What were some harsh conditions that soldiers faced during the US Civil War?

Answer 1

Confederate troops often did not have sufficient shoes and clothing, or food, particularly after the first year. The provisions on the Confederate supply were poorly managed, mainly due to transport difficulties. Commissary-General Lucius Northrop received some food from abroad via blockade runners, and sometimes arranged black-market exchanges of cotton for food from the Union side; but this was often of very poor quality.

The Federals were very well provisioned throughout the war, but lack of experience in maintaining vast army encampments led to poor sanitation in the early years. In late 1861-62 there was an epidemic of typhoid fever in Northern Virginia and in DC, because latrines were fouling the drinking water.

The majority of military deaths during the War were due to infectious disease, not gunshot or misadventure.

Germ theory was in its infancy, so antibiotics were not generally used in hospitals and surgical stations. Often the only solution to a smashed arm or leg bone was to amputate the limb. However, surgeons became very skillful at amputations and most amputees survived. Choloroform and ether were available as anesthetics, so the patients were unconscious during the operation. Furthermore, most victims of gunshot did not need to undergo amputation. Amputations were not nearly as frequent as is popularly supposed. The reason they receive so much emphasis is that photographers often chose them as subjects, and surgeons liked to write descriptions of their amputation techniques.