TITLE OR HEADLINE

DEATH

AND DESTRUCTION

The leading cause of death for soldiers fighting in the Civil War was disease. Battlefield medicine wasn’t advanced enough to take care of all of the ill and wounded, and as a result more soldiers died off the battlefield than on.

During the nineteenth century, mourning customs were very strict and commanded a limited wardrobe of only black clothing for a certain period of time determined by the dead person’s relation to the mourner. Private, somber funerary ceremonies were the norm, but as the war became bloodier, funerals became more and more frequent. Soldiers died far from home, so many families did not get a proper funeral for their military loved one. Also during this period, mourning became a more patriotic act as hundreds lined up at the funerals of important war leaders.