About Pneumonia in the Civil War
Disease was extremely common among soldiers on both sides of the Civil War, and was often deadlier than the war itself. Pneumonia was one disease that struck soldiers, often fatally. Both the conditions inside the war camps and the lack of knowledge among doctors about how diseases spread and should be treated added to the direness of this situation. The outbreaks of pneumonia and other diseases helped doctors learn more about disease and may have helped the Union win the war, as the Southern forces were hit harder than the Northern ones.
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The Facts
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Pneumonia was a major cause of suffering and death during the Civil War. Soldiers sometimes went days or even weeks without seeing battle, but disease was ever-present within their camps. The winter months were a particularly deadly time in the North, when pneumonia struck down many of the exhausted, under-fed soldiers. Those already ill or hurt, as well as prisoners, were particularly at risk. Unsanitary conditions inside the soldiers' camps also led to wide-spread disease. Because many of the soldiers were also very young, lack of immunity was also a factor. At this time, doctors in the United States were not knowledgeable regarding what caused the spread of diseases like pneumonia, though this knowledge was common in Europe. This was one reason why outbreaks proved so fatal.
Size
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One study claims that during a 19 month period during the early 1860s, more than 17 percent of the Confederate army came down with pneumonia. Of these afflicted, one out of every six eventually succumbed to the disease and died. Pneumonia was the third most fatal disease among Civil War soldiers, following typhoid and dysentery. The number of men who died from diseases like pneumonia was double that of the number of men who died from gunshot wounds.
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Identification
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Pneumonia often began as an innocuous-seeming cold. But exposure to the elements could easily turn a cold into full-blown pneumonia. Pneumonia is basically a lung infection that can be present in either or both lungs. Coughing (with or without blood and mucus), pain in the shoulder and chest, fever and difficulty breathing were all symptoms of pneumonia that an ill Civil War soldier may have experienced.
Effects
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Pneumonia was a particularly unpleasant disease to catch during this time, as doctors were unsure how to treat it. Some patients were "bled," meaning that doctors would open one of their veins in an effort to cleanse the body of diseased blood. This cure often proved fatal. Alcohol, opium and quinine were also popular treatments.
Also, since water was limited and reserved for the war effort, doctors rarely washed their hands while tending to the ill. This, combined with the close quarters soldiers lived in, allowed pneumonia to spread rapidly through a unit.
Significance
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In general, the Confederacy suffered more than the Union as a result of disease and poor medical treatment. By 1865, the Union had triple the amount of medical officers that the Confederacy did. Some approximate that nearly 2 out of every 3 Confederate deaths were due to diseases like pneumonia, while the Union soldiers fared a bit better, with only 3 out of every 5 deaths attributed to disease . Some speculate that this is one of several reasons why the Union was able to win the Civil War.
The challenges of the Civil War led to many medical advances. As a result of the deadly diseases that claimed so many soldiers, doctors gained a better grasp of the relationship between sanitary conditions, diet, and illness.
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