HIST 405 Week 3 Case Study Topic 1 - Medical Practices Mexican War vs. Civil War.

Mexican war started for expansion of the American land. “President Polk fulfilled his promise by gaining Oregon and, most spectacularly, provoking a war with Mexico that ultimately fulfilled the wildest fantasies of expansionists” (Corbett et al. 2023, p.283). This case study will touch the American policy during the Mexican war and Civil war about how to treat wounded soldiers. During both wars the major enemy was disease, so this paper will introduce the medical care challenges during both wars. Both wars faced the same challenges when it comes to medical care. The unavailability of doctors and proper medical supplies lead the soldiers to die from sickness than injury. “As in earlier wars, during the Civil War sickness was a greater problem than injury” (Hawk & McCallum 2019). During the 18th century surgery was severely limited because of two limitations which were lack of anesthesia, and lack of sterile technique (Tannenbaum 2018). The lack of knowledge about sterile techniques causes lots of soldiers to die from infection. American policy regarding treating the wounded during the Mexican War versus the American Civil War had some similarities and differences. The similarities were that in both battles there was lack of physician but had volunteers which they didn’t have medical knowledge. Since they are shorthanded, they allow the same strategy. “With the Mexican American war in 1846, Congress enlarged the Medical Department by only two surgeons and 12 assistants, again relying on volunteer regiments to supply their own medical officers” (Hawk & McCallum 2019). There difference was during civil war they found a way to help to transport wounded soldiers. “Letterman, also a brilliant organizer, addressed problems of collection and transport of the wounded” (Hawk & McCallum 2019). References Corbett, P. S., Janssen, V., Lund, J. M., Pfannestiel, T., Vickery, P., & Waskiewicz, S. (2023, July 6). U.S. History. OpenStax, OER Commons. Retrieved January 2, 2024, from https://openstax.org/details/books/us-history Hawk, A., & McCallum, J. (2019). Military medicine. In Encyclopedia of American Military History, Second Edition. Facts On File. online.infobase.com/Auth/Index? aid=239824&itemid=WE52&articleId=191990 Military Medicine in an Occupied City: Matamoros, 1846. (2019, April 4). National Museum of Civil War Medicine. https://www.civilwarmed.org/matamoros/ Tannenbaum, R. (2018). Health and medicine in the 18th century. In Health and Medicine in U.S. History. Facts On File. online.infobase.com/Auth/Index? aid=239824&itemid=WE52&articleId=358127