Fact or fiction: an American Civil War origin of Z-Plasty. I had known that that the procedure?

has been well establish for over a half-century for use in reconstructive/plastic surgery to cosmetically reduce and re-heal radical skin wounds. But today, watching a Rifleman TV episode in which Federal and Confederate Civil War vets find themselves at odds as a result of the rebel’s resentment over a grievous wound endured since that war, the dispute is resolved in the end when the Federal officer makes suggestion to the renegade reb that harks back to surgical innovations from the war years: in particular, to a “Z” procedure by which a wound could be “turned” surgically to assure virtually absolute certainty of recovery.

In spite of its folksy and yet well-versed description, I recognized the former Yank’s description as being no different from a procedure that by sometime in the 20th century, would become prevalent in the plastic surgery arts as a means of reducing laceration scars by turning them to run with the skin grain in order to effectuate optimum scar reduction and cosmetic correction.

So, what does this community think? Did Z-Plasty really and truly find its origins on the battlefield during the era of pre-antiseptic medicine and pre-anesthetic surgery? Or was that TV episode scene an example—no different from haircuts and wardrobes—of drawing from modern-day artifact to rewrite (and dramatize) a history that did not exist when supposed by script to have existed. Your assessments and conjectures, or references and proofs, are gratefully appreciated.