Joseph Plumb Martin Quotes

Medicine played and still plays a major part in the world. However, modern medicine did not prosper until long after the civil war, which we can assure are some of the reasons many soldiers and residents lives were compromised. From amputations, sanitation, a lack of surgeons and supplies with, contagious fevers and diseases a great deal of people went long winters and summers suffering from things that doctors were incapable of curing solely based on the fact medicine had not reached the level of quality and quantity it needed to be at the time.

During the trench warfare countless diseases and infections spread easily like Trench foot, lice, body lice and the Spanish flu. The easily spreading of diseases and infections was caused by rats and the unhygienic transport of food and water. In the Trench warfare water and food was shipped in large buckets that were often contaminated with diseases and infections. Food was rare this caused soldiers to fight often on an almost empty stomach. They smoked cigarettes to reduce their appetite, but this was of course not healthy and would not help restore strength to their immune system. The difficulties that the soldiers had to endure were making it really hard to survive, it took many young men their lives.

What is often overlooked during this time period, is the medical advancements that were made that are still in place today. During the American Revolution, more soldiers died through disease than by combat or gunshot wounds. Thinking about the concept of war now, most people envision gore, blood, and the trauma of weaponry; however, the biggest weapon to soldiers at this time was disease. Whenever there was a treatable wound, physicians would use unsanitary tools, toxic chemicals such as mercury, and bloodletting. All of which are the breeding ground for disease. The close proximity the soldiers’ had along with the heat and conditions they endured allowed for disease to travel quickly between soldiers. The health of soldiers began improving when the military establishment began to realize that poor hygiene often sparked the diseases. Founding Father Benjamin Rush, who had received his medical degree from the University of Edinburgh, carried his knowledge into the Revolutionary War as a surgeon general of the Middle Department of the Army. In the beginning of the war, he was ubiquitously known to treat patients by wrapping them in vinegar soaked blankets and use mercury rubs with cold baths. Shortly after the war in 1778, Benjamin Rush published a book called “Directions for Preserving the Health of Soldiers”. This book

Approximately 750,000 men died; a death toll greater than those who passed in all other American wars combined. This means soldiers were dying at incredibly high rates and as a result, there was a great need for medical personnel in both hospitals and the battlefield. Most of these numbers are said to be the result of illnesses such as dysentery, small pox, malaria and typhoid which killed more soldiers than battle wounds. Because of this, many African American women took on different jobs to contribute to the war effort such as becoming nurses.

'Soldiers of the Revolutionary War' by Patrick Catel is a well written and precise accounting of the life of the Colonial and British Soldier during the Revolutionary War. It explores the formation, motivation, supplies, strategy,and medicine of these two Armies. Any reader interested in knowing more about the Revolutionary War and its soldiers will enjoy reading this book along with the other titles written by Patrick Catel in the ' Why We Fought,'

Civil war medical treatment was rather unsafe. The popularization of anesthetics during that era would be a prime example. At that time chloroform and ether were two popular forms of anesthetic. Chloroform took about nine minutes to knock you out and was commonly used. Today however, it has been labeled as possibly carcinogenic (causes cancer), and it affects the liver, kidney, and CNS (central nervous system). Sanitation was also an issue. Doctors were known to move on to patient after patient without wiping the blood off their blade from the last one. New of sanitary practices, while known in Europe, hadn't quite gotten to America. Which lead to many soldiers having infections.

When both countries were fighting against each other there were more threats to come diseases are only just one of them . Both countries had terrible illnesses, including yellow fever , melinaea , smallpox etc. This meant that 1000s of soldiers did not even stand a chance of fighting to show the love they had in their country , because in the 1800 medicine was in its infancy .

Due to lack of funds, George Washington managed to lead his troops to survive the harsh conditions of the Valley Forge winter. Afterwards, they experienced their second obstacle: small pox. Small pox is a European disease, and since the colonists have been isolated from this illness for nearly two centuries (chapter 3, slides), they did not have the immune system to overcome it. George Washington took a gamble and decided to expose the healthy soldiers with the small pox virus, modern day known as vaccination. His gamble paid off, losing only 1 in 50 soldiers to small pox rather than losing a few thousands

The two main causes of diseases were trench foot and trench fever. Trench foot was caused by exposure to wet and damp areas and potentially took up to six months to completely heal. It essentially became an epidemic during the war. Men were forced to rub whale oil on their feet and did “stamping drills” that involved stomping and rubbing their feet to get the blood flowing. Trench fever also played a large role in the fatalities of soldiers. It is a bacterial infection that causes repeated cycles of high fevers. It can passed from person to person through body lice, overcrowding, and bad hygiene.

During the civil war, approximately 620,000 soldiers died however many deaths were not associated directly to battle but linked to disease and medical practices during the time. Approximately two thirds of all deaths during the civil war was due to diseases running rampant and the lack of proper surgical equipment that resulted with diseases being able to further spread during the war. Four diseases that soldiers were susceptible to get during the civil war were typhoid-fever, smallpox, tuberculous, and dysentery were the diseases running rampant due to filthy camps, spoiled food and poorly prepared food.

One of the most common deaths was shellfire, some would be sniped down, others would be lounging out in the dugout and be killed, and some were just random, The most deaths that occurred in the war was sustained in the trenches, almost a third of the allies were killed in there, men were also killed by rats, there food being contaminated and that was just so many of them, thy tried to get rid of them with gunfire or clubbing them to death. Rats weren’t the only disease killing soldiers, it was the lice, they would breed in the soldier’s clothes and because of the heat they would hatch, they started the trench fever, soldiers would feel a sudden pain and then a high fever, the recovery would take 12 weeks out of the trenches. The other disease

This book withholds eight true stories entailing American men’s courage in fighting for their country. It contains no real names, just real stories. The book spans from 1776 to 2007 including the Revolutionary War, Civil War, World War II, the Vietnam War, the Gulf War and the Iraq War. The first account is that of a spy of General George Washington’s. This man was a school teacher when the Revolution began, but felt he needed to fight for freedom. He started at the bottom just as part of the militia This man saw many men in his unit die in battle and due to diseases such as influenza. As we continued to fight, his commanding officers saw him as being capable to blend in behind the enemy lines. He became a spy and worked under General George

Is one entitled to risk their life for their country? Is war full of glory and romantic? Throughout the past centuries, the perspective on war has changed through a new understanding of reality. Writers such as Ambrose Bierce and Tim O’Brien provide a realistic presentation of war through their respective narratives, “What I Saw at Shiloh” and “The Things They Carried.” Both authors effectively evoke a sense of sympathy through their tone and diction.

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.

Though the men are previously characterized as hopeful and strong, Wilfred Owen and his personal battlefront experiences contrast this view, conveying the soldiers as weakened and forgotten by the authority figures who once promised to award honor among such “heros”. Euphemisms convince Americans to