The Effect of Medicine on the Civil War by Aryana Deshpande https://padlet.com/adeshpande/w85thudkn2rzias4 Made with whimsy en-us 2020-04-20 15:34:19 UTC 2025-12-10 13:41:26 UTC hello@padlet.com https://padlet.net/icons/png/1f623.png Background Information adeshpande https://padlet.com/adeshpande/w85thudkn2rzias4/wish/517950082
  • About 620,000 soldiers died
    • 2/3rds of the deaths were due to disease  
    • the war caused many doctors to rethink their ways of treating the wounded and infected
  • At the start of the war, medical knowledge and equipment wasn’t enough to heal the wounded and infected (diseases like dysentery, typhoid fever, pneumonia, mumps, measles, and tuberculosis were common)
    • Diseases spread among poorly sanitized camps
    • Germ theory, clean medical practices, advanced equipment, and organized hospitalization systems were not known and training was emerging out of the “heroic era"
      • physicians recommended bloodletting, purging, blistering, or a combination of all three to remedy the sick, which was actually often worse than the disease itself
  • Others died because of the disorganization in transporting the wounded 
    • ]]>     2020-04-20 15:56:40 UTC https://padlet.com/adeshpande/w85thudkn2rzias4/wish/517950082     Evacuation of the Wounded aghesani https://padlet.com/adeshpande/w85thudkn2rzias4/wish/517966069
  • Many soldiers suffered from haphazard hospitalization systems.
  • Many people died because they did not receive the care they needed in makeshift hospitals.
  • Available facilities were completely occupied by wounded and sick soldiers.
  • These conditions, however, did speed up many technological and medical advancements.
    • Jonathon Letterman established the Letterman Plan, a highly organized ambulance system with horses and mules.
  • At field dressing stations, medics administered whiskey for shock or morphine for pain. After that, they either returned to battle or were sent to field hospitals.
    • ]]>     2020-04-20 16:02:01 UTC https://padlet.com/adeshpande/w85thudkn2rzias4/wish/517966069     Recruitment adeshpande https://padlet.com/adeshpande/w85thudkn2rzias4/wish/523069554
  • A physical exam was required
    •  sometimes they let people with disabilities join because the number of men enlisting was getting smaller as the ward drew on
  • Both the North and South had set forth a draft by the end to make sure they had enough soldiers to fight

    • ]]>     2020-04-22 13:59:10 UTC https://padlet.com/adeshpande/w85thudkn2rzias4/wish/523069554     URLs adeshpande https://padlet.com/adeshpande/w85thudkn2rzias4/wish/523094170 https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&url=http%3A%2F%2F60374253.weebly.com%2Fcivil-war-nursing.html&psig=AOvVaw0p32h3_XCY8wh50NNqIZnm&ust=1587650815127000&source=images&cd=vfe&ved=0CA0QjhxqFwoTCLj-u6ma_OgCFQAAAAAdAAAAABAD
    http://www.nysl.nysed.gov/mssc/bullrun/52wounded.htm
    http://www.pbs.org/mercy-street/uncover-history/behind-lens/hospitals-civil-war/
    https://www.civilwarmed.org/enlist/
     https://www.civilwarmed.org/evacuation-2/
    https://www.battlefields.org/learn/articles/civil-war-medicine

    ]]>     2020-04-22 14:07:19 UTC https://padlet.com/adeshpande/w85thudkn2rzias4/wish/523094170     Field hospitals adeshpande https://padlet.com/adeshpande/w85thudkn2rzias4/wish/523104931
  • William A. Hammond of the Union army designed new hospitals and set the standard for hygiene in his army. 
  • Field and pavilion hospitals replaced makeshift hospitals.
  • Hospital systems became more efficient, so medical records and reports could be tracked more easily. This allowed beneficial treatments to become more standardized. 
  • Hammond and Letterman encouraged the triage organization system, where soldiers were divided into three categories: mortally wounded, slightly wounded, and surgical cases. Surgeons had access to anesthetics for their patients. This system is still in use today.
  • During the war, amputation, which was a life-saving procedure, was invented to treat injuries from Minié balls, which were a new form of weaponry. Only 25% of Union soldiers died from these injuries, while 75% of civilians with similar injuries died.
    • ]]>     2020-04-22 14:10:45 UTC https://padlet.com/adeshpande/w85thudkn2rzias4/wish/523104931     Transporting the wounded adeshpande https://padlet.com/adeshpande/w85thudkn2rzias4/wish/523177201 2020-04-22 14:31:40 UTC https://padlet.com/adeshpande/w85thudkn2rzias4/wish/523177201 Embalming mbickford5 https://padlet.com/adeshpande/w85thudkn2rzias4/wish/523195714
  • Was not a popular in the U.S. until the Civil War 
  • It was used to keep bodies preserved when shipped home 
  • Almost all embalmers were either pharmacists or surgeons who knew about the chemical compounds 
  • The stations in which embalming took place were makeshift and setup near the hospitals, railroads, and battlefields 
  • Thousands and thousands of soldiers were embalmed (10,000-40,000)


    • ]]>     2020-04-22 14:37:32 UTC https://padlet.com/adeshpande/w85thudkn2rzias4/wish/523195714     Pavilion Hospitals mbickford5 https://padlet.com/adeshpande/w85thudkn2rzias4/wish/523198915 •Many soldiers were wounded during the civil war causing over crowded hospitals 
    •Armies started creating big pavilion-style hospitals 
        -This was more effective  because the army’s hospitals were much more sanitary 
    •Volunteers, nurses (female and male), surgeons, hospital stewards and more helped heal the sick 
    •  The buildings had many rows of beds and lots of windows for cross ventilation 

    ]]>     2020-04-22 14:38:34 UTC https://padlet.com/adeshpande/w85thudkn2rzias4/wish/523198915     Civil War Hospitals mbickford5 https://padlet.com/adeshpande/w85thudkn2rzias4/wish/523209623 2020-04-22 14:41:54 UTC https://padlet.com/adeshpande/w85thudkn2rzias4/wish/523209623 Civil War Recruitment mbickford5 https://padlet.com/adeshpande/w85thudkn2rzias4/wish/523211728 2020-04-22 14:42:33 UTC https://padlet.com/adeshpande/w85thudkn2rzias4/wish/523211728 Civil War Hospitals mbickford5 https://padlet.com/adeshpande/w85thudkn2rzias4/wish/523214315 2020-04-22 14:43:13 UTC https://padlet.com/adeshpande/w85thudkn2rzias4/wish/523214315 Civil War Conditions mbickford5 https://padlet.com/adeshpande/w85thudkn2rzias4/wish/523220399 2020-04-22 14:45:08 UTC https://padlet.com/adeshpande/w85thudkn2rzias4/wish/523220399