The Civil War, the bloodiest war in American history, took over half a million American lives in just four short years. With the advent of advanced weaponry and extensively developed war strategies, American blood was spilled everywhere and no family was left unstained. However, many people overlooked a much deadlier force that hid behind the blazing guns and the explosive artillery, which ultimately contributed to the South’s demise. Disease (dysentery, typhoid, malaria) ran rampant throughout Union and Confederate armies due to unsanitary conditions and the lack of medical knowledge. People began to realize the potency of these microscopic killers and citizens of the Union accepted women as nurses to help protect their soldiers while the
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Two times as many men died from disease (“Sanitary Commission Pennant…”). Medical knowledge during the war was primitive and early doctors (primarily men) were continuously faced with amputations, blood transfusions, and infections as soldiers received deadly wounds from cannons and rifles. Civil War soldiers also were cramped together in unsanitary conditions, perfect for spreading disease. In a letter to President Lincoln on October 1863, one senior officer of the Western Sanitary Commision states, “No language can describe the suffering, destitution, and neglect which prevail in some of their ‘camps.’ They are very poorly-many of them half naked-and almost destitute of beds and bedding-thousands of them sleeping on the bare ground.” The tide of the war turned with the help of women in the …show more content…
As men were dying on the war front, women were determined to help and began to organize. Many women began practicing as nurses, but had no proper training and saw resistance from male physicians at first. Faced with restrictions, women sent supplies and formed sewing circles to provide the soldiers with clothes that were not particularly useful, but Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell, the first American women to be a doctor, organized the Woman’s Central Association of Relief (WCAR) to prevent wasteful production (The Union’s “Other Army”...). Learning from British deaths due to disease during the Crimean War, the WCAR, New York City civic leaders, and the medical community collaborated to become the USSC which was sanctioned by the War Department and approved by President Lincoln on June 13th, 1861 (Waide et al.). Although men of the USSC held executive positions such as President Henry Bellows and Vice President Alexander Bache, women ran all of the USSC’s twelve branches, from New York to Chicago. Blackwell knew representation of important men was crucial for success (MacLean). The army resisted working with the civilian organization at first because it thought the group would not be particularly useful or even be a liability, and women were unfamiliar with the military. Despite these hindrances, women
Two times as many men died from disease (“Sanitary Commission Pennant…”). Medical knowledge during the war was primitive and early doctors (primarily men) were continuously faced with amputations, blood transfusions, and infections as soldiers received deadly wounds from cannons and rifles. Civil War soldiers also were cramped together in unsanitary conditions, perfect for spreading disease. In a letter to President Lincoln on October 1863, one senior officer of the Western Sanitary Commision states, “No language can describe the suffering, destitution, and neglect which prevail in some of their ‘camps.’ They are very poorly-many of them half naked-and almost destitute of beds and bedding-thousands of them sleeping on the bare ground.” The tide of the war turned with the help of women in the …show more content…
As men were dying on the war front, women were determined to help and began to organize. Many women began practicing as nurses, but had no proper training and saw resistance from male physicians at first. Faced with restrictions, women sent supplies and formed sewing circles to provide the soldiers with clothes that were not particularly useful, but Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell, the first American women to be a doctor, organized the Woman’s Central Association of Relief (WCAR) to prevent wasteful production (The Union’s “Other Army”...). Learning from British deaths due to disease during the Crimean War, the WCAR, New York City civic leaders, and the medical community collaborated to become the USSC which was sanctioned by the War Department and approved by President Lincoln on June 13th, 1861 (Waide et al.). Although men of the USSC held executive positions such as President Henry Bellows and Vice President Alexander Bache, women ran all of the USSC’s twelve branches, from New York to Chicago. Blackwell knew representation of important men was crucial for success (MacLean). The army resisted working with the civilian organization at first because it thought the group would not be particularly useful or even be a liability, and women were unfamiliar with the military. Despite these hindrances, women