Amputations During The Civil War Essay

The most popular out of all the equipment was the amputation saw. Many times, the only way to save a person’s life was through amputation. Surgeons would have to cut off the damaged portion of the body with the amputation saw made out of a steel blade and wooden handle. “Rather than being comfortably anaesthetized, the soldiers had to grit their teeth through the pain of having their limbs amputated.” (Daily Mail)

Even though there was not any sanitation the chance of survival for stretched then pervious wars. Doctors had medical kits, which included different tool for cutting such as knives, scalpels, bone saws, chain saw, suture and bandages. Thermometers were rarely used. Doctors did have some painkillers, but they were not always given to all soldiers. The most effective were morphine and opium. What happened after the surgery? Soldiers were transported to a hospital by ambulance. Soldiers were normally in horrible pain making the trip almost unbearable to deal with. The greatest risks for soldiers were now infection.

The Civil War had a tremendous death toll. In fact, it had more deaths than any of the previous wars combined. At the time, it was thought that the soldiers in battle died from the wounds or amputations they received. The true cause of death came from disease. These harsh conditions were contributed by unqualified doctors and non-sterile equipment. During the Civil War, the true issue was not only the wounds received in battle but the infectious diseases that ultimately led to the soldier’s death. When this was discovered, doctors knew some action needed to take place. Hospitals and sanitation standards were improved. The Civil War contributed to an evolution of medicine and how to combat victims plagued with disease.

One of the first nurses to see battle injuries was Ms. Fannie Beers who described the arrival of the first 200 soldiers at a makeshift hospital “they came with some form of disease whether on foot or stretcher, barefoot or on swollen feet”. (12) The battlefront hospitals were only that of open area sites with conditions anything but sanitary, with blood, human waste and amputated limbs covering the ground. The first battle women encountered was with their selves. Only their strong religious faith steeled them against sickening sights of disease and infection. These nurses learned to rein in their feelings and believed patients redemption hallowed their work.

During the Civil War, medicine was an important aspect for every soldier due to the fact that many soldiers had to fight and ended up with injuries also there were many types of illnesses. In this essay, I will focus on the advance of medicine during the Civil War. Also how the soldiers and civilians were treated as well as how sanitize their location was, are questions I will try to answer. Also, I will like to include some of most known causes of deaths during the Civil War and the types of diseases that soldiers would come in contact with. Include who was in charge of the hospitals during the war. I will also include information from letters and documents that the nurse and doctors wrote while the Civil War was going one and what kind of establishments were created and the kind of equipment they used in the hospital. Since the period of the Civil War was and is consider to be the start and growth of the medical industry it is important for me to find out why.

During the Civil War, they had to have many medicines, operations, and surgeries done to themselves or others in order to survive (Jenny Goellnitz, Paragraph 1). Some of these medicines we still use today. Medical technology and scientific knowledge have changed dramatically since the Civil War, but the basic principles of military health care remain the same. The deadliest thing that faced the Civil War soldier was disease. For every soldier who died in battle, two died from disease.

The Civil War was a trying time in American History; societies crumbled, lives were lost, and a nation was torn apart in order to be made whole. However, was this conflict inevitable? Were the North and the South destined to battle out their differences? Were the decisions made by President Abraham Lincoln to make war on the CSA justified? While there is much deliberation on this topic, the final answer is yes to each and every question. The North and the South, though they shared many similarities, were irreparably divided over the slavery issue, such that conflict could not be avoided. Lincoln’s deliberations on the situations of the day were the only acceptable response to the issues at hand. Disagreement caused by the slavery issue

During the Civil War the only major problem second to getting shot in the face, was a shot to the chest. At the time doctors did not really understand how to treat a wound of that type, and usually the major issue was the negative pressure exerted outwards, leading to the collapse of the lungs and soon after, suffocation. Contributing to this problem, the doctors observed that during their war, the french had an 8 percent survival rate from major damage to the chest, leading to many medical practitioners to simply refuse treating chest wounds. Early into the war, however, soldiers would be blessed with the miracle of knowledge, knowledge of how to close chest wounds. Benjamin Howard, a young assistant surgeon, otherwise known as a cub surgeon,

