Medicine

=Medicine in the Civil War=

Page Editor: Mrs. Z Page Update: April 16, 2008
 * Page Authors**: Chrissy, Bria, Mike, Johnny, Kyle Mac, Gabriella

====Diseases / Surgery / Medical Training / Regimental Field Hospitals & Ambulance Corps / U.S. Sanitary Commission / Women & Medicine====

=Diseases=

Many soldiers died because of illness and disease. There were 620,000 soldiers in the Civil War and two-thirds of them died from disease. In the Union Army, nearly three out of every five soldiers died as a result of disease and the in the Confederate Army, nearly two out of every three soldiers died from disease. Doctors did not usually know what caused disease. Illnesses spread very quickly because soldiers were living close together and the soldiers lived in camps that were filthy and unsanitary. One of the main causes of disease were sinks, or large holes in the ground that were used as latrines. The. U.S. Sanitary Commission said the biggest problem in camps were the sinks. The sinks were placed close to rivers and lakes and human waste was getting into the drinking water supply.

Many men drank dirty water and died of typhoid fever, and mosquitoes, lice, and fleas, which carried disease, were almost impossible to avoid. Poor hygiene was another factor in the spread of disease. Some soldiers went for weeks without washing themselves or their clothing. When they did wash themselves they used the same pots that they used for cooking and washing their clothes.

Both sides were not prepared for the high number of sick soldiers. Many [|doctors] gave extremely quick medical checks that were not thorough enough. Doctors treated the soldiers as best they could but most soldiers saw the doctors too late and the diseases had already destroyed them. Two of the most common diseases in the war were scurvy and pneumonia.

Some other diseases that soldiers could get:
 * Dysentery - they got this disease from poor hygiene. This was the number one cause of death.
 * Typhoid Fever- they got this disease from the trash being to close to camp; 27,056 soldiers died from typhoid fever
 * Ague - this disease came from the camp sinks.
 * Yellow Fever - this disease was from being over crowded.
 * Tuberculosis-
 * Small Pox-

Other diseases they got were chicken pox, scarlet fever, measles, mumps, and whopping cough. Doctors also didn’t know that putting people with diseases in rooms with other people could cause passing of diseases.

=Surgery=

Limited knowledge caused big problems for doctors during the Civil War. [|Surgeons] removed bullets, bone fragments, or bits of metal that might have gotten stuck in the skin. They may have used their bare hands or long metal probes. Doctors sewed wounds and bandaged them. The bandages would be wet because doctors thought injuries would heal better and faster. Doctors would take the pus from one wound and put it on another wound because they thought pus was good.

Injuries were based into three groups:
 * minor injuries - wounded soldiers who could walk
 * serious injuries - wounded soldiers who need advanced care to survive.
 * mortal injuries - wounded soldiers who were expected to die. Soldiers with serious wounds to the abdomen and chest were just about dead, because doctors did not know how to treat them. They gave them opium to ease the pain.

The only thing doctors were good with was setting broken bones that didn't rupture the skin. If they ruptured the skin, the soldier faced pain, infection, sickness and possibly amputation.Doctors amputated body parts if they were really damaged or infected, but they didn't do a lot of brain surgery because of the lack of knowledge about brains. Doctors did not know that amputating someone’s body part with the same tools, without proper washing could cause infectious diseases.

Soldiers feared amputations because most of the time they would witness an amputation being done right in front of them. Total amputations done during the Civil War was about 49,981 soldiers. There was another procedure besides amputation. It was called //resection//. Resection was when a doctor cut only part of the injured bone. Doctors preferred to amputate instead of resection because amputations were faster and easier. Most doctors amputated everything from fingers to toes. Doctors tried to do an almost pain-free job by using cholorform or putting the men to sleep with ether while the surgery was being done. Soldiers who received an amputation had a 75% survival rate. Many soldiers injured during battle died while waiting to be treated. Many soldiers died from shock or infection or gangrene.

