According to Dr. Yusuf Saleeby, The Civil War was considered a dark time in medicine.
Saleeby, director of Priority Health of South Carolina in Murrells Inlet, spoke on the time period of 1861 to 1865 at the Nancy Carson Library, elaborating on the medical practices of the Union and Confederate forces.
"Now, most people think that soldiers in the Civil War died from battle wounds," he said. "That's not really true. It was nearly a two-to-one difference. The vast majority of soldiers lost their lives due to infection and dehydration. The No. 1 killer was dysentery and diarrhea, which led to dehydration."
At the onset of the war, soldiers didn't have different colored uniforms, which led to confusion on the battlefield. In order to protect the medical personnel, a green sash was issued to try and prevent doctors from being wounded.
"Everybody wore different shades of blue, because that's what they could get their hands on," Saleeby said. "Later on, we know that the Confederates switched to gray, but at the beginning of the war it was hard to tell the sides apart. There were no laws protecting the doctors, they were fair game to get a bullet even when they were taking care of the wounded - even with the sash."
During the war, the number of medical soldiers grew from less than 90 at the beginning to a combined 14,000 between the two sides at the time Richmond fell.
Those doctors were asked to perform surgery on the battlefield, often having to amputate limbs and stitch up wounds. They were able to use anesthesia, which greatly benefitted the soldiers, but was sometimes a tricky task.
"Some 800,000 soldiers received anesthesia for their amputations between the two sides," Saleeby said. "There was one battle in particular, the first battle of Bull Run, where the Union supply carts didn't make it to the field hospitals and they had to perform amputations without the benefit of anesthesia, but that was a rare occurrence."
Adding to the troubles of the soldiers, especially those in the South, was a lack of basic supplies to deal with the long marches to battles.
"Other things the soldiers had to contend with was low nutritional value of their food. Oftentimes they were on the move and had to get what they could from a village or commandeering crops," Saleeby said. "They also dealt with a lack of adequate shelter, the wounded were often left in open fields without shade or tents, and could be exposed to the elements. Toward the end, the South had a lack of clothing and inadequate shoes for their long marches."