Life During The Civil War

American 1 CP

A Glorious War…

• Soldiers in both the Union and Confederacy suffered: • Heavy Casualties in

battle

• Poor Living Conditions

• Diet

• Medical Care

Casualties

Union

• Enlistment- 2,676,341

• Total Union Casualties: 642,427• Battle Deaths- 110,100

• Diseases- 224,580

• Wounded in Action- 275,174

Confederate

• Enlistment- Ranges from 750,000- 1,227,890

• Total Confederate Casualties• Battle Deaths- 94,000

• Diseases- 164,000

• Wounded in Action- 194,026

Disease

• For every soldier that died in battle, 2 died of disease.

• Dysentery and diarrhea claimed more lives than battle wounds.

• Also faced outbreaks of measles, small pox, malaria, and pneumonia.

Causes of the High Incidence of Disease

• Inadequate physical examination

• Ignorance

• Rural origin of soldiers

• Neglect of camp hygiene

• Insect and vermin

• Lack of proper clothing

• Poor food and water

Civil War Medicine

• Federal Government created the United States Sanitary Commission:

• Improve hygienic conditions of army camps

• Recruit and train nurses

The Sanitary Commission

• Superintendent of Women Nurses- Dorothea Dix• Did not want women

joining to look for romance… recruited applicants to be at least 30 and “very plain looking”.

• Over 3,000 women served as nurses caring for the sick and wounded on the front lines.

Clara Barton

• Humanitarian, teacher, and Union nurse

• Courageous in her duties caring for wounded soldiers (sometimes on the battle field). • Second Bull Run

• Antietam

• Fredericksburg

• Established the American Red Cross in 1881.

Civil War Medicine

• Doctors and Scientists unaware of germ theory of disease.

• Surgeons inexperienced with treating wounds from new bullets.

• Doctors did not know how to do blood transfusions and did not have antibiotics.

Civil War Medicine

• Amputation (removal) of limbs. • About ¾ of operations

during the war.

• Could save more lives by removal of the limb to protect from infection: • Scab

• “Fish-Mouth Method”- sewing skin flaps together.

Prisons

• Improvements in hygiene and nursing did not occur.

• Confederate Prison: • Andersonville, Georgia:

• 33,000 men into 26 acres.

• No Shelter

• Drank from the same stream that served as a sewer.

• 1/3 of prisoners died.

Prisons

• Union Prisons: • Suffered from the same issues

that Confederate camps did.

• Elmira, New York• Provided barracks for sleeping

• No heat…

• Adequate food, however soldiers did suffer from malnutrition.

• 15% died in Confederate Prisons

• 12% died in Union Prisons

Writing as a Prisoner

• You are a prisoner of War during the Civil War:

• Write a 2 paragraph letter home to your family describing the conditions that you have experienced and how it has impacted you.