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During the Civil War, a soldier could expect to march an average of 15 miles a day. Since most military campaigns occurred during the warmer months of the year, it was not surprising that heat became another deadly enemy to fight. There were over 7,000 cases of sunstroke recorded during the four years of the war, with over 300 resulting in death. The majority of those cases occurred on the march.[1] Sgt. Benjamin Hirst, of the 14th Connecticut Infantry remembered a forced march during the 1862 Battle of Cedar Mountain: “We seemed to be suffocating at each step . . . strong men wilted as though blasted by something in the air.” A soldier from the 7th Maine Infantry, another participant in the march recalled “ . . . the men fell out by the road-side in scores overcome by the heat and exertion. Numbers died from sunstroke.”
There were several factors that caused an attack of sunstroke. One was clothing. Unlike today’s military, Civil War soldiers had one uniform issued to them that they had to wear year-round. While Confederate uniforms were often a combination of cotton and wool, Union uniforms were 100% wool—a decided drawback in hot weather. Since clothing manufacturers did not have the synthetic materials that are available today, wool was chosen over cotton or linen for its durability and ability to shed water. This was an advantage on cold winter days, but during summer marches, it could be deadly.
In addition to wearing a hot uniform, a soldier was also loaded down with equipment, which would hamper the evaporation of sweat—a natural way that the body cools itself. Civil War surgeons were well aware of this:
Free play for the lungs and a light body-covering are necessary to the perfect operation of the heat dissipating processes. Unfortunately the load carried by a soldier during the marches . . . covered the surface of his body as to prevent the process of evaporation. His blanket, rolled into a long cylinder, was slung from one shoulder to the opposite hip; his canteen and haversack were similarly suspended by straps from the opposite shoulder, while a waist-belt kept the cartridge-box in position on his loins and the bayonet-scabbard by his side. Not a cooling evaporation, but a profuse loss of water in bulk from the system was the result of exercise under this heavy accoutrement.[2]
Private Randolph Shotwell of the 8th Virginia Infantry remembered in his memoirs the stifling effect caused by his equipment:
Flesh and blood cannot sustain such heat and fatigue as we have undergone this day. It is terrible! All along the roadside since 9 o’clock this morning I have seen men dropping, gasping, dying—or already dead! …when one’s clothing is utterly saturated with perspiration mixing with the dust in a grimy paste; and above all, weighs the heavy musket, the muffling blankets, gripping waist band and belt (upon which hang the heavy cartridge and cap boxes) and the chafing canteen straps—is it strange that one sees hundreds of men gasping for breath, and lolling out their tongues like madmen?
Adding to the soldiers’ misery were the clouds of dust stirred up by thousands of marching feet, horses, wagons, and artillery. A member of Colonel Charles Candy’s brigade remembered his march to Gettysburg on July 1, 1863:
The sun was hot. The ground was hot, and the men panted like dogs on the chase and sweat and sweltered through clouds of dust that came from Knapp’s Battery in our front.
A surgeon describes the typical experience of a marching soldier on a hot day:
While toiling away under the weight of arms, knapsack, blanket, and rations . . . the back of his head feels painfully hot, notwithstanding he may have draped it with a silk handkerchief, reversed his cap or filled its crown with leaves as an infallible protection against the scorching rays. His heart beats violently . . . He breathes rapidly, open-mouthed . . . the hot air he inhales rendered hotter still by the dense clouds of dust with which it is laden . . .[3]
As the soldiers’ bodies began to sweat profusely in an effort to cool off, perspiration too became a source of irritation. Ernest Wait of the 19th Massachusetts Infantry wrote:
The sun was now well up and the air intensely hot, causing the persperation (sic) to run out and, running down the face, drip from the nose and chin. The salty liquid got into the eyes, causing them to burn and smart and it ran down from under the cap, through the dust and down the sides of the face which was soon covered with muddy streaks, the result of repeated wipings on the sleeves of the blouse.
The soldiers’ bodies, now excessively perspiring, then began to dehydrate. Even in cooler weather, water was notoriously hard to get, and soldiers often had trouble finding a source to refill their canteens. As one soldier who took part in the Red River Campaign of 1864 in Louisiana put it, they had “little to eat and thin mud to drink.”[4]
Civil War surgeons recognized that lack of water would increase the likelihood of soldiers suffering sunstroke:
When the water-supply at the command of the soldier was adequate, the superheating of the blood was so delayed that before it reached a dangerous point a temporary halt for rest, or perhaps the close of the day’s march, enabled the system of a threatened subject to recover its normal condition and energies.[5]
Even if a soldier was lucky enough to have water in their canteen, it was often warm and contaminated by bacteria or other elements. Pvt. Marcus Toney of the 1st Tennessee Infantry recalls being so desperate for water that he used whatever source he could find—“how many wiggletails and tadpoles I have drunk will never be known.” Soldiers reaped little benefit from drinking this water:
Thirst torments [the soldier]. He halts for a moment . . . takes a long draught of the warm water his canteen contains. He feels the better for it and pushes on, but by and by relapses into his former state.[6]
After suffering through several marches, a soldier soon learned what to do when he felt a case of sunstroke coming on:
Your old soldier, when in this condition, drops out of the column, throws his gun and knapsack on the ground, and stretches himself at full length in the shade of some tree, where he lies alternately fanning himself and sipping his stock of water. By the time he has finished his canteen he is quite recovered . . .[7]
Unfortunately for new recruits, they often had to learn the hard way that sunstroke was not to be taken lightly. In addition to passing out, many suffered actual convulsions. Edmund Brown of the 27th Indiana Infantry tells of the effect the heat had on some of his comrades:
We saw many (soldiers)…lying on the ground, frothing at the mouth, rolling their eyeballs and writhing in painful contortions.[8]
British medical officers in India who had to deal with a hot climate year-round, had come up with a way to treat sunstroke that involved stripping the soldier of all but his trousers and pouring a stream of water, first on the patient’s head, then over his throat, chest, and along the spine.[9] Some American surgeons adopted this practice, while some stuck to older remedies.
