From 1861 to 1865, civil war broke loose and resulted in the many deaths of Americans. The blame for this tragedy is not due to the conflict alone, but due to the standards of medicine during the mid 1800s. Today we have the luxury of antibiotics and anesthetics to cure aliments and a much higher chance of surviving an injury or a common disease like malaria. Unfortunately, during the civil war, medical practitioners had to resort to primal methods in saving a civil war soldier’s life. Civil war soldiers lost their limbs and lives to injuries and diseases that would have been avoidable today. During the Civil war, doctors received minimal training and were unfit for one of the bloodiest periods in our nation’s history. Medical education at the time were less intensive than it is today. People during the 1800s who were interested in medicine would be qualified physicians after attending lectures for two years and taking an exam. They did not have the practical training which is require today and experience in was usually taught on the job. Health care during the civil war lead to many needless deaths and has been remember until today.
Leo Rosenhouse, a writer for several publications, has written an article which depicts a horrid description of the medical conditions and struggles during the civil war. After a single year, 17,000 union soldiers have been wounded and the demand for surgeons was prominent. After a day of fighting, 700 union solders lay on the battlefield crying for aid only to see a handful of medics with little supplies to assist them. The nation was so scarce in medical supplies that volunteers in Boston made house-to-house searches for bed-sheets, curtains, and shirts to be used as bandages. The nation was also ...
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His aim was to in-crease amputees’ confidence in the use of their prosthetics and their mental attitude. He recruited 100 volunteer amputees and put them through the programme. The results sug-gested that he achieved his aim he noted improvements in the physical and mental well-being of the volunteers. They also gained confidence in using their prosthetic which aided their recovery. Their mental well-being was particularly important as it was noted that a positive mental attitude and acceptance of the prosthetic resulted in a quicker recovery time (Dillingham, T.R., 1998).
Sarah Rosetta Wakeman's tale is not unusual. Wakeman was one of many who died from chronic diarrhea. Eventually dysentery would kill nearly half a million soldiers during the war. The Civil war was a terrible, bloody war, and many facts are still unknown or unconfirmed, Wakeman’s letters offer a rare glimpse into civil war life that is confirmed and accurate. This is true simply because her letters were written during her serving actively in the army, rather than a set of memoirs or stories compiled after the fact for publication purposes.
Web. The Web. The Web. 16 Nov. 2013. Engel, Mary Ella.
The Web. The Web. 22 March 2014. Hasen, Richard. The.
In the early years of the Civil War, it became clear that disease would be the greatest killer. Twice as many Civil War soldiers died of disease than those killed in combat. This was due to unsanitary and filthy conditions, untrained medical personnel and poor medical examination of new soldier’s. One fact from the Civil War was 315,000 soldiers died from illnesses that included: 44,558 from diarrhea/dysentery, 10,063 from malaria, 34,833 from typhoid, 958 from typhus and 436 from yellow fever. The sanitary conditions that a cured during the civil war were shocking.
In modern day America, we unknowingly take countless things for granted on a daily basis. For example, we blatantly assume that privileges such as clean hospital rooms, trash services, and preservation have always been provided. In reality, at the time of the civil war, medical and hygienic methods were primitive compared to today’s technology in medicine. A significant difference was the process after death. Modern day embalming was created, as an innovative way to preserve the bodies of fallen soldiers, but has developed into a customary practice that accompanies contemporary mortality.
The South contributed to the emergence of public health strategy in the United States by demonstrating the need for non-passive government presence in times of economic and social hardship. The South was able to have implement public health strategies during the Civil War, but their destitute state after the war proved difficult in maintaining successful public health strategies.
