Biological Warfare And The American Civil War

Explain the issues between the CDC and the Army. How could this cause more problems with an outbreak of the virus? Who was in charge of the “mission”? What was the protocol? Cite evidence to support your point.

Dysentery and diarrhea were a result of poor hygiene, close quarters with other sick soldiers and food not properly stored or prepared. Almost thirty percent of the population with chronic diarrhea died, while the survival rate for acute diarrhea was much higher. (Schoeder-Lein 86). Typhoid fever could mimic the symptoms of classic diarrhea and it was at times, hard to diagnose. According to CDC.gov, a person can get typhoid fever if they eat food or drink beverages that have been handled by a person who is shedding Salmonella Typhi or if sewage contaminated with Salmonella Typhi bacteria gets into the water they use for drinking or washing food. Considering the sources of transmitting typhoid fever, it is understandable that this was one of the top killing diseases during the Civil War. Malaria and Yellow fever were both mosquito borne illnesses. Mosquitoes are a nuisance to us today, but during the Civil War they wreaked havoc on the population and caused widespread devastation across the entire land, but primarily in the South. Not just because of the warm climate but the lack of cold weather severe enough to kill the mosquitoes themselves. Yellow fever is a horrific illness that has multiple

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.

If you were a soldier in the Battle of Gettysburg do you think that you would’ve survived? The battle between the Union and the Confederacy lasted three days, from July 1, 1863 to July 3, 1863 and in the end the Union was victorious. The Battle of Gettysburg was the bloodiest battle of the Civil War. The medical knowledge and equipment that the surgeons had back then were no match the types of illnesses and injuries that the soldiers had. The people that were that got shot during the Civil War, either had to get a body part amputated, got their gunshot wound covered with a bandage, opened up the wound to get the bullet out and then patch them up. Three people from The Killer Angels that got shot and just got their wound wrapped with bandage were John Buford, Buster Kilrain, and a runaway slave.

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

“Canada, France, Germany, Japan, Soviet Union and the United Kingdom were among many countries that investigated how to wage biological war.” (pg. 38) Some of these countries have biological weapons programs and even some biological weapons have been used in the past. A Russian program “known to the Soviets as “the Concern Bioreparat”, supposedly a series of laboratories and plants that manufactured vaccines and other medicinal products, was in fact a vast network of secret cities, production plants of Moscow’s germ effort. Bioreparat studied and perfected germs as weapons. President Richard Nixon’s administration became the “world’s leading advocate for a treaty banning germ warfare. Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention- prohibited the possession of deadly biological agents except for research…for vaccines, detection and protective gear. It was the world’s first treaty to ban an entire class of weapons.” (pg. 63) April 1979, an explosion at a secret military base near Soviet city of Sverdlovsk, sent a cloud of Bacillus anthracis fanning over a nearby village, leaving thousands dead. Although the Soviets, had signed the treaty, they denied allegations that this was “nothing more nefarious than tainted meat.” (pg. 77) During the Gulf War, for example, biological weapons developed by Iraq posed a threat and they might, if fact still pose a threat. While US went in search of nuclear

The Civil War, in terms of death, is considered the most brutal in United States history—but it was not because of the way the battles were fought that it was so disturbing, but because of the sheer amount of death in general. Approximately 620,000 soldiers died during the War Between the States, and from those, two-thirds died not in battle, but because of disease. Disease was so rampant and conditions so unhygienic that it not only wiped out hundreds of thousands of lives, but it also wiped out the gallantry that most soldiers hoped they would achieve when they entered the war, and the despair brought on because of disease is evident in the letters the soldiers sent home. Disease was the real enemy, because hygiene and organization were virtually unknown in medical practices, coupled with

Hello, I’m Jane Wildhaber. I was a nurse during the Civil War. 1861 through 1865 were 4 long, horrible years, not because of the fighting. Many diseases were spread during this time due to cramped living conditions. One of the main diseases that us nurses worked with was typhoid fever. It is an acute intestinal infection caused by the salmonella typhi bacteria. It was spread by ingesting contaminated food and water or through close contact with someone already infected. It often afflicted soldiers in the elevated and more northern areas where Civil War armies fought and camped during the winter months. Typhoid Fever killed 81,360 Union soldiers, more than those who died of battle wounds. Symptoms are developed skin lesions called “rose spots”,

Have you ever wondered how medicine during the Civil war is different than how it is now? During the Civil War there wasn’t much medicine. It was known as the Middle Age of Medicine. Diseases went through the camps really fast which was the main cause of death. Doctors didn’t know much about diseases and medicine at this time.

The American Civil War was one of the most devastating in the country’s history. For four years, between 1861 and 1865, the Union and Confederate States of America fought over state’s rights (government) and subsequently the right’s of colored people. When the Southerners surrendered, they returned to the Union, and slavery was abolished. Which created problems within itself. The destruction of property and losses of over 620,000 men is why the Southerners surrender, they were done with war, done with fighting. Although, they were not ready to let go of something that had been a part of their society for a long while. The belief that colored people were lower, and inferior to them. That colored people were to be slaves, and did not have the rights of a citizen. That it was only they should decide what’s best for them, and not the federal government for the country as a whole. The Civil war helped people realize the terribleness of war, and how it left the nation divided as it started.

Many men died during the Civil War. Hundreds of thousands died of disease. An estimated

These biological agents could be viruses, toxins, bacteria, etc. Agents could be used in war or terrorist attacks. Also, they could be modified to cause extreme diseases and disorders, according to The Center for Disease Control and Prevention. It makes bioterrorism even more tempting to use as it is easy and inexpensive to produce, disseminate and can cause a more widespread panic than other acts of terrorism (1).

We are all aware of the tragedy that took place in our nation from 1861 to 1865. The Civil War resulted in needless, devastating deaths of thousands of soldiers. What we might not be aware of, however, is the number one killer throughout those years. More soldiers died from this single calamity than battle wounds or blood loss. The catastrophe that tragically affected more soldiers than any other element of the war was disease.

Firstly, biological/chemical warfare was an enormous part of the Japanese and Chinese war. Various, deadly chemicals were used as torture to the Chinese. Chemicals used such as Flanders and anthrax, were used on the victims bodies to create a lifetime

Project Bioshield will protect the citizens of the United States of America safe from biological threats and warfare. Biological warfare is an act of war by using infectious toxins to wipe out or immobilize humans and animals. An example some these infectious toxins include viruses, diseases, fungi, and bacteria. “Project Bioshield is an attempt to create useful medicines to protect the people of the United States of America from biological and nuclear weapons.” (Progress in the War on Terror)