Chronological History of the American Civil War

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More Medical Facts During the Civil War A few facts you might not know about the Great American Civil War. To be shot by a minie ball, almost meant amputation or death. The bullet would splinter the bones. At the field hospital, the operating table was often a barn door supported by two barrels or similar objects. Doctors wore no masks or caps to tuck their hair under. There were no gowns – just an apron. The “operating table” was probably not cleaned after each patient – so it would be covered with blood and filth. Infection and disease was so widespread that soldiers didn’t have much faith in doctors. At the field or tent hospitals (which were close to battle lines and in range of bullets and shells) surgeons used their fingers to search for bullets and tried their best to control bleeding. And, believe it or not, three-fourths of a surgeon’s time was spent amputating limbs. Sometimes soldiers felt that limbs were amputated needlessly – or they simply didn’t want to have their arm or leg cut off (why not?). One such corporal drew his revolver on a doctor, saying, “The man that puts a hand on me dies!” Amputation was the wounded soldier’s best chance of survival. Union soldiers suffered 174,000 extremity wounds (arms and legs). Of these, 30,000 resulted in amputations. Three-fourths of the amputees survived. The sooner the amputation was performed, the better the chance of survival. If amputation was delayed more than 48 hours, blood poisoning, bone infection, or gangrene would set in, and the death rate would double. Civil War Daily Rations A few facts you might not know about the Great American Civil War. The daily ration of Civil War soldiers was simple. This is primarily because they couldn’t preserve food like we do today. Canned foods had been available after 1809; however, it was difficult to transport to troops on the march. Hardtack was the Union soldiers’ main source of food because it was cheap to make, easy to transport, and lasted a long time. Today, we still have hardtack that was made during the Civil War! It was extremely hard because it was baked in northern factories and stored in warehouses before it was finally shipped to soldiers on the battlefields. It was so hard many soldiers broke their teeth trying to eat it! Some of the nicknames soldiers had for hardtack were teeth-dullers, sheet-iron crackers, flour tile, ship’s biscuit and hard bread. They also called it “worm castles” because there were often weevils and maggots in the crackers. To eat this hard bread, soldiers often broke it up with a rock or rifle butt and softened it by putting it in their coffee or heating it in grease. They had a favorite dish called “Skillygalee,” which was fried pork fat with crumbled hardtack. The Soldier's Food A few facts you might not know about the Great American Civil War. Confederate soldiers weren’t as “lucky” as Union soldiers. Food was scarcer. Cornbread was the staple food. Using the cornmeal, they made Johnnie Cakes and Cush, which was cooked beef fried with bacon grease and cornmeal. They didn’t have coffee beans in most parts of the Confederacy due to blockades, so they made coffee from just about anything – except coffee! Examine some of the coffees in your local grocery store. Do any of them contain chicory? What is chicory? (A blue-flowered Mediterranean plant of the daisy family, cultivated for its edible salad leaves and carrot-shaped root. The root of this plant, which is roasted and ground for use as an additive to or substitute for coffee.) Neither army received meat that often. When they did get meat, it was usually too tough, too rotten, or too full of preservatives to be eaten. Foraging (gathering food from the land or stealing it from farms) wasn’t allowed, but officers usually looked the other way when it did happen. During his “March to the Sea”, Union General William Tecumseh Sherman wrote “Convey to Jeff Davis my personal and official thanks for abolishing cotton and substituting corn and sweet potatoes in the south. These facilitate our military plans much, for food and forage are abundant.” Sherman made sure his men ate well off the land and left nothing in his path for the South to use against him.