[Jason G]

Sure!

You are correct, Doctors could become doctors (and this applied to lawyers as well) by one of two ways, either by going to "Medical school" (most of which were 9 months or so long, and the term was 2 years...the 2nd year was an exact repeat of the first..and it was all lectures....almost never did the student get to practice on a 'live' patient...) or apprenctice with a veteran doctor for a number of years, doing (literally) OJT until that doctor felt the student was ready to go out on their own. Medical school was originally intended just to give the student doc the 'book learning', then they would go and "intern" (recognize the term?) with an experienced doctor. However, many didn't, they just hung up a shingle to practice.

Doctors were typically commissioned from the same place as the regiment was raised, but the glaring deficiency that nearly all of them shared was complete lack of knowledge of trauma medicine. They had to learn 'on the job'. Not good if you were a casualty.

Advances in medicine included the widespread acceptance of surgical practice, trauma care, triage, bandaging/splinting, the knowledge of antisepsis (to a degree), brain surgery, "plastic" surgery (because the original appliances were made of gutta percha, an early form of 'plastic', thus the term), the ambulance service, nursing as a profession,and artificial limb manufacture, as well as embalming as an accepted medical practice, are just SOME of the advances brought on by the Civil War.