Diseases
in the Civil War
Would you believe that diseases killed more people in the civil war than bullets? Well its true, nearly 315,000 people of the 500,000 people died in the civil war from diseases. The most common diseases were diarrhea, dysentery, typhoid, malaria, and chicken pox, and many more. One problem was that sanitary conditions were shocking by modern standards. Medical science had not yet discovered the importance of antiseptics in preventing infection. The water was contaminated and soldiers sometimes ate unripened or spoiled food.
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