Chancellorsville Smallpox at Chancellorsville?

[cw1865]

Recent events are shaping my reading of history naturally focusing on prior pandemics/outbreak/disease. Pre-pandemic, my primary focus was always on people, countries, rulers etc and of course the events, but disease really plays a huge part and of course from a modern perspective * I KNOW * disease was the major cause of deaths in the Civil War, but that was just knowing a factoid.

In any event I was watching a video on YouTube discussing why the Civil War was so lethal and of course disease is discussed. The video made the assertion that 5,000 Confederate soldiers were out of action on the day of the battle due to smallpox.

Initially that surprised me because honestly, I thought they had figured out how to deal with smallpox by then.

Fearing a Smallpox Epidemic, Civil War Troops Tried to Self-Vaccinate

People knew that inoculation could prevent you from catching smallpox. It was how Civil War soldiers did it that caused problems

www.smithsonianmag.com

"With the doctor too busy or completely absent, soldiers resulted to performing vaccination with whatever they had at hand. Using pocket knives, clothespins and even rusty nails... they would cut themselves to make a deep wound, usually in the arm. They would then puncture their fellow soldier's pustule and coat their wound with the overflowing lymph."

WOW......right?

This is the first I have actually read of this.

Anybody have insights into what those 5,000 soldiers theoretically could have done if AoNV could have used them?

 

[Belfoured]

Recent events are shaping my reading of history naturally focusing on prior pandemics/outbreak/disease. Pre-pandemic, my primary focus was always on people, countries, rulers etc and of course the events, but disease really plays a huge part and of course from a modern perspective * I KNOW * disease was the major cause of deaths in the Civil War, but that was just knowing a factoid.

In any event I was watching a video on YouTube discussing why the Civil War was so lethal and of course disease is discussed. The video made the assertion that 5,000 Confederate soldiers were out of action on the day of the battle due to smallpox.

Initially that surprised me because honestly, I thought they had figured out how to deal with smallpox by then.

Fearing a Smallpox Epidemic, Civil War Troops Tried to Self-Vaccinate

People knew that inoculation could prevent you from catching smallpox. It was how Civil War soldiers did it that caused problems

www.smithsonianmag.com

"With the doctor too busy or completely absent, soldiers resulted to performing vaccination with whatever they had at hand. Using pocket knives, clothespins and even rusty nails... they would cut themselves to make a deep wound, usually in the arm. They would then puncture their fellow soldier's pustule and coat their wound with the overflowing lymph."

WOW......right?

This is the first I have actually read of this.

Anybody have insights into what those 5,000 soldiers theoretically could have done if AoNV could have used them?

On the Union side, the 20th Maine did not participate because of botched smallpox inoculations.

 

[Jamieva]

Recent events are shaping my reading of history naturally focusing on prior pandemics/outbreak/disease. Pre-pandemic, my primary focus was always on people, countries, rulers etc and of course the events, but disease really plays a huge part and of course from a modern perspective * I KNOW * disease was the major cause of deaths in the Civil War, but that was just knowing a factoid.

In any event I was watching a video on YouTube discussing why the Civil War was so lethal and of course disease is discussed. The video made the assertion that 5,000 Confederate soldiers were out of action on the day of the battle due to smallpox.

Initially that surprised me because honestly, I thought they had figured out how to deal with smallpox by then.

Fearing a Smallpox Epidemic, Civil War Troops Tried to Self-Vaccinate

People knew that inoculation could prevent you from catching smallpox. It was how Civil War soldiers did it that caused problems

www.smithsonianmag.com

"With the doctor too busy or completely absent, soldiers resulted to performing vaccination with whatever they had at hand. Using pocket knives, clothespins and even rusty nails... they would cut themselves to make a deep wound, usually in the arm. They would then puncture their fellow soldier's pustule and coat their wound with the overflowing lymph."

WOW......right?

This is the first I have actually read of this.

Anybody have insights into what those 5,000 soldiers theoretically could have done if AoNV could have used them?

That's interesting. I found it in this article, the sources for it are listed at the end

The Minister of Death

Smallpox killed thousands of Civil War soldiers, North and South alike.

opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com