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Disease In The Civil War Research Paper

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Disease In The Civil War Research Paper
Medicine, Disease, and Death in the Civil War

Melanie Padner
History 330
Instructor O’Hara
August 9, 2014 The Civil War holds the record of being the deadliest war that the United States has ever been involved in. The Civil War’s death toll reached approximately 633,000 compared to the 521,000 lost in World War I and II combined1. Some of that was caused by the fact that medical techniques and care were not advancing as quickly as weapons were. Another major factor in the amount of casualties is disease which was typically caused by poor hygiene. It took a majority of the war before doctors realized what was causing the diseases and other deaths and what techniques could be used order to lessen the death toll.
Disease …show more content…
The Union had about 43,000 mortally wounded, meaning they were wounded in battle and died later. The Confederate’s had approximately 94,000 mortally wounded. The most deadly battle of the Civil War was the Battle of Gettysburg in 1863 which killed 23,053 Union troops and 28,063 Confederate troops. There were other causes of death in the Civil War including drowning, suicide, murder, sunstroke, and execution. On the Union side drowning took nearly 5,000 lives, suicide took about 400, and sunstroke killed just over …show more content…
The weaponry advancement of the minie ball caused for many of these amputations because the bullet could destroy not only the tissue but also the bone in the person hit by one of these bullets. The closer the amputation was to the body the higher the mortality rate was, for example “hip amputations had a mortality rate of about 24%8.” Amputations were frequent because the amount of wounds to the extremities of the body was about 3 out of 4 wound. In the Union army alone, there were about 30,000 amputations. Amputees had to live with a visual reminder of the war if they made it home to their families. The patients had it rough but so did the surgeons. They would stand over the operating tables for many hours and would not receive any break. They had the mental reminder of men screaming for their families or just out of pain. The quiet patients looked pale and in a state due the
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