This unusual kit contains an incredible array of instruments and surgical accouterments. The top shelf has small bales of cotton for wetting and packing into wounds. This was done to stimulate the early formation of pus. Remarkably, CW surgeons thought that pus formation was part of the healing process and was to be encouraged, "laudable pus". Because the surgeons of the era had never seen a wound heal without first forming pus, they believed that it was necessary for granulation (scar tissue formation) to occur. In the very rare instances that wounds healed without pus formation, they felt that this was due to a poor physical constitution and constituted what they called "healing by primary intention". Today, this normal type of healing is called "primary healing".

Various bandages were utilized for dressings. Many were donated by the Sanitary Commissions in the North. In the South, less centrally controlled "Ladies Aid Societies" generated donations of bandages and scraped "lint" that was also used to pack wounds.

The smaller drawers contain various tweezers, scissors and clamps for dressing changes. The middle drawer contains a "leech can" for keeping live leeches. They were used, as they still are today, to debride dear or necrotic tissue from grossly infected and gangrenous wounds.

A mortar & pestle combination is used to prepare poultices, anodynes and other medicinals. The different types of bullet extractors or bullet forceps fill the next drawer. Although amputation was the frequent result of a CW bullet wound, surgeons tried to salvage limbs if possible. If the bone was not shattered, if the arteries and veins were not severed and the soft tissue appeared to be viable; then an extraction procedure would be attempted. If the bullet could be removed under these circumstances, then the limb may be salvaged. Obviously, there was much pressure exerted on the surgeon to be able to probe for, locate and extract a bullet.

The probing procedure is mention in the section on "capital amputating instruments". Once the bullet was located, several different means could be used to remove it. A "screw extractor" could be screwed into the rear recess of a Minnie' ball and used to pull the bullet out. The surgeons of Napolean's era invented twin tined device called a "Napolean" to grip the sides of the bullet for removal. A very hearty "orthopedic" extractor utilized a curve recessed gripping surface to grab the length of the bullet. Whatever the means, once the bullet came out, it was ceremoniously tossed into a metal tray so that it could make its characteristic "clang" and let everyone know that the surgery was successful.

The bottom tray contains the rudimentary splints and plaster used to splint fractures bones. Although done without the aid of traction or X-rays, uncomplicated closed fractures could be encouraged to heal with frequent success. Towards the end of the war, various means were invented to apply traction to long bone fractures of the legs with considerable success.