Disease

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DISEASE IN THE CIVIL WAR By Kristin McIntire toc



INTRODUCTION
Disease was the most prominent cause of death among soldiers during the Civil War. Two-thirds of the deaths in the confederate army and three-fifths of the deaths in the Union army were caused by disease. There were approximately 6 million cases of disease in the Union army, which means that the average soldier was sick at least two times.

There were many factors that made the incoming soldiers so susceptible to disease during the Civil War. The volunteers often consisted of farm boys with little exposure to common illnesses, which meant they were more likely to contract disease. Furthermore, the screening process for the new soldiers was so deficient that sometimes women disguised as men went unnoticed. Often, as many as half of the soldiers were too ill to fight before they even left camp.

During the five years of the Civil War, the soldiers lived in squalid conditions. In the South, the soldiers were often camped in hot, swampy areas that increased the risk of diseases such as malaria. In the North, soldiers sometimes suffered from the cold and contracted pneumonia. On both sides, many sanitation procedures went unexplained or ignored. Latrines, trash, and even dead bodies were often kept upstream from camp and contaminated drinking water. The diet on both sides was not healthy, and on the confederate side often inadequate. This resulted in many outbreaks of scurvy and weakened soldiers’ immune systems.

When soldiers fell ill, doctors and surgeons were unprepared and untrained for the gruesome diseases they faced. The general knowledge of medicine was primitive, and at the time there were few effective treatments for common ailments. In addition, many field medics had no experience in medicine and no training in treatment. There were few medical tools or medications provided on either side, and the medical staff often had to work with makeshift equipment.



**DYSENTERY**
 Dysentery, commonly known as “quickstep” and “alvine flux” during the Civil War, was a common disease contracted by the soldiers. Dysentery involves the inflammation of the large intestines, and can become fatal if the individual becomes dehydrated. Soldiers became ill with dysentery when bacteria would enter the mouth from contact with feces, contaminated food, dirty water, or contact with other infected comrades. The conditions of the camps were ideal for dysentery to prosper with dirty water, crowded living conditions, and improvised meals. Soldiers were also often careless in cooking and cleaning with the same tools, failing to use or cover over full latrines, and drinking stagnant water. Soldiers would experience violent diarrhea, vomiting and fever. The symptoms resulted in a loss of beneficial salts and fluids which dehydrated the body and could cause death. Doctors and nurses had no cure or method of prevention for dysentery. To cure the disease they instead advised the soldiers to let their beards grow, drink whiskey, take opium, or take a chemical mixture known as “blue mass” consisting of chalk and mercury. In one Southern prison sometimes 130 people would die each day because of dysentery.

SMALLPOX
Smallpox is a severe infectious disease for which a vaccine dose currently available, though no treatment exists for those who have contracted it. The name smallpox is derived from the Latin word pox, which means “bumps”. This contagious disease primarily causes a rash with gory sores, and one variation has a 30 percent fatality rate. Other symptoms include high fever, aches and vomiting. The disease is caused by the variola virus, which quickly spreads through large populations of people. It is spread by direct contact with infected individuals, bodily fluids, bedding, and clothing. In close quarters the virus can even spread in the open air. Smallpox was a major source of illness amongst the Civil war soldiers living in close and dirty quarters. Smallpox was particularly problematic after Sharpsburg, when there was a large outbreak in the confederate army. Physicians attempted to immunize the army by cutting slits in the soldiers’ arms and inserting sore scabs from infected individuals. This method for prevention was often problematic and caused many infections on soldiers’ arms.

PNEUMONIA
  Pneumonia is an infection of the lungs which is caused by bacteria, fungi or virus. It is currently the sixth leading cause of death in the US, and before a treatment was discovered, killed a third of the infected patients. Pneumonia is spread when someone inhales infectious organisms from contaminated air or nasal passages. When the organisms enter the lungs, the human immune system produces inflammatory cells to fight off the infection, and the lungs quickly begin to fill with fluid. This results in cold like symptoms with high fevers, chills, a wet cough, shortness of breath, and sometimes chest pain. Individuals are more susceptible to pneumonia if they are sick, weak, or frequently exposed to harsh weather. In the Civil War, pneumonia was common in the northern and southern armies. Pneumonia was very common in the Union army because the soldiers were often unprotected from the cold winter months in the northern states. 17 percent of the Confederate soldiers got pneumonia, but because they were underfed they typically had weaker immune systems many of the infected died.

MALARIA
  Malaria is a disease caused by the parasite plasmodium transferred by mosquitoes. Referred to as “shakes” or “intermittent fever” during the Civil War, Malaria was the cause of twenty percent of all sicknesses. The symptoms include fever, headache and vomiting. When the mosquito bites and injects the parasite into the bloodstream, the parasites begin to multiply in the liver and infect red blood cells. This can upset the blood supply to vital organs and lead to death. There is no treatment for malaria, but during the Civil war doctors proscribed whiskey, quinine and barks of trees. They incorrectly assumed that the disease was caused by poisonous swamp vapors and remained unaware of the infectious mosquitoes surrounding.



** VIDEO **
media type="youtube" key="SyjTEwg5pn4" height="381" width="485" align="center"

This video explains the primary factors that contributed to the prominence of disease during the war. []

http://www.19thalabama.org/cwfacts.html [|http://www.sonofthesouth.net/leefoundation/civil-war-medicine.htm]