Fort Union 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

John Burford, a Brigadier General, had received a bullet to the knee during the Second Battle of Manassas. Luckily Buford’s bullet wound wasn’t too serious. If the wound had been serious, it would have been treated with amputations and since there were no anesthetics back then, the person getting amputated on would feel all the pain. Surgeries during the Civil War were performed unsanitary. Surgeons would not wash their hands before operating and would wear blood splattered clothing. The instruments used for operating were never disinfected properly. Instead, they would dip their instruments in cold water, often bloody from the prior operation. Buford had died in December 1863 of

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

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.

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

Only 2,898 out of 12,000 soldiers fell ill during December of 1777 but the numbers rose when the new year came. By February 1778 there were only 8,000 soldiers left and the illness count rose to 3,989. That is over 1,000 more soldiers sick in less than a month! I do not have as strong an immune system as some people so I feel as if I would get sick from being around all the infected soldiers. Between December 1777 and June 1778 according to Document A 1,800 to 2,500 soldiers died. That is a lot of

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,

People like Clara Barton and William A. Hammond played a strong part in the medical field during the Civil War. Clara Barton, a humanitarian and founder of the American Red Cross, cared for wounded and delivered a lot of medical supplies and administered relief at the Battle of Antietam in September of 1862. Every effort was made to prevent death by human error and ignorance through the development of organized and more advanced practices. William A. Hammond was a surgeon general and he standardized, organized and designed new hospital layouts and inspection systems. William also wrote the book on hygiene for the army (Dixon np).

Fort Monroe, Virginia, has been a major post of the U.S. Army for over 166 years. Fort Monroe is the largest stone fortication in the United States, moated and covering sixty-three acres and cost nearly two million dollars. It was the crown jewel of America’s defense and was built at a great expense following the British invasion during the War of 1812 and named after President James Monroe. Fort Monroe was a vital piece in America’s defense and history.

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

Amongst almost 3 million Civil War soldiers, over 600,000 lost their lives defending their notions of freedom and liberty in America. Approximately two-thirds of these soldiers, nonetheless, died from disease rather than wounds received on the battlefield. Lack of efficient medicine and health care caused much more impacting damage, as well as scarce, not up-to-date resources, and social divisions between the soldiers. Typically, an average Civil War soldier could expect to face extreme hardships and difficulties in their wartime lifestyles, including bad weather, unprepared, inappropriate clothing, spreading infections, and tensions regarding race and gender. Across

Doctors and surgeons involved in the war were high in demand and were often sent to the battlefields untrained lacking the fundamentals of medicine and understanding of the importance of sanitation. “It was the tragedy of the era that medical knowledge of the 1860’s had not yet encompassed the use of sterile dressings, antiseptic surgery, and the recognition of the importance of sanitation and hygiene".2 This made it extremely difficult for doctors and surgeons treating injured soldiers because outbreaks of diseases spread quickly and easily due to lack of implementing basic sanitation rules. Things like changing clothes with vomit or bile on them, having clean water and food, sterilizing equipment, or keeping the treatment areas clean could have prevented many deaths. Unfortunately, because the doctors of the era were lacking the knowledge and expertise we have now, many soldiers with gunshot wounds would have had an amputation. Since there were no antibiotics during this time, it was easier to amputate an arm or leg than treat a gunshot wound to the area because the bullets were made from a solid ounce of lead and would shatter into many small pieces on impact. Performing amputations allowed for surgeons to move quickly from patient to patient and treat a larger number of soldiers increasing the number of lives

There was limited supply of medical equipment as a result they were using saws, scalpels, and knives to operate surgery in the field. It was long ago before the introduction of sterility of medical instrument and so the instrument became bridge of contamination of disease between soldiers. “Recalled on surgeon; ‘we operated in old blood-stained coats with infected hand” (Oates, 362). It was a head of discovery of antibiotic, wounds and scars could easily develop to infection and therefore limited their survival. Doctors and nurses were limited in number as well their distribution center around the battle. Soldiers were wounded so badly and doctors knew nothing except to devise amputations. They did all they can to alleviate the pain of the wounds by amputation but they were too surpassed by patients. There were no ambulances to carry victims to the medical centers nor had the doctors to see every patient with special

Development of Fort Sumter was occurring when South Carolina withdrew from the Union on December 1860. At the time just two organizations of government troops watched the harbor.Robert Anderson instructed that these organizations were positioned at Fort Moultrie. Perceiving that Fort Moultrie was defenseless against an area attack, Anderson chose to surrender it for the all the more effectively faultless Fort Sumter on December 26, 1860. South Carolina volunteer army powers grabbed the city's different fortresses a short time later, leaving Fort Sumter as the solitary government station in Charleston. A standoff followed until January 9, 1861, when a boat called the Star of the West touched base in Charleston with more than 200 U.S. troops and supplies proposed

Fort Sumter was statically important because of it is location on the entrance to the harbor in Charleston, South Carolina. Charleston was a major city and sea port in the South. Before Lincoln’s inauguration, several states started to secede from the Union and during this time many of the federal forts were seized. There was little opposition on taking over the forts as they were not manned very well. Most of the regular Army soldiers were stationed in the west to protect setters from Indians attacks.