Life and Limb: Civil War Medicine

Objective: Students will understand the incredible advances in the field of medicine during the Civil War.

Pre Activity

Activity 1

Have students draw on paper what they believe a germ looks like. Brainstorm ideas about what a germ is and its affects on people.

Activity 2

Have students in groups draw a layout of what you would see in a modern hospital. What type of equipment you would see; nurses, doctors, ambulances etc. Have the groups discuss their findings.

Activity 3

Terms to define:

Microscope

Embalming

Ambulance

Amputation

Morphine

Opium

Laudanum

Anesthesia

Herbs

Maggots

Gangrene

Blood Letting

Tourniquet

Post Activity

Activity 1

Suggested Reading excerpts the following Civil War nurses diaries:

Clara Barton

Phoebe Yates Pember

Louisa May Alcott

Have the students compare the role of women now and then in medicine and in the military.

Activity 2

Have the students write a letter as a wounded or diseased soldier staying in a hospital during the Civil War. Items they may include, life expectancy, living without a limb, how life will be different because of their wound or disease. Students could share their letters with the class.

Activity 3

Have students research one of the following people and discuss their impact on modern medicine.

Louisa May Alcott

Phoebe Yates Pember

Katharine Prescott Wormeley

Dorathea Dix

Clara Barton

Crawford Long

William Morton

William Harvey

Anton van Leeuwenhoek

Theophile Laennec

Dr. Edward Jenner

Louis Pasteur

Sir Humphrey Davy

Joseph Lister

Ignaz Semmelweiz

Ephraim McDowell

Jonathan Letterman

Florence Nightingale

Robert Koch

Wilhelm Roentgen

Activity 4

Why did so many people have to die? Have the class analyze the medical technologies of the Civil War. Then, note the improvements made after the Civil War. Ask the class whether they thought the Civil War had a big effect on the technological changes in medicine and whether such improvements helped in future wars i.e. World War I and II, etc.

Activity 5

Military strategy was in a major transition during the Civil War. Have the students identify several changes in the military strategies used that helped prevent combat injuries and deaths. Are they still being used? What caused them to change their strategies?

Example: The Trench Warfare was initiated during the Civil War. Because of weapon improvements( i.e. gatling gun) combined with old military tactics (line formations), casualty rate increased dramatically. Trenches were a quick solution to a devastating problem.

What other wars had the same problem?

Activity 6

During the Civil War disease was the main killer of soldiers 2 to 1. Have the students research in groups the following diseases. Information to find: the disease’s origin, cure, vaccinations, and death toll from the disease.

Typhoid fever

Pneumonia

Tuberculosis

Malaria

Dysentery

Scurvy

Measles