Civil War Medicine: Approaches for Teaching

Abstract

The Civil War was by far the most devastating conflict in American history. From April 12,1861, to April 9,1865, more than 360,000 soldiers died in a momentous struggle to determine the fate and course of the Union. But the all-too-common images of grizzly amputa tions, painful bullet extractions, and excruciating wound closures belie a less dramatic but far more lethal killer: disease. Thus, the challenge of providing care in the field to the two largest standing armies of North America was exacerbated by constant disease in camp. The following information and suggestions for using the history of medicine to teach about the Ameri can Civil War offer perspectives, re sources, and approaches you may find helpful for developing a class or a unit on this topic. Understanding some el ementary concepts and becoming fa miliar with a few basic examples can help teachers construct useful lectures and/or find materials that will evoke meaningful class discussions. Using these approaches, you can help your students achieve a number of impor tant objectives: To understand the significant fea tures of medicine as it was practiced at the time of the Civil War.