When the Civil War began in April 1861, people knew nothing about infections and what the cause of infections was. The monumental amount of wounded soldiers presented challenges for the naive medical field. A total of 620,000 soldiers died during the Civil War from combat, starvation, and from disease (Civil War Facts, 2014). For every soldier who died in combat, two others died of disease. The reason was due to unsanitary and filthy conditions, untrained and unprepared medical staff. Medical boards were approving inadequate students due to the demand of help needed to treat wounded soldiers. Most Civil War physicians had only treated colds and sore throats prior to the war. Many of the physicians had never treated a gunshot wound or preformed a surgical procedure until the war. The risk of surgery was tremendous, due to the high rates of post-surgical infection. Unsanitary hospitals and camps housed the wounded soldiers all in the same area, which was a breeding ground for infections and the spread of diseases. Soldiers from rural areas were not immune to childhood diseases such as mumps, measles and chickenpox’s. This would result in a camp having an outbreak of measles. Soldiers faced other various diseases such as malaria, camp itch, typhoid and dysentery. Malaria which is a disease that can cause a high fever was brought into the camps by mosquitos. Conditions around the camp were damp and dark, which made it a breeding ground for mosquitos. The single greatest killer of soldiers was Dysentery. Dysentery is a severe form of diarrhea. According to the Civil War Academy, a total of 95,000 soldiers, 50,000 confederate and 45,000 union soldiers died from Dysentery (Civil War Diseases, 2014). Typhoid fever aka “camp fever” was t... ... middle of paper ... ...on/history/faq/ Civil War Medicine. (2014, 02 16). Retrieved from ehistory: http://ehistory.osu.edu/uscw/features/medicine/cwsurgeon/introduction.cfm Civil War Medicine and the RCH. (2014, 03 12). Retrieved from Rochester General Health System: http://www.rochestergeneral.org/about-us/rochester-general-hospital/about-us/rochester-medical-museum-and-archives/online-exhibits/civil-war-medicine-and-the-rochester-city-hospital/ Medical Talk. (2014, 03 23). Retrieved from National Park Service: http://www.nps.gov/wicr/forteachers/upload/Medical-Tools-for-teachers.pdf Medicine in the Civil War. (2014, 02 16). Retrieved from University of Toledo: http://www.utoledo.edu/library/canaday/exhibits/quackery/quack8.html Minie Ball. (2014, 02 16). Retrieved from Kentucky Historical Society: http://www.ket.org/artstoolkit/statedivided/gallery/resources/minieball/minieball_more.pdf
In document “A” which is from various says at Valley Forge in December 23, 1777 2,898 soldiers were counted ill. Later at Valley Forge in February 1, 1778 3,989 soldiers were counted ill. Also from various sources between December and June 1,800 to 2,500 soldiers died due to illnesses. Imagine you being one of those ill soldiers in cold and snowy Philadelphia.
Sarah Rosetta Wakeman's tale is not unusual. Wakeman was one of many who died from chronic diarrhea. Eventually dysentery would kill nearly half a million soldiers during the war. The Civil war was a terrible, bloody war, and many facts are still unknown or unconfirmed, Wakeman’s letters offer a rare glimpse into civil war life that is confirmed and accurate. This is true simply because her letters were written during her serving actively in the army, rather than a set of memoirs or stories compiled after the fact for publication purposes.
One of the major diseases that almost permanently affected the soldiers was Shell Shock which was due to constant exposure to horrific scenes of death. Source A1 is an extract from a historian writing for the First World war aimed at students, focuses on ...
...men claimed to be sick each day and 36 percent (2,960 roughly) of the men died before the end of the war. With disease running rampid, weapons that obliterated soldiers, and defense systems to hold the men at bay, chances of survival during the Civil War were extremely limited.19
One of the biggest problems was sanitation. Clean water for drinking and bathing was rare and illness from poor hygiene or contaminated water was very common. Most of the camps were in tight groups and contagious diseases such as chickenpox, colds or the flu would spread over camp within
Hygiene was extremely poor prior to and during World War 1, especially for soldiers. Because of this and the fact that fighting soldiers couldn’t clean up wounds quickly enough, there were many deaths caused by infection alone. One big issue was trench foot. This was an awful infection caused by soldiers standing in the trenches for too long during battles. Over the course of the war, hygiene and infectious issues were being better dealt with. These issues led to vaccinations and treatment advancements. The earliest forms of the vaccinations and treatments used today were actually introduced in 1914. Those vaccinations and treatments have been improved upon since World War 1. One of the most fascinating things regarding medical procedures at this time has to be blood transfusions. It was 1917, when the first of hundreds of millions of blood transfusions was made. This idea has been improved upon as
In the early 1900’s the United States’ medical field was stagnant causing many deaths in wartime. The majority of deaths in war times were often caused by diseases that were incurable. The United States medical field had to grow to current needs in war but it grew very slowly. The United States Army Ambulance Service was established on June 23, 1917 and the Sanitary Corps established one week later on the 30th. (David Steinert). The Sanitary Corps quickly expanded to nearly 3,000 officers during World War I but, this field was still much smaller than any other
In the early years of the Civil War it became clear that disease would be the greatest killer. Twice as many Civil War soldiers died of disease then that were killed in combat. This was due to unsanitary and filthy conditions, untrained Medical personnel and poor medical examination of new soldier’s. One fact from the Civil War was 315,000 soldiers died from illnesses that included: 44,558 from diarrhea/dysentery, 10,063 from malaria, 34,833 from typhoid, 958 from typhus and 436 from yellow fever.
