ca. 1860’s, [post mortem ambrotype portait of a Union officer in his coffin] via Cowan’s Auction It was not until the Civil War when embalming became commonplace in America. With soldiers fighting and dying sometimes hundreds of miles from home, the sanitary and aesthetic issues arising from transporting a body over several days, sometimes weeks on trains, was quickly resolved through a mortician’s hand and embalming procedures.

ca. 1860’s, [post mortem ambrotype portait of a Union officer in his coffin]

via Cowan’s Auction

It was not until the Civil War when embalming became commonplace in America. With soldiers fighting and dying sometimes hundreds of miles from home, the sanitary and aesthetic issues arising from transporting a body over several days, sometimes weeks on trains, was quickly resolved through a mortician’s hand and embalming procedures.