Sickness

This chapter discusses the explosion of diseases that occurred once the armies concentrated at the beginning of the war. Epidemics of measles, typhoid fever, malaria, and venereal disease among others decimated armies on both sides. The chapter discusses the reasons for these outbreaks, as well as the desperate, often comical, way that doctors tried to treat the various ailments, especially with liberal uses of mercury and opium compounds. The chapter also examines the epidemics that surprisingly did not occur, such as cholera and typhus, and examines the reasons why they did not appear. The effects of campaigning on the health of soldiers, especially dehydration and heat stroke, are also discussed regarding the campaigns of Bull Run, Wilson’s Creek, and New Mexico. Efforts at biological warfare also receive attention.

More than the Mud March

This chapter discusses the rationale and blueprint for the book, explaining how the authors combine the methodologies of environmental and military history to tell a more holistic story of the Civil War. It begins with an analysis of Burnside’s Mud March in January 1863, and uses that campaign to demonstrate how to merge these two disciplines into a deeper analysis of the war. The authors demonstrate how examining the war as an ecological event allows for a more complete and comprehensive understanding of the conflict.

Death and Disability

This chapter discusses the environmental effects of death, and what happens when a corpse becomes part of the natural environment. Bodies decomposed rapidly, producing an unbearable stench. It led both armies to develop techniques for burial, embalming, and transportation of the dead to prevent sickness. The Overland Campaign—especially the battles of the Wilderness, Spotsylvania, Cold Harbor, and the Crater—and its extraordinary number of casualties, is the primary military focus. The chapter also discusses the advancements in medical care to treat wounded soldiers. Large numbers of disabled men had environmental effects as well, such as fewer acres of farmland due to the loss of labor, and expensive government policies to provide pensions for the disabled after the war.

Food

This chapter discusses the ways that the North and South provided food for their armies and civilians, and the difficulties they encountered. The South struggled mightily to provide enough food for its residents, while the North thoroughly succeeded, thanks to several innovations in harvesting, canning, and transporting food. Southern farmers proved unable to provide enough food because of fields ruined by the weather, Union occupation, or confiscation by both armies. Food riots broke out throughout the South as a result of the shortages, and the government tried to respond with various relief measures. The chapter discusses the role of food in the second battle of Bull Run, Antietam, Chancellorsville, and especially the devastating use of food (or its lack) as a weapon during the siege of Vicksburg. It discusses the effects of starvation faced by the soldiers and civilians in that besieged city in the summer of 1863.

Weather

This chapter discusses the unprecedented flooding in California in 1862, as well as the heavy floods throughout the South from the Mississippi River to the Virginia peninsula, all in the midst of what scholars call the “Civil War drought.” It reveals how the weather affected the Confederate efforts to capture the western states, the Union capture of Fort Henry and Fort Donelson in Tennessee, as well as the battles of Shiloh, Corinth, the Peninsula campaign, and the battle of Perryville, KY. Focusing on Union General George McClellan’s failed campaign to capture Richmond, Virginia, it examines the environmental consequences of heavy rain on the soldiers, landscape, animals, strategies, and overall health of the armies on both sides. The weather created enormous disease environments and health hazards that brought out the worst in McClellan’s military tendencies.

Terrain

This chapter discusses not only how terrain shaped battles, but also how battles and campaigns affected the landscape for decades after the war. Armies utilized high ground, limestone formations, and dense woods to give them advantages in battle, but also engaged in massive deforestation, and reshaped the terrain with fortifications and artillery explosions. The Union campaign to capture Saltville, VA is discussed as a way of denying the South that critical resource. William Sherman’s siege of Atlanta devastated that city and led to a reshaping of its residential geography in the decades after the war due to the search for quality water and high ground. The agricultural practices of the South led to extreme soil erosion after the war. The chapter also discusses the National Park Service interpretation of Civil War battlefields, and the myriad problems with trying to present these landscapes as they were during the war.

Animals

This chapter discusses the crucial role that animals such as horses, hogs, and cattle played in the Civil War. Horses were the primary engine of the armies, and suffered from catastrophic losses during the war, as well as epidemic diseases. The authors discuss how the northern and southern armies acquired, treated, and cared for their horses. The chapter discusses the experience of horses in the Gettysburg and Chickamauga/Chattanooga campaigns. Hogs, the most utilitarian food source for the South, served as the major protein for the armies, and suffered from devastating epidemics of hog cholera. Cattle, the other major food source for both armies, faced their own difficulties due to disease and weather during the war, especially from floods and drought in California, as well as cattle tick fever.

An Environmental Legacy

This chapter discusses the long-term effects of the Civil War on the environment. The experience during the war led to improved techniques in the medical field and created a hospital system that was emulated around the world. The desire for accurate and reliable weather information led to the formation of the organization that ultimately became known as the National Weather Service. The experience with horses, hogs, and cattle during the war led to the formation of the first veterinary medicine programs in the United States. The treatment for illnesses led to hundreds of thousands of soldiers becoming hopelessly addicted to opium after the war. The livestock losses were so extreme that many southern states never recovered their livestock totals. Agricultural practices led to soil erosion, and the desire to preserve landscapes led to the creation of the National Park Service, among many other examples.