Check Out The Groundbreaking Photos that Changed How U.S. Saw Veterans

The Civil War changed America in countless ways, but one big change was that it affected the way Americans thought about war. Modern technology meant that killing was easier than ever, and those who did not die were left with wounds that doctors had never seen before, let alone treated.

But Smithsonian Magazine writes, modern technology was also able to help some of the wounded soldiers. Reed Bontecou, a doctor, decided to use photography, an innovation at the time, to document the casualties of the Civil War. Bontecou practiced medicine for the army in New York when the war broke out and eventually became Surgeon-in-Chief of the war’s biggest federal general hospital. Inside the hospitals, using cartes de visite, he took the pictures and then marked them with a red pencil to show the trajectory of the bullets. The small, palm-sized photographs are pretty haunting, but they helped teach field surgeons about the wounds and allowed veterans get compensation once the war was over.

Check out some of the images below.

Twenty-one-year-old Peter Strien. He was wounded at the battle of Fort Steadman. (U.S. National Library of Medicine)

Ludwig Kohn. He was wounded during the Battle of Gettysburg and returned to the hospital two years later because of terrible rib pain. (U.S. National Library of Medicine)

Twenty-year-old James Stokes. He was wounded at Gravelly Run, Virginia. His elbow later developed gangrene, as shown through this image. (U.S. National Library of Medicine)

At just 19-years-old, John Bowers was shot at the Battle of Fredericksburg. (U.S. National Library of Medicine)

William A. Donan was a sergeant at the battle of Coal Harbor when he was wounded. It passed through his arm and exited his back. (U.S. National Library of Medicine)