In the Battle of Gettysburg that took place on July 1, 1863, and ended on July 3, many casualties and injuries resulted from the fighting between those few days, leading to the victory of the Union Army. As mentioned in the Killer Angels, the hospitals were tents where soldiers were treated for their wounds on the battlefield, in the view of anyone and everyone. Amputations were almost every physician’s immediate response to bullet wounds shattering bones, amongst other types of injuries. Medicine was not as advanced back then as it is now, especially in the battlefield. Often, physicians and other medical professionals did not use proper hygienic techniques, which led to further complications due to bacteria and

They didn’t know about germs or anything like that. All they knew was that people were getting sick and dying, about 2/3 of people died from disease (civilwar.org). They didn’t even keep hospital reports until later in the war. Probably the most important nurse in this time was Clara Barton, she was also known as an angel. For instance she was the founder of the American Red Cross in 1881. She was the one who also wanted to clean up the horrible, terrible mess of the hospital (civilwar.org). Example they started to clean themselves and their equipment more often. Also they cleaned up the limb pile, and they started to keep records of their patients’ and what they did to them. Lastly they started to give their patients’ clean bandages and they gave them more water. Giving them more water just helped them stay more hydrated thus making them heal faster. There were three categories of wounded soldiers. There was mortally wounded, slightly wounded, and surgical case (civilwar.org). For instance if they got hurt on the battlefield they wound be given whiskey to help sooth the pain. Well at least until they got to a hospital. The Union army could get to the hospital by horseback or train, while the Confederate army only had horseback. For the Union army there was about 10,000 doctors, while for the Confederate army there was about 4,000. They treated about 10,000,000 people during the civil war (pacivilwar150.com). Their assistants were the ones who gave them their equipment, and they were the ones who had the chloroform. One of the military hospitals were called Fairfax Seminary and it housed over 1,700 sick and wounded soldiers right when it opened

When Walt Whitman wrote that he believed the "real war" would never get into the books, this is the side he was talking about (Belferman 1996). Yet, it is important that we remember and recall the medical side of the conflict too, as horrible and terrifying as it was (Adams 1952). Long before doctors and people knew anything about bacteria and what caused disease was the time of Civil War medicine. Doctors during the Civil War (always referred to as "surgeons") were incredibly unprepared. Most surgeons had as little as two years of medical school because very few pursued further education. At that time, Harvard Medical School did not even own a single stethoscope or microscope until well after the

This allows the soldiers to apply pressure without having someone else to assist them. The tourniquets could only be used on wounds that occur on the arms or legs. Fibrin bandages are now used to decrease the loss of blood and the number of deaths. The treatment for a damaged limb at times, for some soldiers, was to amputate at an earlier time because it could later result in a good outcome. Anesthesia was created to prevent a lot of people from suffering pain during the operation. Military and civilian anesthesiology has connections in the treatment of trauma for critical care medicine. A vaccine was created to prevent Smallpox, it helps your body develop an immunity towards

The Civil War was a time period of four years in which the confederacy and union fought over the abolishment of slavery. The Civil War began on April 12, 1861 and ended on May 9, 1865. The president of the confederacy was Jefferson Davis, and their capital was Richmond, Virginia. The president of the Union was Abraham Lincoln, who gave his famous Gettysburg Address speech on November 19, 1863. In the spring of 1865, General Robert E. Lee of the confederates, surrendered their last major army to Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Courthouse. In the Battle of Gettysburg, there were approximately 51,000 casualties, and throughout the war, there were approximately 620,000 deaths. There were many diseases

The Civil War was fought with much carnage, and was one of America’s most ‘uncivilized’, wars with a soldier’s chance of survival about twenty-five per cent. While many were killed by other soldiers, usually through bullets, a large portion died as a result of disease such as: dysentery, mumps, pneumonia, typhoid fever, measles, and tuberculosis, diseases that are curable today. These diseases were spread through the horribly sanitized camps found on both sides of the war: Confederate and Union. And while many died from disease, some died from other soldiers’ bullets; these deaths may have been prevented if the technology, or overall techniques used by surgeons, during this time period were more up-to-date, as amputations were the main procedure

Although most people would not object to the idea that diseases played some sort of role in the Civil War, few truly realize the extent of their influence. As it was stated previously, diseases affected the Northern soldiers and the Southern soldiers in different ways and to different extents. Those differences will be examined later in this paper. There are some issues relating to diseases, however, that affected soldiers in general, not particularly one side of the war. Those factors will be observed here.