In 1861, millions of Americans enlisted in what would be the bloodiest war ever
fought on U.S soil. Young soldiers went in all guns blazing expecting to find both glory and
gore on the battlefield. But what they got were insect outbreaks, feces laid in water,
and bloody scalpels that had never seen soap. Today on Nutty History we're looking at hygiene
or lack thereof in the American civil war. Keep that hand sanitizer close because this
one will make you want to actually douse yourself and disinfect it.
You know what sounds like a poor planting place in a toilet right next to your water tap? But that's
essentially how a lot of civil war camps were laid out. A lack of fresh clean water was its own
issue. Most camps didn't have access to a usable source of running water which made their supplies
limited to begin with. But many times they also dug latrines near that limited water supply.
Resulting in your freshly poured canteen of water containing human fecal matter. If you need to go
pour out the current water you're drinking, I'll wait! Frequently contaminated water led to the
biggest killer of the civil war. It wasn't gunfire or the many gnarly battle wounds,
it was dysentery. And if you've ever been on the wrong end of a chipotle burrito,
you'll know that it wasn't a pleasant way to go. The civil war was still several decades
shy of antibiotics which is a big reason why twice as many soldiers died from disease.
As from combat they were aware that boiling water was an effective sanitation method.
But not aware enough to actually do it, with any regular frequency.
If you did catch one of the many diseases festering around camp or catch a bullet in your
leg, your eyes in the makeshift hospitals with makeshift supplies weren't the greatest. What we
can say about the civil war medics is that they did their best with the knowledge and supplies
available. Unfortunately, it still resulted in some pretty horrifying medical practices.
Due to a supply and demand issue, civil war medics had on average two years of any medical training.
Which meant that often the guy cutting into you was the equivalent of a second year med student.
Beyond that, because of a lack of surgical equipment and medical supplies
the docs rarely had time to clean anything beyond giving it a quick rinse with water. So the same
knife or sponge that was just inside someone else could be used on you minutes later. In general,
the medical community at the time just didn't understand the importance of proper sterilization.
Medics often used their bare hands to examine a patient's wound and then went ahead and stuck
their bloody fingers in the poor sap next to them. Just in case you weren't feeling queasy enough,
they also believed in the healing power of pus. So much so that they would take the
literal pus from one patient and put it onto another patient's wound in the hopes that they
were sharing the wealth. What they actually shared were infections and lots of them.
A lot of the very messy surgeries during the civil war were amputations, about 60,000 to
be exact. And yes, the medics cut off legs wearing blood-soaked aprons and dirty tools.
But the survival rate of an amputation was actually around 75% which was a lot better
than the rates in European conflicts a few years prior. Still many amputees succumb to
blood poisoning, infection and gangrene. What to do with all those cut off limbs though?
Throw them in a pile, I guess. If your poop infested water wasn't disgusting enough,
you could always take a sightseeing venture to a nearby mountain of human arms and legs.
Surgeons working on deadly battle sites didn't have time to dispose of all the limbs properly. So
piles or pits of limbs became a unique civil war phenomenon. Some are still dug up in modern day.
I suppose it's no surprise that soldiers who shared blood and pus had no qualms about sharing
dirty clothes. Civil war uniforms were generally poor quality and frequently became worn and
torn along with their boots. The confederate wardrobe was so lacking that about a third of
confederate soldiers had to spend their days and battles barefoot. Taking that into consideration
it's not too unreasonable that they took clothing and boots from fallen soldiers as their own.
Finders keepers after all. There wasn't exactly a laundromat around
to wash away the dead man's gore, but soldiers did boil their clothes every
now and again. Mainly when one of the many lice infestations occurred at camp.
Speaking of camp life, this was far from a camp firewood experience. Aside from the stench of
the latrines there were also heaps of trash and food slop littered around adding to that special
civil war brand of perfume. Sometimes a soldier might not bother to do his business at the latrine
at all. And you might find yourself setting up your tent in another's excrement. Supposedly,
civil war soldiers also didn't know how to do dishes. This might sound like an 1800s excuse
to make women do all the cleaning. But based on the filthiness of everything else, I'll buy it.
Not properly washing dishes was another great way to spread germs and bacteria amongst one another.
And while sure they might have known enough to boil their lice ridden clothing,
they'd still go right ahead and use the same pot to cook their dinner sans washing.
Is your skin crawling yet? It was for the soldiers who aside from the lice had to deal
with malaria-carrying mosquitoes and mice infestations. They were troopers though.
The soldiers even had a fun pastime where they would find the biggest laughs they could and hold
lice racing competitions. Maybe not the best move to play with an insect that can give you typhoid,
but hey you gotta stay sane somehow. Would you be down for the lycee life and disease-ridden living
conditions to save the union? Unfortunately, men on either side didn't have much of a choice.
As both sides eventually added conscriptions that mandated men of a certain age must enlist. But let
us know in the comments which hygienic sacrifice would be your final straw. See you next time!