Embalming and the American Civil War: How a Battlefield Practice Became Standard

Today, embalming is a routine part of many American funerals. It was not always so. For most of the country’s early history, a body was washed, dressed, and buried within a day or two. The Civil War changed that, and so did the death of one president.

What was death care like before the Civil War?

Before the war, death was a close and personal event, and families cared for their dead at home. Embalming existed, but it was not a normal part of funerals. The National Museum of Civil War Medicine notes that a French chemist, Jean Gannal, introduced a method in the late 1830s that injected preservatives into an artery. That idea is the basis of embalming today.

Who was Thomas Holmes?

Thomas Holmes was a New York doctor who worked as a coroner’s physician in the 1850s. Smithsonian Magazine says he was fascinated by embalming. The standard methods of the time used harsh chemicals such as arsenic and mercury, which he thought were too dangerous for medical students. Holmes experimented with injecting preservative into the arteries instead. Today he is often called the “father of American embalming.”

Why did embalming spread during the war?

Because of distance. During the fighting, soldiers were usually buried near the battlefield. But many families wanted their sons sent home for a proper burial, and hundreds of thousands of men were dying far from home. The first Union officer killed in the war, Colonel Elmer Ellsworth, was a friend of President Lincoln. Holmes offered to embalm his body for free. He was then given a commission to train “embalming surgeons,” who followed the army so that fallen Union soldiers could be preserved and shipped to their families.

Soldiers could carry a card showing that they had arranged to pay for embalming and shipping if they died. Holmes later claimed that he personally embalmed more than 4,000 bodies, though Smithsonian Magazine says this is probably an exaggeration.

How common was embalming during the war?

Less common than many people think. According to the National Museum of Civil War Medicine, only about 40,000 of the roughly 650,000 soldiers who died in the war were embalmed. After the war ended, the practice faded for a time.

What did Lincoln’s funeral have to do with it?

A great deal. When Lincoln was assassinated in 1865, his body was embalmed and carried by funeral train from Washington, D.C., back to Illinois, with stops along the way where huge crowds came to see him. For many Americans, it was their first sight of an embalmed body. Smithsonian Magazine says that after Lincoln’s body made its farewell tour, Holmes’s methods sparked a country-wide trend. The embalmers trained during the war also went home and put their skills to work.

How did embalming become routine?

Over the next few decades. By the late 19th century, embalming was firmly established in the United States, as History.com reports. The funeral industry grew into a large business, with national companies, trade journals, and makers of specialized equipment. The National Funeral Directors Association was formed in 1882, according to the Library of Congress, as cited by Funeral.com.

Is embalming still the standard?

It is common, but in most situations it is not required by law. Many families choose it so that relatives can view the body at an open-casket visitation, while others choose direct cremation, green burial, or a closed casket. For what it involves today, and when the law requires it, read Embalming: What It Is and Whether It’s Required. For how funerals have changed since, see How Have Funerals Changed Over the Last 100 Years?.