallery for Gardner in Washington, D.C.
'It is designed to speak for itself. As mementos of the fearful struggle through which the country has just passed, it is confidently hoped that it will possess an enduring interest,' Gardner said about his work.

 

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This intriguing photograph from the civil war shows French Zouave infantry loading wounded soldiers onto a wagon

 

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Some of these Union soldiers have had limbs amputated by surgeons in a hospital near Frederiksburg, Virginia

 

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These union soliders, who were under Philip Kearney at Fredericksburg in 1864, were being treated by volunteer nurse Abby Gibbons of New York City

 

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The 57th NY Ambulance Corps were busy here clearing the battlefield in Fredericksburg, Virginia in 1864

 

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This is a Mexican solider who had all of his toes shot off during the Mexican war of 1914 being treated by Dr Braden in Presidio, Texas

 

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These US soldiers are being treated in a badly damaged church in France by members of the 4th Ambulance company

 

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These soldiers are recuperating in London during the First World War smoking cigarettes supplied by the American Red Cross

 

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Away from the front line: These troops are being treated in a hospital train in France during the First World War

 

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These native stretcher bearers are carrying US troops from the front lines in Buna New Guinea in 1942

 

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Medical Officer Captain John Branson is treating injured American soldiers in the Pacific sometime between 1942 and 1945

 

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These members of the US Army Signal Corps are awaiting evacuation to Australia from a portable hospital in the Pacific

 

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A wounded american solider receives a blood transfusion at an improvised hospital in New Guinea c1942-1945