Soldier with Small Pox not getting help at Fredricksburg

[NH Civil War Gal]

I'm currently reading, "Letters From The Storm" and there is a distressing scene in it. This is December 1862 and this particular brigade wasn't in the fight but was in a support position. Anyway, here is what is said, " There is 4 or 500 sick here with fevers [and] rheumatism and in fact nearly all the catalogue of diseases are here not forgetting the Small Pox. The poor fellow that has it has no one to attend to him at all and is lying out in the open air. He offered someone yesterday $5.00 to bring him three canteens of water. It is really the most distressing sight I ever seen. The men all shun him as if he were death itself & those that would do something for him are forbidden. I heard him myself cry out for water, but no one dare go near him, poor fellow. I do wish we were out of this place and the cries that may haunt me day and night, and I would gladly relieve him if I dared."

The Letterman system was in place by this time. This was an awful situation for this poor soldier. Most of the soldier had been vaccinated against small pox so I'm wondering why no doctor had him taken to a "fever" hospital or small pox isolation tent.

 

[Nathan Stuart]

It is sad to hear of this suffering fellow's desperate plight. Suspect there would have been many cases of soldiers who felt isolated and abandoned on or near the battlefield, with severe injuries or illnesses.

Even though there might have been widespread vaccinations, smallpox was considered as a contagious deadly virus disease. I understand that one of its serious symptoms was skin rashes over the skin of the whole body, including the face, that could turn into horrible looking bumps and blisters.

I am speculating that the combination of his severely disfigured facial appearance and a general fear of disease contamination might have deterred any concerned comrades (and medical staff nearby) at the time from approaching anywhere near him, even if they wanted to help him.

 

[Gary Morgan]

Smallpox was highly contageous. Even at Andersonville, someone who had it (or appeared to have it) was removed to a hospital about a mile up the road, and if they died, they were buried close to there and not in the regular prison cemetery. After the war was over, they were reinterred at the prison cemetery because by then the contagion was no longer a factor.

 

[Kathy the history sleuth]

This is a sad story. I agree with the posts above. But we can only speculate.

 

[NH Civil War Gal]

The sad thing is this soldier with small pox wasn't on the battlefield. He was in camp but on the ground or outside of the tents.

I wish he had been taken to at least an isolation tent.