Medicine During the Civil War

Nurses faced great danger in hospitals because they were a breeding ground for disease. They were extremely over crowded, especially after a large battle, and because of these conditions, illnesses were spread very easily. Typhoid, malaria, and dysentery were the biggest diseases. Typhoid was the worst. One of the poorer facilities was named the “Hurly Burly House.” The patients here were enlisted men. Better quarters were reserved for sick and wounded officers. Most of the hospitals had bad ventilation, no provisions for bathing, and no dead house. Some of them had decaying wood and old carpets that were not removed. Kitchens and washrooms were described as “cold, damp, dirty, and full of vile odors from wounds.” The nurses quarters were not much better. Nurses would often work from 6am to 1am. These miserable accommodations combined with overworked and under qualified staff made hospital conditions adverse to patient welfare and therefore unsuitable for either dispensing or receiving treatment. The Sanitary Commission finally investigated and recommended

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

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 Experience of a Civil War surgeon. Without chloroform and ether, the death rate in the Civil War would have been much higher. In the book Civil War medicine; Challenges and Triumphs by, Alfred Bollet, the Chapter called Desperate Measures for Desperate Wounds talks about surgery and the use of anesthesia during the Civil War. Drawing on the experiences of European military surgeons, Civil War surgeons used the best information available at the time to help their patients. Although hampered by the lack of knowledge about bacteria, surgeon adapted and invented techniques to solve new surgical problems. The area around the wound was shaved and debrided to improve anesthesia. Chloroform was the anesthetic used during the Civil War . During

Even through the Civil War was very bloody and gruesome, there were some positive effects on America’s medicine. This may include medicine in the pharmacy, performing surgerys, and Prosthetics. During the war the most injuries were resulting in amputation because soldiers were shot by “Minie Ball” bullets which would shatter bones and limbs.(pbs.com) Anesthesia was commonly used during surgeries. The top two types of Anesthesia was Chloroform and Ether.

In 1864, there were many bloody casualties that occurred. Out of 11,000 physicians that worked in the war, only 500 of them had done surgery before the war had taken place. About 70% of the men they took care of had very extreme wounds.

Although war was a devastation the world, it forced medical advancements to accelerate due to mass amount of casualties. Indiana Neidell stated that “the four year period of World War One saw the most medical advancements in any four year period previous to the war or since” ( “Medical Treatment in World War 1 I THE GREAT WAR Special”). As explained by The National Museum of American History, this provided the testing ground for new technologies and procedures which in some cases accelerated their general acceptance or development (“Modern Medicine and the Great War” americanhistory.si.edu). In all, World War One influenced modern medicine due to the development of debut technologies, new procedures, and patient prioritization thus revolutionizing the world of

“Medical care was heavily criticized in the press throughout the war. It was stated that surgery was often done without anesthesia, many unnecessary amputations were done, and that care was not state of the art for the times.” (Riley) Newspapers would spread slander and rumors of what happened on the battlefields, and people believed the often untrue accusations of unfair treatment throughout military hospitals, choosing to shame physicians for their work. While there was a huge lack of sanitation in the hospitals, due to the time period, the war was actually impressive with their treatments considering the resources they had. Although the hospitals that soldiers were treated in were thrown together and disorganized, ensuring chaos and the spread of disease, they were still impactful for the medicine practiced in the United

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.

The Civil War began in 1861 and ended in 1861. Often the Civil War is simply know as a war between Confederate soldiers in the south and Union soldiers. The National Museum of Civil War Medicine is located in Frederick, MD. The location alone caught my attention. The national museums that I had already visited were located in Washington, DC. Until my visit, I could not understand the importance of why the museum is located in Frederick, MD. I visited the museum along with my sister Samantha, who is a nurse. The purpose of the museum is to demonstrate how medicine has developed and evolved with nine exhibits involving civil war medicine, veterinary medicine, dentistry, and combat medicine; while simultaneously giving a through history of the

During the Civil War Ambulances were a key part in the medical services that were offered. Medical Personnel were to attend to the fallen soldiers on the battlegrounds and supply them with bandages and giving them pain medication. Once there wounds were covered they would be placed on a wagon with others and transported to the Field Hospital.

The field surgeon became regarded as an amputation specialist. He must remove any damaged limb that might allow infection to travel from the wound to the rest of the body. The intimations for the amputation were 1) all compound long bone fractures, 2) all bullet wounds to a joint and any fractures that entered the joint, uncontrolled bleeding, 3) irreparable lacerations of major blood vessels or nerves, crushed tissue and any foreign bodies that were too deep or too difficult to remove (Kuz 16). When it was decided that the soldier was to undergo surgery, the operations violated almost every method of infection prevention that we use today. When a wounded soldier was finally moved to a field hospital the wounded soldier would wait on the

First let’s talk about the medical staff. Some medical staff people were nicknamed butchers. Most of the medical staff have never did a surgery on anybody before. Some of the soldiers they worked on died. Some soldiers did their own surgery.

In war many people get injured. Back during the civil war there was nothing they could do any many died of their wounds or infections. Since then our doctors and Army branches have worked hard to develop new tactics for treating wounds on the battle grounds, “Since 2005, field hospitals also have employed continuous venovenous hemofiltration, a short-term emergency dialysis treatment reducing the incidence of pulmonary edema and respiratory failure among burn victims, many of whom previously had been given too much saline fluid during resuscitation (Defense

During the nineteenth century, the United States made many technological advancements, but modern medical practices and treatment methods are indebted to the Civil War. This war is known for its non-hygienic and stagnant ways because of the challenges and severity posed by the wounds, infections, and diseases that both the Union and Confederate States experienced. While hundreds of thousands of soldiers died during the Civil War, most resulted from diseases that were untreatable and oblivious to medical personnel. Soldiers in the war not only had to fight in combat but also battle disease, which pushed America to reevaluate their practices and theories to care for those in the field.