Civil War

1127 Words3 Pages

The Civil War was the fundamental event in America's historical realization. The war fixed two necessary questions which left it unclear by the revolution. The war all started because of rigid differences between the freemen and the slave states over the power of the national government to ban slavery in the regions that had not became states yet. The American Civil War was the biggest and by far the most vicious battle in the Western world between the end of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815 and the beginning of World War I in 1914. Northern victory was the war that preserved the United States as one nation and broken the foundation of slavery that had separated the country from its beginning (James McPherson, 2013).
Back in the time of the Civil War, hospitals did not have a lot of medicine. There was not antibiotics and barley any vaccines because back in that time they did not know that germs caused most of the diseases. During the Civil War doctors received inadequate medical education, most surgeons were very unfamiliar with gunshot wounds. The mini ball produced very harsh wounds to soldiers that made it difficult to treat the wounds (National Museum of Health and Medicine, 2014).
The Northern and Southern medical departments were not prepared for removing wounded soldiers from the battlefield and transferring them to a hospital. Hospital did their best to care for the sick and wounded. Things such as Blood typing, X-rays, antibiotics, and modern medical tests and procedures were imaginary. Diarrheal diseases affected almost every soldier and killed hundreds of thousands of men (National Museum of Health and Medicine, 2014).
Even though surgeons used ether and chloroform consistently as painkillers, surgery was done with unwash...

... middle of paper ...

...odern-medicine-1103311.htm
National Museum of Health and Medicine, (2014): “Medicine during the Civil War” Retrieved from http://www.medicalmuseum.mil/index.cfm?p=exhibits.nationswounds.page_01
Janet King, (2014): “Civil War Medicine” Retrieved from http://vermontcivilwar.org/medic/medicine3.php
James McPherson, (2013): “A Brief Overview of the American Civil War” Retrieved from http://www.civilwar.org/education/history/civil-war-overview/overview.html
Rochester General Health System, (2014): “Civil War Medicine and the RCH” Retrieved from 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/
OSU Department of History, (2014): “Civil War Medicine” Retrieved from http://ehistory.osu.edu/uscw/features/medicine/cwsurgeon/introduction.cfm

Open Document