Disease and Pathogens in the Civil War

Research Project

Disease was the big killer• 1 in 4 soldiers who served died

• More than twice as many soldiers died of disease than battle and other causes combined!

Civil War Army Camps Were Filthy and Without Sanitation

Disease Deaths Infected

Dysentery/Diarrhea 95,000 1.5 million

Typhoid Fever 45,000 150,000

Pneumonia 40,000 78,000

Malaria 30,000 1.3 million

Measles 10,000 77,000

Tuberculosis 7,000 19,000

Smallpox 7,000 18,000

Typhus 1,000 N/A

Rheumatism (Rheumatic fever) 475 250,000

Gonorrhea and Syphilis 400 200,000

Scurvy N/A 30,700

Mumps, Chickenpox, Diphteria, Other, etc

N/A Unknown thousands

Death from Wounds

• Many, if not most, of the soldiers who died from the injuries sustained in battle died of infection.

• Without antibiotics or sterile equipment, bacteria would infect injuries resulting in fever and death.

Gangrene• Gangrene refers to the death of body tissue due to a lack of

blood flow or serious bacterial infection. Gangrene commonly affects the extremities, but it can also occur in your muscles and internal organs.

• Treatments for gangrene include surgery to remove dead tissue and antibiotics. Since antibiotics did not exist yet in the Civil War, that option was not available.

Dysentery• An infection of the intestines caused by either bacteria

or an amoeba from contaminated water.

• It results in severe diarrhea with the presence of blood and mucus in the feces.

• The worst disease in the Civil War was Dysentery. Dysentery accounted for around 45,000 deaths in the Union army and around 50,000 deaths in the Confederate army.

Your Assignment For This Project

• Read the three posted articles

• Watch the three videos

• If Biology: produce a report on 6 of the following diseases;

• Typhoid Fever

• Pneunomia

• Malaria• Measles

• Small pox

• Typhus• Tuberculosis

• Gangrene and wound infections

Your Assignment For This Project

• Read the three posted articles

• Watch the three videos

• If 8th Grade: produce a report on 5 of the following diseases;

• Typhoid Fever

• Pneunomia

• Malaria• Measles

• Small pox

• Typhus• Tuberculosis

• Gangrene and wound infections

Your Assignment For This Project

• Read the three posted articles

• Watch the three videos

• If 7th Grade: produce a report on 4 of the following diseases;

• Typhoid Fever

• Pneunomia

• Malaria• Measles

• Small pox

• Typhus• Tuberculosis

• Gangrene and wound infections

Your Assignment For This Project

• Read the three posted articles

• Watch the three videos

• If 6th Grade: produce a report on 3 of the following diseases;

• Typhoid Fever

• Pneunomia

• Malaria• Measles

• Small pox

• Typhus• Tuberculosis

• Gangrene and wound infections

Your Assignment For This Project

• The report will contain the following:

• Introduction paragraph explaining the overall impacts of disease on Civil War casualties relative the actual battles.

• 1-2 paragraphs on each disease discussing the symptoms and illness, the cause agent and/or carrier, how it spread in the Civil War, the impacts it had on soldiers, treatments available then and which developed after the war.

• 1-2 conclusion paragraphs discussing the impacts disease had on the course of the war and lessons we learned from that experience.