Civil War Medicine Hundreds lie down dead or dying on the battlefield, but that is not even the worst of it. Hundreds more are lying severely ill on in hospital beds just miles away, but this time it is due to the poor training methods, useless treatments, and shortage of knowledge about different diseases that the doctors during the Civil War had. The surgeons and nurses during this time period were incapable of giving the sick and wounded proper care due to their lack of knowledge about these topics because of their shortage of medical education and training. With the little education they got, it was hard for doctors to understand that things like sanitation, and germs that the human eye cannot see, can lead to serious, and sometimes fatal …show more content…
The Sanitary Commission was created in June of 1861 by Samuel Preston Moore in order for the sanitary conditions to improve to make a healthier living environment for the Union soldiers. The Sanitary Commission helped to make sure that the armies had a proper diet, clothes, and living conditions. However, running the commission cost lots of money, which the Sanitary Commission did not always have, so there were quite a few fundraisers held to help benefit it. When the commission started, it was mostly just large donations that helped keep them running, however as it grew older they began to need to purchase more supplies, which they did not have the money for, so they began holding fairs. There were three different job categories inside the Sanitary Commission, the preventive services, general relief, and special relief. The preventive services used a checklist to inspect camps and hospitals for general sanitary and health problems while the general relief category collected and distributed food, clothes, blankets, and other medical supplies to help the wounded and sick soldiers. The special relief category helped soldiers that were moving to and from different facilities in the medical system and gave them a home and food as they traveled, they also ran the transportation of the sick and