Embalming surgeon

The photograph I posted is, of course, staged. The two doctors probably were actual physicians who practiced their trade at Camp Letterman, north of Gettysburg. Families who could afford it were able to get their loved ones shipped home for burial in the local cemetery. This officer was one of the lucky ones.
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The Civil War embalmer experimented with a wide combination of arsenic, creosote, mercury, turpentine and various forms of alcohol. Formaldehyde was not discovered until 1866.
 
Embalming surgeons and undertakers were not always the same person. At the start of the Civil War, chemical embalming by injection was performed by men with medical training, since they were familiar with the process, these were the embalming surgeons. Undertakers had to perform the various tasks of removing, transporting and preparing the dead for funerals. The medical embalmers associated themselves with the undertakers and offered their special techniques for a fee. Embalming surgeons could also make money as regular army surgeons or a regular doctor while Undertakers found extra money by also being cabinet or coffin and furniture makers.
 
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