1864 — Feb 24-Apr 17, 1865, Diarrhea & Dysentery, Union POW’s, Andersonville, GA–5,605
–5,605 US Army Surgeon General. Medical and Surgical History of the War of the Rebellion
(Part III, Vol. I, Medical History).
Narrative Information
USA Surgeon General report: “The fragmentary character of the evidence relating to the diseases of the Federal prisoners in the hands of the Confederates has already been indicated.[1] The statistics at command are derived from the original registers of the hospitals attached to the Andersonville and Danville prisons and certain tables prepared by Dr. Joseph Jones from official records, and published in his article on the diseases of the Andersonville prisoners. The records of the Adjutant General’s Office, U.S. Army, according to a communication from that office dated June 22, 1878, include the cases of 30,564 Federal soldiers who died while prisoners of war.
“The Andersonville register, extending from February 24, 1864, to April 17, 1865, inclusive, shows the number of admissions from the stockaded prison to have been 17,875, but as 458 of these are reported as having been cases of wounds and injuries, and 1,430 have no diagnosis entered against their names, the cases of specified diseases number only 15,987. The result in 946 of these cases is not recorded, so that the number of cases of specified disease that may be traced to their termination is reduced to 15,041. Of these 11,086 died, or 73.7 per cent. of the whole number. This enormous mortality is an index [end of p. 33] of the condition to which the unfortunate men became reduced before they were admitted to this so called hospital. The professional mind is shocked in endeavoring to realize the scenes presented in an establishment the wards of which formed the portals of the grave to three out of every four soldiers who had the misfortune to enter them. Indeed, it appears that large numbers died uncared for in the prison and were removed to hospital simply for record and interment. Sometimes the deaths in the prison outnumbered those in the hospital. The reports for the week ending September 20, 1864, show the occurrence of 336 deaths in the former and 334 in the latter establishment. At this particular time one-half of the fatal cases were already terminated when taken up on the hospital register. The average number of deaths that occurred daily during the occupation of the depot was thirty; but as many as a hundred deaths were recorded in a single day. Certainly the most fatal field of the war was that enclosed within the stockade at Andersonville, Georgia….
Table XV.
Summarizing the Records of the Hospital at Camp Sumter, Andersonville, Georgia.
….
Diarrhoea and Dysentery 7,352[2] 376[3] 5,605 [deaths] 459.9[4] 505.6[5] 80.3[6]
….
“Diarrhoea and dysentery caused somewhat less than one-half, and scurvy[7] somewhat more than one-third of the total number of cases. Under these two headings were entered [end of p. 34] 814.1 of every thousand cases, leaving only 185.9 cases in the thousand for distribution among all other diseases. These cases also occasioned the greater part of the mortality. Diarrhoea and dysentery caused 505.6 and scurvy 326.0 deaths in every thousand deaths from all diseases, leaving only 168.4 in the thousand for distribution among other fatal diseases.
“Dr. Jones has fortunately preserved a monthly return of the cases and deaths in the stockade and hospital for the six months from March 1 to August 31, 1864, giving also the mean monthly strength during the period. From this paper annual rates of sickness and mortality per thousand of strength may be calculated. Some idea of the relative prevalence of specified diseases and of the mortality caused by them may likewise be obtained….
Table XVI.
Giving a general vies of the Sick and Death Rates from prominent diseases and classes of diseases among the Federal prisoners at Andersonville for the period extending from March 1 to August 31, 1864. Average present 19,453 prisoners.
Diarrhoea and Dysentery 16,772 [cases] 4,529 [deaths] [page 35] ….
“…When Dr. Jones inspected the stockade in September, 1864, he found two thousand sick exclusive of those admitted into the prison hospital, and as there was but one medical officer to attend to this enormous number of patients, and to the cases brought daily to his notice among the mass of the prisoners, the impossibility of preserving an accurate record of the cases is manifest. Large numbers of the prisoners who had never been entered on the sick list were suffering from severe and incurable diarrhoea, dysentery and scurvy. Slighter ailments, such as dictated the relief of a soldier n active service from military duty and his entry on sick report, were of necessity unnoticed. Hence the annual ration of sick per thousand persons present, and the ratio of deaths to cases, as represented in the table, are certainly far from accurate….” [p. 36]
Source
United States Army Surgeon General. The Medical and Surgical History of the War of the Rebellion (Part III, Vol. I, Medical History). Chapter 1 “On the Medical Statistics of the War, Section III. Prevalence and mortality of disease among U.S. troops in Confederate prisons,” pp. 33-45. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1888. Accessed 5-24-2018 at: https://collections.nlm.nih.gov/catalog/nlm:nlmuid-14121350R-mvset
[1] Original footnote is to page 31, Second Part “of this work.”
[2] Cases admitted into hospital.
[3] Cases with results unrecorded.
[4] Ratio of cases per 1,000 cases admitted with specified diseases.
[5] Ratio of deaths per 1,000 deaths from specified cases.
[6] Percentage of fatal cases.
[7] See our separate document on the 3,614 scurvy (extreme vitamin C deficiency) deaths.