Not so much by the time of the ACW. And leeches were used as we have rediscovered in recent years as a way to keep blood flowing in an injured extremity.
As for amputations, an interesting article about them is here, discussing the number of amputations that were NOT made, endangering the patients. Many amputations were necessary because of the nature of the wounds. Being shot with the large but slow bullets of the day or hit by a cannonball was as much blunt-force trauma as anything else, shattering bones that could not be repaired until modern microsurgery, and military doctors today can’t save all limbs.
Aside from all the OTC stuff we have to prevent and treat topical infections, you could also take back some vitamin supplements. Iron, vitamin A, vitamin C, magnesium zinc etc. are all important to immune health and wound healing. I’m assuming the average civil war soldier was deficient in several of those.
Condoms have been around for at least 400 years. They had them during the Civil War, the trouble was getting folks to use them (I guess some things don’t change).
I think I’ve read (maybe in Shelby Foote’s masterpiece) that the lack of fresh vegetables really hurt Confederate soldiers hard. Not sure if there was a full blown scurvy epidemic, but bad news none the less.
Ibuprofen might help, but painkillers already existed then. I believe Aspirin existed but wasn’t in widespread use yet. Maybe increased NSAID use could help reduce complications from excessive Morphine use (e.g. addiction).
Another thing to consider is the medical knowledge that one could get from the labels. I believe the germ theory of disease wasn’t fully understood or accepted then and that many people caught bacterial infections that could have been prevented by rubbing a little whiskey on a wound. So the doctors can grab a few bottles of OTC rubbing alcohol, read the instructions, try it, find it works pretty good, then say, hey, this is just crap whiskey, and continue the work with Farmer Bill’s local hootch.
Actual Aspirin was first synthesized in 1897, several years too late for the Civil War. However, the active ingredient in aspirin (salicylic acid) was originally found in willow bark, which has been used medicinally since practically forever, and the first paper on it was published all the way back in 1763.
i usually soak something in them, like plums or cherries or blackberries (the latter reputed to help diarrhea,BTW). I’ve a prewar (WW2) Remington Pharmacy text. Tells how to make EVERYTHING.
Working urgent care in the mid 90’s, pair of young brothers- 3 and 5, or so- came in with a really bad case of the squirts. They weren’t sick, though, and at the end the momma asked if it was because they ate an entire bag of G-ma’s diabetic candy. Decided to cancel the tests
About 2/3rds of all soldier deaths in the American Civil War were caused by disease, not by wounds. A great many enlistees died of disease in overcrowded camps before ever seein an enemy combatant. The most common causes were typhoid fever, dysentery, pneumonia, TB, measles, mumps, chicken pox, small pox, malaria and whooping cough. There are not a lot of OTC medicines today that would prevent or cure those diseases, but sanitation and access to clean water would have had a major impact.
