Medical Knowledge
During the time of the Civil War, medical knowledge was very little. Many doctors used useless and dangerous methods such as bloodletting, purging, and blistering. Sometimes doctors even had their patients drink mercury, which is a poisonous substance that can kill you in a matter of minutes. Many of the camps were also very unsanitary, causing most patient's conditions to worsen. Some patients could not even be transported to hospitals in time, and those with wounds could not travel themselves as they were already exhausted from fighting in the War. However, these factors were only in the beginning of the war, and they were improved upon after a couple of years. In fact, the constant demand for doctors, hospital care, and medicines taught people how to improve upon the medical system and provide better healthcare. Near the end of the war, people were able to speed up the healthcare system and provide people with better resources and hospitals. Instead of just tents, actual hospitals were built, and systems were created to keep hospital reports for future reference. These factors contributed to fixing the healthcare system, as the deaths decreased at the end of the war, and were lower than the numbers at the beginning.