Lesson Plan: Illness of soldiers during the Civil War

In 2019, a worldwide pandemic known by the name “Covid-19” spread across the globe. It affected all aspects of normal life – include the educational system at all levels.

Illness during the Civil War was not of pandemic reach, but, still, disease played a major role in the conflict. Three out of every four soldier deaths were from sickness, not from combat. The traditional view of the state of medicine in the 1860s is one marked by ignorance of the germ theory of disease and barbaric treatment practices. Is that an accurate portrayal?

There is recent scholarship showing a more sophisticated Union medical approach than the traditional story line. Newly developed resources such as the National Museum of Civil War Medicine allow a more nuanced understanding. Its website, https://www.civilwarmed.org , contains a robust set of remote learning tools.

An additional primary research tool lies within the pension record treasure trove that contains a lot of detail on individual soldiers’ chronic conditions.