Since they were outside a lot, many doctors would find wild plants and use them as medicine. Some doctor's prescriptions were dangerous to the soldier. There weren't many known medications for diseases, so doctors used leaches to bleed patients of "bad blood" or "evil spirits". Most times it didn't work. Brandy, opium and morphine were all used separately to ease the soldier's pain.

=Medical Training=

The training of doctors wasn't well regulated. The armies were willing to take any willing to be a doctor. Many were not professional doctors and used only directions to operate on a patient. Even professional doctors The soldiers didn't have much faith in doctors because the doctors were not really good at what they did. Most doctors were men; it was difficult to find women doctors, though many were nurses. Both sides captured doctors and had them treat their soldiers.

To become a [|professional doctor], a man would attend a medical school for two terms of six-month lectures. Usually, the second term was a repeat of the first. Another way of becoming a doctor was to serve as an apprentice to another physician. There were over 40 medical schools in the United States before the war, but they didn't teach about germs or antiseptic practices because those theories hadn't been discovered yet.

=Regimental Field Hospitals & the Ambulance Corps=

When the war began, there was not an established method to treating soldiers, especially soldiers that were wounded on the front lines and that needed to be taken to the field hospitals. Union Doctor Johnathan Letterman realized that the army needed a way to transport wounded soldiers to a place where they could be cared for. Sometimes soldiers would stop fighting to help their injured friends. Before regimental field hospitals, soldiers were taken to farms to be cared for. Before the establishment of the Ambulance Corps, men would die because there was no way for the doctors to get to most of the injured soldiers.

In 1862, [|Jonathan Letterman], the Medical Director of the Army of the Potomac, established procedures for quickly evacuating the wounded soldiers. The Letterman Plan required every Union army to have an ambulance corps. This would save many men who were wounded. He trained musicians and cooks to be stretcher bearers and he established the ambulance corps, horse drawn wagons that would carry the wounded to hospitals. The Confederates also established a similar system.

The ambulances and the stretcher bearers transported the wounded to hospitals. There were many stops for the ambulances with the injured. The first stop was so close to the battle field you could still hear the gunshots. There they tended to wounds that needed to be cared for right away. Field dressing stations were located near the fighting and would be used for bandaging wounds. If the soldiers were unable to return to the battle, they would be sent to the field hospital in an ambulance or stretcher.

At the field hospital, the soldiers were separated into three groups, depending upon their need for care. The groups were mortally wounded (would not survive), slightly wounded, and surgical cases. The field hospitals were usually barns or tents behind the lines of battle. There were no beds in field hospitals, only straw and grass. Doctors had to create operating tables out of doors or whatever they had.Of all the surgeries performed during the Civil War, 95% of them were done with some form of anesthesia, usually choloroform or ether. Arms and limbs that were amputated were piled near the buildings were surgery was performed. After surgery, the soldiers were moved to other hospitals by ambulance.

Those who needed further care were sent to a hospital farthur away where they tended to wounds that needed more operating. The next hospital was usually very far away, and very big because that is where soldiers would have rehabilitation. Because there were so many wounded needing long-term care, general hospitals were established in both the North and the South. In the beginning of the war, any building that could house large numbers of soldiers were used, but eventually both armies built pavilion-style hospitals. These hospitals were clean and efficient and were staffed by surgeons, male and female nurses, matrons, laudressess and

Also needing medical care were the many animals used to haul wagons and cannons, as well as the personal mounts of the calvary and other officers. Veterinary medicine was part of the Civil War and infirmaries treated mules and horses that were sick or of little use. An estimated 1 million horses died during the Civil War.

=U.S. Sanitary Commission=

The [|U.S. Sanitary Commission] was formed in 1861 to teach cleanliness and other healthful habits to help prevent diseases in the Union Army. In 1862 President Lincoln appointed a surgeon general and camps were inspected to see if they followed the required regulations for cleanliness and health. The Sanitary Commission was also responsible for inspecting hospitals and training women volunteers to care for the sick.