To Kill and to Heal: Weapons and Medicine of the Civil War September 21, 2012

The deadliest weapon of the Civil War was one that nobody could see, killing two soldiers for every one felled by gunfire. The extraordinary casualties caused by that invisible killer, disease; the conventional weapons used to create slaughter on an unprecedented scale; horrific injuries suffered on the battlefield; and the heroic efforts of medical personnel to treat soldiers on both sides are described in detail in this exhibit. 'To Kill and to Heal: Weapons and Medicine of the Civil War' opened around the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Shiloh, the first Civil War battle with massive casualties on a scale that indicated what the remaining years of the war would bring.