Tetanus also known as lockjaw

[NH Civil War Gal]

While having a big horse day today with my horse and some friend's horses, we were doing pasture clean up. We still have a lot of peripheral ice and snow on the shady sides of buildings. As I was shoveling manure into the wheelbarrow, I got thinking about the tons of manure horses and mules outputted at camps, one the march, in battles. And it got me thinking about tetanus or lockjaw as it used to be known.

So why didn't all the soldiers on both sides not come down with lockjaw? So many soldiers, on both sides, had bleeding feet, open wounds exposed to the bacillus (not that they knew that of course), but you hardly ever read about it being very extent on either side.

Any ideas?

 

[alan polk]

That's a very good question. Perhaps it was not reported?

I have a book from 1859 belonging to one of my ancestors that describes treatment for lock jaw, so they were certainly aware of it during the war:

 

[JPK Huson 1863]

I'll bet they did and there were so many diseases claiming more lives we just don't hear of it? Since it's not contagious it makes sense it wasn't regarded as the same emergency, you know? Try ( if you haven't already ) typing ' lockjaw ' into LoC's newspaper collectons, des between the war years? @lelliott19 , have you run across anything, please?

Have ONE word for shoveling that necessary by product of rubbing elbows with horses. Backho. Remember how indignant I was as a kid, emptying the box stalls, moving allll of it by wheel barrow ( at that barn, UP a blessed plank to the top ), then having someone show up with one of those.

Does your family make you leave your clothes on the porch too?

 

[Tom Elmore]

Tetanus does appear among the described diseases afflicting soldiers, although it is uncommon. An example from Gettysburg: Sanitary Commission representatives Frank B. Fay and Miss Gilson worked in the Union Third Corps hospitals. Fay assisted a Boston soldier named Everett who died of lockjaw [probably Corporal George Everett of the 1st Massachusetts].

However, it was nearly always fatal: Mortality from tetanus during the Civil War was 89.3 % [Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), 1896, p. 136]

 

[ErnieMac]

Major General Charles F. Smith got a tetanus infection obtained by scraping his leg while climbing into a boat. As a result he missed the Battle of Shiloh and died shortly afterward.
http://azirkle.com/C_SHI/SHI26.html
https://books.google.com/books?id=X...age&q=general charles f smith tetanus&f=false

 

[Northern Light]

Major General Charles F. Smith got a tetanus infection obtained by scraping his leg while climbing into a boat. As a result he missed the Battle of Shiloh and died shortly afterward.
http://azirkle.com/C_SHI/SHI26.html
https://books.google.com/books?id=XPuz8i2JxzgC&pg=PA260&lpg=PA260&dq=general+charles+f+smith+tetanus&source=bl&ots=FUsbyHooXe&sig=ACfU3U22S_SYojqxEH16mEk_oFw-T8sJAA&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiKsKKZlr7hAhWk11kKHV-eDbwQ6AEwDHoECAcQAQ#v=onepage&q=general charles f smith tetanus&f=false

I had read about Smih'd death, but it was not identified as tetanus. Perhaps we rarely hear about it is that it is just reported as an infection.

 

[ErnieMac]

Another case, not exactly CW, but of the era and a relative of CW figures, was John Roebling. Roebling is noted for his role in the development of suspension bridges. In 1869 Roebling had his foot accidentally crushed while trying to find a site for what would become the Brooklyn Bridge. His toes were amputated, but Roebling refused further treatment beyond pouring water over the injury. Tetanus set in and he died 24 days after the accident.
https://www.asce.org/templates/person-bio-detail.aspx?id=11205

 

[lelliott19]

Great idea for a thread!

One thing I found really interesting is that some soldiers were infected with tetanus from exploding shells or bullets that didnt even hit them. The exploding shells and bullets that struck the ground could do so with such force that soil was driven into the body. Since the spores of the bacteria occur and reside naturally in soil, these soldiers could get tetanus without even being hit by the shrapnel or bullet.

Union Brigadier General George Crockett Strong was wounded at Fort Wagner (Morris Island SC) while leading an assault July 16, 1863. He contracted tetanus and died at NY City July 30, 1863.

ETC: Strong died at NY City- not MY City.

 

[Northern Light]

I didn't realize that tetanus was soil borne. I thought it was from the rust or something on things you step on or get cut by. I spend half of my summer in bare feet so I am glad my tetanus booster is regularly updated!

 

[NH Civil War Gal]

The tetanus shot is every 10 years and if you get cut or something, they always give you a booster too.

 

[diane]

It's a good thing to get, that shot. Indeed, if you've been out with the cattle and horses, boots, clothes on the back porch and wash your hands in the cement sink back there, too! Forrest's mother Miriam died of it - stepped on the rusty nail while getting off a stage coach, a place of course animals frequent. The problem with rusty nails, rusty rake teeth, etc is it's a puncture wound. Really hard to flush out! I am surprised more cases of it didn't happen but there were something on the order of 500 reported.

 

[John Hartwell]

I have just posted a thread telling the story of Lt Fitz-James O'Brien (post #3 contains the details of his wound, and the treatment, or lack of it, that took his life):

https://civilwartalk.com/threads/fi...ficant-artist-to-die-in-the-civil-war.156680/​