20K forces ~30,000

lornajarrettblanchard April 1, 1861

–30,000 Stover, Ken. “Civil War Diseases. CivilWarAcademy.com. Accessed 3-28-2021.
–10,000 Burns. Mercy Street. “Behind the Lens: A History in Pictures.” PBS. (Union only?)
–10,000 Kakkilaya. Malaria Site. “Malaria in Wars and Victims.” 6-7-2016 update. (Union only?)
–10,000 Union army. Steiner. Disease in the Civil War. 1968; cited in Miller, 1997, “Historical…”

Narrative Information

Burns: “Before war in the twentieth century, disease was the number one killer of combatants. Of the 620,000 recorded military deaths in the Civil War about two-thirds died from disease. However, recent studies show the number of deaths was probably closer to 750,000. Crowded conditions, poor hygiene, absence of sanitary disposal of garbage and human waste, inadequate diets, and no specific disease treatments was a formula for disaster….

“The second most common disease was malaria with over 1.3 million cases and more than 10,000 deaths.” (Burns. Mercy Street. “Behind the Lens: A History in Pictures.” PBS.)

Kakkilaya: “During the American civil war in 1861-1865, malaria accounted for 1,316,000 episodes of illness and 10,000 deaths. It has been estimated that 50% of the white soldiers and 80% of the black soldiers got malaria annually. (Kakkilaya. Malaria Site. “Malaria in Wars and Victims.” 6-7-2016 update.)

Stover: “Civil War Diseases: Malaria

“Malaria was also prevalent during the war killing roughly 30,000 soldiers. This number is high but considering around 3 million people contracted the disease it was not often fatal. This was due in large part to the readily available supply of quinine, which was used to successfully prevent and treat the disease. The biggest thing that all of these Civil War diseases had in common was that nobody had any idea how to cure them. With the exception of Malaria.” (Stover, Ken. “Civil War Diseases. CivilWarAcademy.com. Accessed 3-28-2021.)

Sources

Burns, Stanley B. MD. Mercy Street. “Behind the Lens: A History in Pictures.” PBS. Accessed 3-27-2021 at: http://www.pbs.org/mercy-street/uncover-history/behind-lens/disease/

Kakkilaya, Bevinje Srinivas, MD. Malaria Site. “Malaria in Wars and Victims.” 6-7-2016 update. Accessed 3-28-2021 at: https://www.malariasite.com/wars-victims/

Miller, Gary L. Reprinted from “Historical Natural History: Insects and the Civil War.” American Entomologist, Vol. 43, pp. 227-245. Montana State University website accessed 3-28-2021 at: https://www.montana.edu/historybug/civilwar2/gallnippers.html

Steiner, P. E. Disease in the Civil War. Springfield: Charles C. Thomas, 1968.

Stover, Ken. “Civil War Diseases. CivilWarAcademy.com. Accessed 3-28-2021 at: https://www.civilwaracademy.com/civil-war-diseases

Additional Reading

Barnes, Joseph K. (Surgeon General, United States Army). The Medical and Surgical History of the War of the Rebellion (1861-65). Part I, Volume. I, Medical History. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1870. Accessed 3-27-2021 at: https://collections.nlm.nih.gov/bookviewer?PID=nlm:nlmuid-14121350RX1-mvpart#page/4/mode/2up