Here at the Chelsea Naval Hospital, the influx of patients arriving home from the war inflicted with "battle wounds and mustard gas burns," has created a shortage of physicians and it is becoming increasingly difficult to fight this influenza. Even our own physicians are falling ill from the disease and dying within hours of its onset. Today I received a letter from Dr. Roy, a friend and fellow physician at Camp Devens, who describes a similar situation:
The American Civil War is a conflict that started in the years of 1861 through 1865, during the times Northern & Southern states seceded from the Union. In the South dealing with the war throughout the states was also labelled as War of the Rebellion, the war of secession also the war for southern independence. During the time of Civil War, although it had much criticized as inexact they most widely accepted. Not only that the economy of the American civil war was also not a class struggle as many thought. Also throughout the civil war soldiers were dropping like fly and other needed some type of help due to their injury. There was an totally amount of 644,000 soldiers in different types of conflict.
Throughout history, mankind has continued to find reasons to fight with each other. Some of these conflicts seem justified, while some do not. Some are resolved quickly and some last for decades. Some result in great accomplishments, while many, unfortunately, result in nothing but pain, suffering and death. While it is clear that no two wars are the same, almost every war requires at least one thing: men and women who are willing to risk their lives and fight them. Volunteering to fight in a war is a sacrifice that most of us will never even be able to comprehend making. Not only does fighting involve the obvious physical danger, but the mental and psychological toll that a war has on a soldier can be absolutely devastating as well. We hear countless horror stories about life fighting in a war, and also life afterwards. However, despite the dangers, millions have made this sacrifice bravely and willingly, and unfortunately; millions more may do so in the future. The history of the United States of America is filled with several wars, both big and small, and the bloodiest war of them all was the American Civil War. The Civil War, which was fought from 1861 to 1865, resulted in more American casualties than any other war to this date. Despite this however, people continued to volunteer throughout the war, and many reenlisted even after their first term had ended. Millions of American civilians fought and died for their country and, while some of these soldiers were drafted, most made the choice to fight on their own. Because of its great implications, the American Civil War has been studied thoroughly by historians, and there are several ideas on why the Union and the Confederacy went to war but, as is the case ...
During the 19th century large advancements in medicine were made. According to Bert Hansen, “Medicine became recognizably “modern” in the nineteenth century, producing new inventions, new theories, new curative powers, and a rebirth of professionalism”. Advancements in medicine benefitted slave owners more than slaves themselves with “The Transfer of Slave Medical Knowledge” Saying, “The relationship between physicians and their enslaved patients was complicated since the physician’s client was the slaveowner rather than the patient. It could be assumed from this that the doctor’s allegiance was to the slaveowner and, no doubt, it usually was”. This means that any care that slaves would receive would only be given with the authorization of the slave owner. The
BBC History, 23 Aug 2013. Web. The Web. The Web. 20 Nov. 2013.
...n his volunteer-troops, rather than an “exceptionally well drilled and experienced army.” The Civil War required a “quickly improvised…realistic standard for mid-nineteenth century America.” Which, as Griffith points out, they either did “ineffectively or reverted to outdated tactics disastrously.” The developments of technology certainly had a very large role in the way the war was fought but what truly caused the shift from Napoleonic to modern warfare was the fact that America was not Europe and the battle was for a cause much more powerful than land acquisition and discourse with another nation, but rather ideological dissonance within. Both authors analyzed how the United States’ differed from the countries across the Atlantic in order to provide some explanation regarding the nature of the Civil War and why it took so many lives before it came to an end.
The Web. 10 Sept 2015. Increasingly Desperate. The Economist. 22 Jan 2014:
During the Civil War they really worked towards building more hospitals and it drove the nursing profession to grow and have a large demand for nurses, but they were more like volunteers, such as wives or mistresses who were following their soldier men. Being a war nursing at that time was seen as a job for the lower class and no “respectable” woman could be seen in a military hospital. During the Civil War Phoebe Levy Pember, a young widow, went north to the confederate capital of Richmond. She eventually ran the world’s largest hospital, where on an average day she would supervise the treatment of 15,000 patients who were cared for by nearly 300 slave women. The war then led to a greater respect for nurses which was noticed by Congress. They then passed a bill providing pensions to Civil War nurses, but more importantly this led to the profe...