From: francishistory2011.wikispaces.com
Throughout the entire Civil War, death from battle was the main fear of all common soldiers. In the Civil War, around 605,000 soldiers died, but only one third of them died because of battle wounds. The real enemy of all the soldiers was disease. The soldiers did not understand the importance of hygiene. Diseases such as dysentery and typhoid fever came from the lack of hygiene.
Over 400,000 men were killed by diseases. Another reason why so many people died was because doctors did not know what caused disease, how to stop it from spreading, and lastly, how to cure them. Sometimes by luck, doctors would find a natural substance that would cure diseases. For example it was discovered that the bark of a small tree called Cinchona contained a chemical named Quinine. Quinine is used to treat malaria and is still used all over the world today. Below is a list of all the common diseases and how many people they killed:
Dysentery - This illness was by far the greatest killer during the Civil War. It killed around 90,000 people. It killed so many because of the poor sanitation of the people and of the war camps. Trash was littered throughout the camp and latrines were usually dug near the water supply. The water was contaminated and diseases spread quickly due to the large amount of men put into one camp.
Typhoid Fever - This was another disease like dysentery, but did not kill as many people. Typhoid fever killed 70,000 soldiers. One third of all people who got it passed away.
Pneumonia - This lung disease attacked the wounded. Many people recovering from a surgery or bullet wound caught pneumonia. It ended up killing 50,000 people throughout the Civil War.
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