Civil War Soldier’s Struggles
Many men in the Civil War did not spend much time on the front lines of battle. Nor did soldiers realize there is something even more dangerous than gun fire during their enlistment in the war. Rather, to their demise the soldiers spent large amounts of time in military camps. Unknown to most, camp life was notoriously atrocious during the Civil War because of the poor living quarters and high death rates.
Poor living quarters played a large role in the hardships experienced during the Civil War. One of the problems had been the army’s inadequate shelter structure. Furthermore the soldiers had tents that were referred to as “dog tents” which provided little to no protection from the elements. In addition, the rubber mat, men used to …show more content…
The first unfortunate contributing factor was food rations. The shortage of food during the summer months led men to forage vegetables. The things they foraged ended up not always being safe to eat and caused many soldiers to experience extreme stomach pain. The army provided dehydrated veggies only later to find that the dehydrating process removed a lot of the best vitamins from the veggies. This led to consuming only poor vitamins with the end result of creating soldiers with poor immune systems. Another contributing factor to the high death rate was the sanitation problem. The camps used a process called “sink pits”, huge holes in the ground, to deposit all their bodily wastes. It was through this process in which they successfully contaminated the groundwater that they used to cook, drink and bathe in. This created a bacterial dysentery that ended up being the greatest killer of the
Many men in the Civil War did not spend much time on the front lines of battle. Nor did soldiers realize there is something even more dangerous than gun fire during their enlistment in the war. Rather, to their demise the soldiers spent large amounts of time in military camps. Unknown to most, camp life was notoriously atrocious during the Civil War because of the poor living quarters and high death rates.
Poor living quarters played a large role in the hardships experienced during the Civil War. One of the problems had been the army’s inadequate shelter structure. Furthermore the soldiers had tents that were referred to as “dog tents” which provided little to no protection from the elements. In addition, the rubber mat, men used to …show more content…
The first unfortunate contributing factor was food rations. The shortage of food during the summer months led men to forage vegetables. The things they foraged ended up not always being safe to eat and caused many soldiers to experience extreme stomach pain. The army provided dehydrated veggies only later to find that the dehydrating process removed a lot of the best vitamins from the veggies. This led to consuming only poor vitamins with the end result of creating soldiers with poor immune systems. Another contributing factor to the high death rate was the sanitation problem. The camps used a process called “sink pits”, huge holes in the ground, to deposit all their bodily wastes. It was through this process in which they successfully contaminated the groundwater that they used to cook, drink and bathe in. This created a bacterial dysentery that ended up being the greatest killer of the