At Valley Forge, the weather and conditions were terrible (Document C) so I could get sick and die, and in Document A it stated that 1800 - 2500 died just because of sickness, which means that most people have already gotten sick, including doctors like Dr Waldo (Doc C) so the doctors would not be able to help too much with your sickness. Because of all the sick soldiers(Doc C and A), I can infer that when we go into battle we'd be very weak and we'll have a very slim chance of
Galenic practices that originated in the second century were still the predominant medical concepts almost fourteen hundred years later, and with little advancement beyond the humoral theory that promoted exsanguinations as cure, they further weakening those afflicted with fever and assured they did not survive. The chapter entitled Deadly Fevers, Deadly Doctors is, by McNeill’s own admission, rife with modern criticism and judgment that, “are not up to the standards of the historical profession” (63). That being said, the humor he injects in this chapter keeps the reader from setting aside what could easily devolve into a depressing clinical narrative of the brutish death that accompanied yellow fever. The tone may not be up to academic standards, but the research is, at least for the European contribution. Whether one agrees with his arguments or not, McNeil has proven the relevance of disease study in attempts to reconstruct historical contexts. The main take away from this chapter is that the confusion surrounding the transmission of diseases is part of the reason armies were sent over and over again in spite of the infectious disaster that repeatedly cut through the ranks, at great expense both in men and in
During the American Civil War, which lasted from 1861-1865, over 620,000 accounted soldiers were killed. Known as the "the first modern war", historians generally agree that the reason for this was because this was a time of transition for the military. Armies and Navies were still using tactics where they would gather large forces of firepower to bear on the enemy. At the same time, weapons were being developed which were accurate and lethal well beyond any arms of the earlier conflicts. As a result of these two conditions many more casualties were sustained. Add to that the lack of medical knowledge of disease and infection and the numbers truly began to grow. This paper is an overview of the types of weaponry that was used during this time.
Medical Procedures of a Civil War surgeon. The routine of medical procedures during the Civil War are presented and how surgery developed during the Civil War. The article called “To Make Something Out of the Dying in This War,” by Shauna Devine, talks about the rise of medical science throughout and the experience of injured soldiers. The reading states Pvt. Charles McElroy of Connecticut was transferred from the Eleventh Army Corps Hospital to the Jarvis USA General Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland. He was suffering from a wound to the left leg, received during the Battle of Gettysburg. The case report noted that the whole belly of the gastrocnemius and soleus muscles had been carried away by the fragment of a shell. Due to the rise and advancement of
... soldiers were attacked by diseases called dysentery, smallpox and typhus. Doctors soon realized that these diseases could be contained or less spread by improving sanitation. This was the time when vaccinations were discovered to treat smallpox and became mandatory in the U.S. Another sanitation change that was introduced was the use of proper footwear and clothing for soldiers. By 1814 the army had raised its sanitations standards helping to stop the spread in these common diseases.
Since during the civil war times the education about medical tools and medicine, the doctors would often use the same tools continuously on many of the wounded soldiers. This would spread the disease more than they already were. Also the soldiers were not so hygienic themselves, neither were the doctors. The soldiers would not shower daily and the doctors would not clean
During the Civil War they really worked towards building more hospitals and it drove the nursing profession to grow and have a large demand for nurses, but they were more like volunteers, such as wives or mistresses who were following their soldier men. Being a war nursing at that time was seen as a job for the lower class and no “respectable” woman could be seen in a military hospital. During the Civil War Phoebe Levy Pember, a young widow, went north to the confederate capital of Richmond. She eventually ran the world’s largest hospital, where on an average day she would supervise the treatment of 15,000 patients who were cared for by nearly 300 slave women. The war then led to a greater respect for nurses which was noticed by Congress. They then passed a bill providing pensions to Civil War nurses, but more importantly this led to the profe...