How was smallpox cured during the civil war?

Answer 1

There was no cure for small pox, and there still isn't. If you got it, you either lived through it, after which you were immune to it, or you died.

What they could do was vaccinate, or inoculate people against the disease. The same principal was used as is used today when small children are given their vaccinations. You expose the person to a weak form of the disease, which allows the body to build an immunity against the disease, without having to endure the full course of the disease.

One way they did this was to take scabs off the sores of a person with small pox, slice them up into tiny bits, and make a little cut on the skin of the person to be vaccinated, and put one of the tiny bits of small pox scab in the cut. Like all vaccinations, there is a risk of acquiring a full-blown case of the disease, but if the vaccinated person was lucky he would just be achy and feverish for a few days, and afterward would be immune to small pox.

Answer 2

They died. There was no treatment. A few would survive, but this was rare.