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The Graveyard
Disease, Death, and Medical Discoveries During the Civil War
Soldiers feared bullets and bayonets on the battlefield, but the greater danger was the invisible presence of bacteria in both Union and Confederate camps. By 1865, 620,000 men were casualties of war; the bulk succumbed to communicable diseases like pneumonia, tuberculosis, and dysentery -- amounting to three out of every five Union soldiers and two out of every three Confederate soldiers.
Medical ailments resulted from a lack of awareness of public health and poor hygiene in soldier camps. Inspection records of Federal camps in 1861 revealed that men lived in conditions "littered with refuse, food, and other rubbish, sometimes in an offensive state of decomposition; slops deposited in pits within camp limits or thrown out of broadcast; heaps of manure and offal close to the camp." Such poor conditions created an ideal environment for spreading illness, as was experienced by the 27th Indiana regiment stationed at Darnestown, where 15 men died of measles and typhoid.
Hospitals for wounded soldiers were created in a variety of settings, ranging from tents, the back of ambulance wagons, existing buildings, or newly created permanent structures, such as Carver Hospital on Meridian Hill, in Washington D.C. |