(1/11) Thomas Holmes—the “Father of Modern Embalming”—had an unusual way of advertising his services during the American Civil War. In shop windows, he displayed the preserved bodies of unknown soldiers, which he collected from battlefields. Buckle up for today's THREAD!

(2/11) Prior to the Civil War, embalming was used chiefly to preserve specimens. Surgeons and anatomists often used arsenic when creating dry mount displays from cadaverous remains. By and large, it worked, though many anatomists suffered arsenic poisoning as a result.

(3/11) The nature of embalming changed during the Civil War. Suddenly there was a need to return the bodies of dead soldiers to their families. It was during this period that the foundations of the modern funeral industry were laid, & the professional embalmer began to emerge.

(4/11) The embalming craze took off when an Army Medical Corps colonel (and close friend of President Lincoln) became the first Union officer to be killed. On 24 May 1861, Colonel Elmer Ellsworth was shot while removing a Confederate flag from the roof of a Virginian hotel.

(5/11) News of the shooting traveled quickly to Washington. Holmes offered his services to Ellsworth’s family, and the captain’s preserved body was taken to the White House, where it lay in state for several days.

(6/11) Lincoln was so impressed that he asked Holmes to help out in the war effort. Setting up battlefield embalming sheds, Holmes trained numerous surgeons in his new technique, and then sold them his “safe” embalming solution for $3 per bottle.

(7/11) Embalmers following the Union and Confederate armies around the country were portrayed as vultures fattening themselves on the dead. They pitched tents close to battle sites, and offered soldiers the chance to pre-pay for their own embalming should they be killed.

(8/11) Pictured here is the embalmer Richard Burr, who was sued when he took possession of a soldier’s body after battle and then tried to extort $100 from the family for its release.

(9/11) In January 1865, General Ulysses S. Grant withdrew embalmers’ permits & ordered them beyond the lines to stop them affecting morale. In March, the War Department issued an order which allowed practitioners to act only under a special license.

(10/11) Holmes’s continued to offer his services till the bitter end. By the time General Lee surrendered on 9 April 1865, the surgeon had embalmed over 4,000 soldiers. The war had made Thomas Holmes a very rich and famous man.

(11/11) I hope you enjoyed this thread! If you’d like to learn more about this subject, check out my video about the embalming of Abraham Lincoln on my YouTube Channel #UnderTheKnife:

You may also enjoy @CivilWarMed if this topic piqued your curiosity!