Diseases During the Civil War Essay

Health had to do with their diseases, personal hygiene, and injuries. Some of the diseases during this war that were majorly impacting the soldiers were Typhoids, Pneumonia, Measles, Tuberculosis, Malaria, and Dysentery. These diseases were not just in the Battle of Gettysburg, they were in the whole Civil War and affected everyone. The personal hygiene during the 1800’s left much to be desired. On the battlefield, conditions the soldiers had to live in were gross. They lived in filth and allowed garbage to pile up in their camps. Sometimes when their clothes were infested with lice, they would boil them in pot and then cook with the same pot. During the Civil War there were only 2 major injuries. The 2 main injuries and they were gunshots and

The Civil War was a time of great learning in the medical field. Without these advances, we would live in a completely different world. The question is though, would the same amount of medical supplies and knowledge in both the North or South have changed the eventual outcome of the Civil War? Similar circumstances in medicine would have only affected the mortality rates of both sides, not the outcome of the Civil War. Almost all odds were against the South from the very beginning. It was just a matter of time from the very start.

The diseases that most affected the soldiers,while they were fighting for a cause in the trenches were,Trench Foot,The Trench Influenza and Shell Shock.

The Civil War was not only a time of regional tension, but of personal tension, especially for Confederate army leaders. The constant pressure from needing to defend and protect Southern independence contributed to the rise of anxiety and stress related medical disorders. Robert E. Lee, a brilliant Confederate general and skilled tactician, was such a case. General Lee 's health during his pre-Civil War years was without blemish. However, with the beginning of the Civil War, Lee 's health experienced noticeable decline. Later in his life, doctors diagnosed Lee with pericarditis, but more modern clinical evaluations of Robert E Lee 's symptoms conclude that his condition was more likely attributed to stress induced ischemic heart disease (Mainwaring-Tribble 244). Lee’s condition was accelerated by the wartime stress and contraction of malaria in 1863, leading to pains on the battlefield which impaired strategical judgment.

The diseases soldiers tended to face were small pox, measles, mumps, dysentery, and so on. The list is endless. Dysentery was by far the most lethal during the Civil War (Civil War Diseases 1). There was a 75% chance that if a soldier was injured, an amputation would occur (Civil War Medicine 1). This led to a tremendous death toll due to the bacteria into the wound. There were plentiful reasons as why a soldier contracted these diseases other than a gunshot wound. These reasons included, poor physical upon entering the army, the doctors lack of knowledge when it came to medical information, terrible hygiene, disease causing parasites, and lack of the basic necessities for survival. As you can see, this is a recipe for failure and death. For example, in order to

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

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.

Disease was the number one cause of death during the war. Lack of proper medical knowledge also lead to many deaths. Finally, surgery was so risky and dangerous it too lead to much loss of life.

The soldiers undertook many different diseases and sicknesses, mentally and physically. The faced outbreaks of measles, small pox, malaria, pneumonia, or camp itch. Soldiers would get malaria when camping in damp areas surrounded by mosquitos, while camp

The nineteenth century held one of the most medically appalling wars, as well as one of the most medically innovative wars. The Civil war is considered a terrible time period for medical equipment as well as surgeons. Many soldiers who had been fighting in the Civil War were killed by sicknesses including diarrhea and pneumonia. Surgeons, who had minimum medical experience, were taking care of the wounded soldiers at the time. The idea of sanitizing and sterilizing equipment that was used on a patient beforehand was not known by the inexperienced surgeons. Only a few years later came the Spanish-American war, which showed a vast improvement in the medical field. During the Spanish-American War many important inventions were created. These include the invention of the x-ray, the discovery of the germ theory, and the discovery of the antiseptic method. Both of these discoveries made it much easier for Surgeons to operate on the wounded soldiers. Another beneficial factor that made the Spanish-American War more medically advanced then the civil war was the service of female nurses. The Nurses provided a lot of help for the surgeons at times when there was a lot of work, and assistance was needed. It is clear that the medicinal techniques used during the Civil War were much less advanced than those used during the Spanish American War.

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

 Secondly, during the war which lasted 4 years, 3 weeks and 6 days many men died but these deaths weren’t only caused by fighting on the battlefield. During the war, “2% of the U.S. population died. This is equivalent to 6 million men today. While rifles were the deadliest weapons during the war, disease killed more men. Camps became breeding grounds for measles, chickenpox, and

Medical care was as scarce as clean water. Basic medical care was rudimentary. Describing the situations as “incredibly unhygienic” would be an understatement. War fatalities were the immediate effects of the Great War and the incredible spread of a disease was a later one. As a matter of fact, more people died from the Great Influenza Pandemic than from World War One (Tauenberger1).

In World War One diseases were one of the biggest problem for the solders due to lack of hygiene, medical assistance and little medicine. The most common diseases that the soldiers faced in the war were influenza, typhoid, trench foot, trench fever, malaria, dysentery and diabetes. These disease were caused by soldiers being exposed to cold, wet, windy and damp conditions.