This is illustrated in an account written on September 12, 1863, by a surgeon near Rappahannock Station, Virginia who came upon a man suffering convulsions from sunstroke. He was told by the man’s comrades that a medical officer had attempted to treat him by “simply pour[ing] whiskey into his stomach” but when that failed, the officer had gone off to find an ambulance. The surgeon applied cold clothes to the man’s head, matted his hair with water, and poured water over his body, saturating the woolen shirt he wore. The man’s convulsions soon stopped and his pulse and breathing rate slowed to normal, and he was soon able to drink water from a canteen.[10] As the war progressed, surgeons soon realized the benefits of water over whiskey.
The common soldier realized the benefits of cooling down an overheated comrade with water and they were often quick to act when sunstroke struck. In one instance however, the treatment resulted in a surprise for the soldiers. In February 1865 in a letter to his sister, Sergeant William E. Clark of the 14th New Jersey Infantry wrote:
The other day the officers of the 9th New York H[eavy] A[rtillery] detected a girl in their ranks. She had been with them since last fall and had gone through the Campaign in the Valley, the fight at Cold Harbor and Monocacy…She was on drill and fainted away. One of the men took some water, bathed her head and opened her blouse to pour some water on her breast, when lot (sic) what met his view a beautiful pair of ____.
In order to prevent the troops suffering sunstroke, the Medical Department recommended to commanding officers that they provide “free supplies of water and rest to lessen the production of heat and to afford opportunity to relieve the body from its impediments to cooling evaporation.”[11] However, the reality was that these conditions could rarely be met for troops on the march. It was up to the regimental surgeon to treat the cases as best he could, which usually involved carrying the soldier into the shade and dowsing them with whatever water was handy.
If a soldier who was suffering from sunstroke had the good fortune to be near a hospital, they might be given a more comprehensive treatment–the patient might be wrapped in a wet sheet and fanned “vigorously until the skin is reduced to a more natural temperature.”[12] Baths in a cold-water tank were also recommended, and “between the baths dry cups may be applied.”[13]
Cupping was a treatment that originated in ancient times, in which suction is created on the skin with the application of heated cups. A blister is raised and then lanced, which supposedly rids the body of “bad humors.” Pvt. Nicholas Drake of the 124th New York Infantry, who was sunstruck while on the march in September 1862, had a “large blister, 5 by 8 inches, applied to the neck and a blister, 3 by 10 inches applied to the back.”[14] It seems that this form of treatment was not always successful as he was discharged for disability. Luckily, treatment with water was far more common.
Today we realize the importance of sun-protective clothing that allows for proper ventilation and the use of water and drinks with electrolytes for hydration. Unfortunately for the Civil War soldier, they did not have these options readily available to them. As a result, sunstroke would prove a far deadlier enemy to some than bullets.
About the Author
Tracey McIntire earned her BA in English at Rivier College in Nashua, NH. She is Director of Communications at the National Museum of Civil War Medicine, and an interpretive volunteer at Antietam National Battlefield. She is also an active Civil War living historian, where she portrays a woman soldier in various guises.
Sources
[1] Medical and Surgical History of the Civil War, Volume VI, page 853
[2] Ibid. page 855
[3] Medical and Surgical History of the Civil War, Volume VI, page 855
[4] Little to Eat and Thin Mud to Drink: Letters, Diaries, and Memoirs from the Red River Campaigns, 1863–1864, Edited by Gary D. Joiner, 2015
[5] Medical and Surgical History of the Civil War, Volume VI, page 855
[6] Medical and Surgical History of the Civil War, Volume VI, page 855
[7] Ibid.
[8] Noe, Kenneth. The Howling Storm: Weather, Climate, and the American Civil War, 2020
[9] Medical and Surgical History of the Civil War, Volume VI, page 856
[10] Medical and Surgical History of the Civil War, Volume VI, page 856
[11] Ibid.
[12] Ibid.
[13] Ibid.
[14] Ibid. page 859
