Medicine of the Civil War

The Civil War was fought, claimed the Union army surgeon general, "at the end of the medical Middle Ages." Little was known about what caused disease, how to stop it from spreading, or how to cure it. Surgical techniques ranged from the barbaric to the barely competent. A Civil War soldier's chances of not surviving the war was about one in four. These fallen men were cared for by a woefully underqualifled, understaffed, and undersupplied …

…these combined. Perhaps the least unreliable statistics for the Union armies give 67,000 killed in action, 43,000 died of wounds, and 224,000 died of disease; an additional 24,000 are listed as dead from other causes-doubtless either wounds Or disease. Confederate statistics indicate a comparable situation. Fortunately most of the soldiers were young-the largest single age group was eighteen-and from the country, and had therefore high powers of resistance and recuperation; otherwise the situation would have been even more appalling.