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The American Civil War was one of the deadliest wars in American History.
As many as 620,000 individuals lost their lives during the Civil War, more
than in any other war before or since.
Confederate deaths were about 260,000 of which 93,000 were killed in combat,
while Union deaths were 360,000 of which 110,000 deaths were in combat.
(Did you know this fact?>>>)Disease was the major cause of death in the civil war.
Out of 620,000 deaths, over 400,000 were from diseases.

On the bright side, in addition to leading to the abolition of slavery in the US, the American Civil War jump started American industry and infrastructure. The argument can be made that without the civil war, the US never would have become a superpower.

It's interesting to think how many of those 400,000 lives would have been saved had doctors known to wash their hands!

**Nerdy history below**
Hand washing was actually proposed in 1847 (years before the American Civil War) by a guy named Ignaz Semmelweis. Dr. Semmelweis had data that showed that doctors' hand washing significantly cut down on patient mortality rate. At the time, hand washing went against the mainstream established medical convention, so Dr. Semmelweis was ridiculed for many years; he was admitted to an insanosylum and commit suicide in 1865, the same year the American Civil War ended. A few years later, the medical community realized the poor guy was right... The above coined the term "Semmelweis syndrome" in science. Semmelweis syndrome is characterized by ignoring what the scientific method is telling us simply because it goes against convention.

Very true, being garrisoned in camp was far more dangerous than the front line. This was true for the Revolutionary War as well were camp diseases took many more lives than the battlefield.

R,
Bullseye

If you are going to die in the Civil War, one between the eyes would be the least painless.

The size of the camps would have made any sanitation a disaster. The latrines would have been a hotbed of disease, and water supplies were easily tainted.

The biggest combat problem was that they were still using Revolutionary War tactics, marching in formation toward each other. That was a shared slaughter with repeating rifles and Gatling guns.

Armies still hadn't learned much by World War One; same tactics with even better weapons. Artillery had improved greatly, along with long arms and the newest machine guns. That slaughter ran into the millions, with thousands dying on their first day in battle. Only change was hiding in trenches between charges. I'm sure that was not much comfort.

You don't have to drive far from my house to see remnants of the Late Unpleasantness. A bit east of Richmond you can see long depressions in the forests that are the old trench lines.

For some, the deaths were a matter of contention. My uncles really didn't like the fact that more North Carolinians died defending Virginia than did Virginians.