Kaitlyn Lehane
May 22, 2017
Civil War Research Paper
Impact of Civil War Hospitals and Medicine
76,000 men were treated during the 4 years of the Civil War in hospitals. Medicine was a critical part of the Civil War during the late 1800s. The Civil War was broken up into two separate sides of the United States, the Union which was the North and the Confederacy, which was the South. During the war, many people became wounded badly or killed. Medicine was a practice of the treatment for infection and disease. Hospitals during the Civil war aided soldiers until they could be transferred to hospitals in nearby cities. What was the impact of Medicine and Hospitals on the Civil War? Medicine and Hospitals impacted the Civil War by creating a
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It paved a new path for medicine to be later used in the future. During this time, 620,000 men died in the war and ⅔ were a result of disease. To prevent this problem, William Hammond created pavilions to allow ventilation throughout the hospitals and decrease overcrowding. It also helped in keeping the hospitals clean, in 1862 it was unknown that germs caused diseases and when the pavilions were created, they reduced the amount of diseases and decreases the amount of deaths. (Netzley). "Washington, D.C. Patients in Ward K of Armory Square Hospital" shows the hospital style with the new ventilation and the wounded soldiers during the war. Each soldier had their own space that allowed for less spreading of disease. The pavilion style hospital was a design to be used for the next 75 years, as it became a very successful hospital …show more content…
Before the war occurred, there were an estimated 2,000 hospital beds and by the end, nearly 135,000 more were produced. The Civil War created a new solution for wounded soldiers called anesthetics. They were plastic limbs used for when soldiers got a limb amputated and could no longer use them anymore (“Civil War Medicine”). The knife used for amputation was very dirty and unsterilized, due to the fact they had no idea that germs caused disease. It was a small long knife that was very sharp to get far into the bodies of the wounded soldiers without having to touch much of their flesh (“Object Record- Knife”). They also used an object known as a tooth key which was used to extract teeth. It was made of wood and metal, with a metal hook on the bottom to attach to the tooth and pull it out (“Object Record- Tooth
The soldiers also slept in small canvas that was weak and didn 't, provide any protection from the snow. This resulted in them having diarrhea, dysentery, and fevers. With so many sicknesses going around about 2,000 out of 12,000 people died. George Washington tried to encourage the farmers to sell some of their food to the soldiers because they were short on supplies. He even gave out flyers of lists of
According to Estimates of Illness and Deaths at Valley Forge (Doc. A), there was about 4,000 illnesses in February 1778. The illnesses mainly came from diseases. There was also 2,500 deaths due to disease. In the painting of George Washington presenting to Continental Congress (Doc. B), the soldiers were wearing no shoes. Since they were low on supplies, they had to step on the cold ground giving
The Congress authorized the establishment of a Medical Service in July 1775 (Owen, 2007). The move was to enhance the coordination of medical care that was necessary for the continental army during the time of revolutionary war. Additionally, the formation of Army Medical service aimed at providing expert care to the U.S soldiers as well as their families. Besides, the move made a significant contribution towards assisting the wounded American soldiers in continuing with their missions in various wars. The establishment of the Medical Service also allowed for the training of a formidable team of nurses who had the full dedication to maintaining and promoting the health of the American soldiers, restoring the health of wounded soldiers, as well as sustaining the families of the soldiers.
Being part of the Civil War brought many hardships to many soldiers. The men would risk their lives and end up killed or wounded during battle. Do you ever wonder how a wound would be treated during that time? Maybe you have not given much thought to that. For that reason, the following information will help you understand what type of wounds army men received during the Civil War and how those wounds were treated and cared for.
August 1st, 1863 one of the worst prison camps for confederates in the civil war was created. Point Lookout was established right after the Battle of Gettysburg to take confederate soldiers. Point Lookout had caused many conflicts for prisoners in camp. Some conflicts that Point Lookout caused for soldiers was disease, hunger, and even death. Nearly 50,000 soldiers became prisoners and 4,000 died in the process.
During the beginning of the of the Civil War, there were many medical advancements, like the quinine a drug that helped fight Malaria. The doctors had just recently discovered bacteria and antisepsis. With this new knowledge, they began to change the way they treated patients and organized areas for treating the wounded. They started to think about things like cleanliness and how to set up a hospital. As the Civil War went on, it was less of a battle to see who was winning the fights and more to see who could keep their men healthy.
.The Civil War changed the country in many ways. Thousands of men on both sides died during the Civil War. “The Union Army lost 352, 528 men and the Confederate Army lost 258,000 men” (Doc F). Innovative ways to fight came about during the Civil War.
Medical treatments have made major advances throughout the years. The way that different diseases or injuries are treated have changed a tremendous amount from the time of the Civil War. In 1863, when the Civil War took place there was very little known about all diseases and the proper way to treat injuries like gunshot wounds. In the book, The Killer Angels, it follows the viewpoints of different soldiers who fought in the Battle of Gettysburg. Several of the soldiers get injured or have already existent diseases that are treated much differently from how they would in present time.
Two thirds of the soldiers that died in the civil war died of diseases and germs, because they didn't have the medicine that we have
There were over 30,000 amputation procedures done during the Civil War and depending on where you received the surgery is what your death rate was. “Hip amputations… had mortality rates of around 83%. An upper arm amputation… had a mortality rate of about 24%.” Not only did soldiers have to endure the war, once they came home their partners would notice that things were different with
During the American Civil War, the Union utilized a wide variety of weapons. This included large weapons that had to be pushed, such as cannons, to small knives that hung from the soldier’s belt. Solders carried pistols, muskets, rifles and repeating weapons. During time period new technologies were made. Many different rifles were used in the Civil War.
Although, not all of these fatalities were from seized from enemy fire; nearly two-thirds of the total deaths were caused by diseases that struck those who were fighting. The idea that caused so many deaths was due to the spreading of germs. Surgeons would operate on open wounds and though many were to be treated, infections were persistent during the war and would slowly kill the soldiers whom it affected. Because of the death toll from the spreading of germs and infections, the Union states in the North began transporting wounded soldiers to nearby hospitals for medical care. Soon after officials realized the medical system needed to be revamped, the ambulance corps was put in place.
The Civil War was filled with many diseases and deaths. Over 620,000 men lost their lives during this war; roughly two thirds of the casualties were caused by the lack of medical knowledge of many diseases. The remaining one third of the casualties was from the actual battle itself. The war became a turning point for many women interested in the medical field. The knowledge of medicine was the beginning of a new age during the Civil War, and the lack of it led to many gruesome deaths.
There were not a lot of advancements made, as said in the article “Medicine in the Civil War.” During the 1860’s, doctors had yet developed bacteriology and were generally ignorant of the causes of disease. In conclusion, diseases in the Civil War impacted the growth of American doctors, types of disease, and medicine. These factors changed
The Civil War was the bloodiest war in America to date, the war claimed thousands of lives, and left many families without members. The North and South fought for many reasons, but the most notable was slavery. Farming was one of the many reasons the South was for keeping slaves, with lush soil, lots of farmland, a great climate, interesting physical factors such as small hills here and there, communication potential, political and cultural significance, and much more, made it obvious why the South wanted to keep their slaves. A factor that affected the Civil War tremendously was population. The North had a plethora of people fighting for the Union, while the South, who had a diminished amount of residents, fought for the Confederates.