Category: Medicine

Today a big interesting historical post.

Where I was: Historical Museum of Military (Civil War) Medicine in Frederick, MD. Entry is $9, $15 with a guide. For an hour and a half, we got a very smart guy who gave an interesting lecture, making the provincial museum really very interesting. We even tipped the guy afterward.

A few interesting facts that I didn’t know before. During the Civil War in the USA (1861-1865), there was a monstrous scale of losses – over 600,000 people. One in every ten was mobilized for the war. That is, excluding women, children, and the disabled – yes, someone from almost every family fought.

Apparently, Americans were not very experienced in wars back then, and organizing large groups of people was based on the “fend for yourself” principle. From gastrointestinal diseases alone, nearly four times more people died than from wounds. Soldiers cooked everything themselves – there was no cook or porridge for the platoon. They split into micro-groups of a few people, pooled whatever they had, and fried it on a fire. For some reason they mainly fried, not boiled (which also contributed to diseases). Their main rations were salt pork and hard-tack — crackers as hard as a stone. Fried hard-tacks were called Skillygalee.

Remember, it was not like that in European wars. And all because there were many of them, and they quickly figured out how to make them more effective. Plus, there was also a civil war, poorly organized and spontaneous.

Initially, soldiers were handed money in the field and they sent it to their families as best they could (not all reached its destination). For Southerners, money devalued faster than they could carry it to the tent. Back then, each state issued its own money. They write about 8000 different banknotes at that time. I didn’t quite believe it, started researching, and it turned out that this is still a very conservative estimate. Yes, anyone (state, city, private bank, railway, factory, and even a pharmacy) could print their own paper money. Each bank issued banknotes of its own design for different denominations ($1, $2, $3, $5, etc.). In 1860, there were about 1600 private banks in the USA, and almost each issued its own range of notes. But in the end, greenbacks – federal money prevailed.

They also told us about Dorothea Dix, the head of army nurses for the Union. She introduced an interesting age standard for the nurses. No “young and beautiful.” Only women over 30 years of age, “plain-looking,” no jewelry, fashionable dresses, or crinolines – only strict brown or black dresses. At that time, the appearance of a woman in a male military camp was considered almost indecent. Dorothea wanted the soldiers to see in the nurses strict mothers or aunts, not objects of flirtation.

To join the army, a volunteer was required to have at least two teeth opposing each other. Why? A soldier needed to quickly bite off the tip of a paper cartridge to pour the powder into the barrel. No teeth — you’re useless in battle.

Back then, they shot with Minié balls – made of soft lead. It was huge caliber (thumb-sized) and when it hit the body, it didn’t just pass through, it “burst” and literally turned bone into fine crumble. Repairing such a bone was impossible, so amputation became the only way to save a person from gangrene. At least there was some form of anesthesia (chloroform/ether).

Before the Civil War in the USA, people were buried where they died. But the war generated a demand: affluent Northern families wanted to bring their sons’ bodies home. That’s when embalming flourished. Right behind the front line were tents of “embalming surgeons” who for a decent sum (about $50–$100 for an officer) extracted blood and injected chemicals (arsenic and zinc) into the body. Actually, the museum building included such a place. Lincoln’s body after his assassination was transported across the entire country on a train, and it looked “alive” thanks to this new technology, which became the best advertisement for the new industry.

Overall, Frederick is a very nice city, full of art and nonconformists 🙂 Like our Leesburg, but 20 times bigger.

P.S. It was interesting to study what drove people to go die. Of course, our guide said “patriotism”.

But if you google, it turns out not quite so. Of course, in 1861 no one knew that the war would last 4 years and take 600,000 lives.

Reason #1 – boredom. Life on a farm in the mid-19th century was incredibly monotonous. War seemed like the greatest adventure in life. Guys thought: “I’ll go, see the world, shoot, become a hero, and then return to harvest.”

Reason #2 – naivety. The first volunteers went to the front as if on a picnic. In the first major battle (Bull Run), civilians from Washington even came with picnic baskets to watch the “spectacle,” until they were swept away by the retreating crowd of bloodied soldiers.

Reason #3 – “honor.” In the 19th century, “honor” was not an empty word. If you were a healthy guy and didn’t go to the army, you became an outcast in your own town. It’s written that girls often refused to go out with those who didn’t wear a uniform.

Reason #4 – “regimental solidarity.” As I already said, regiments were formed from neighbors. Not going to war meant betraying your friends, brothers, and father. Shame before neighbors was stronger than the fear of death.

What did they fight for?

Here the goals of the North and South radically differed:

For the North, the main idea was “Integrity of the Union.” For them, the USA was a great experiment in democracy that could not be allowed to fail. The slogan “Save the Union” was more powerful than “Free the Slaves.” At first, not everyone was ready to die for abolition of slavery.

For the South (Confederacy), the main motivation was “Defending their homes.” Most Southern soldiers did not own slaves (slavery was too expensive a luxury for ordinary farmers). But they were convinced that the “Yankee northerners” were coming to seize their land, burn their homes, and impose their rules. They saw themselves as heirs of Washington, fighting against “tyrant” Lincoln.

Reason #5 – bounties

When initial enthusiasm faded (by 1863), pure calculation played its part. States and the federal government started paying huge “enlistment bounties.” A sum of $500–$1000 was equivalent to a few years’ earnings for a laborer. For a poor immigrant (Irish or German) just off the boat in New York, it was a chance to provide for a family or buy a farm after the war.

In 1862-63, both sides introduced the draft, as volunteers were running out. This exposed social injustice.

In the North, you could officially avoid the army by paying $300 (huge money for a poor man, but manageable for the middle class) or find a “substitute” (a person who would fight in your place for money).

In the South, there was the “Twenty Negro Law.” Owning 20 or more slaves exempted you from service, as you were “needed in the rear for production control.”

This caused fierce resentment among ordinary soldiers. The famous “Draft Riots” in New York (1863) were sparked precisely by this sense of injustice.

So there you have it 🙂