Through reports or even personal journals from the Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 9, 1865), all had one thing in common sickness was everywhere. Of the 700,000 soldiers who died, more than 400,000 were killed by sickness through the U.S. There was a whole range of diseases that affected the soldiers of the Civil War. One of the worst diseases was Dysentary, a type of infectious diarrhea. This one disease caused almost 45,000 deaths in the Union army and around 50,000 deaths in the Confederacy. The main reason these diseases were able to spread so quickly was because both armies had a lack of sanitation and used contaminated water. There were no ideas of washing and disinfecting tools/instruments they used and lived in crowded areas. Many …show more content…
American poet and Civil War nurse Walt Whiteman described that the soldiers were treated in “merely tents, and sometimes very poor ones, the wounded lying on the ground, lucky if their blankets are spread on layers of pine or hemlock twigs or small leaves.” Even those were unsanitary, most were "unclean and bloody.” Typhoid was another sickness that killed thousands of soilders.It was spread through contaminated water and food. It killed nearly 30,000 confederate and 35,000 Union troops during the war. 1 out of every 3 people who developed the disease died from it. Pneumonia was responsible for the over 20,000 Union and 17,000 Confederate troops’ death. 1 out of 6 people who got this disease died from it. You had a higher chance of developing Pneumonia if you have been wounded in battle or became sick. Stonewall Jackson died from Pneumonia after being shot during the battle of Chancellorsville by his own men. Measles killed a lot of people during the Civil War around 11,000 soldiers in total. Not as many as other diseases did but it had its fair share. With so many people gathered in such small areas this disease was able to spread rapidly. About 1 in 20 people who got this disease died as a result of