Why Did So Many Die?

Why did so many die?
This reading talks about the high casualty rate during the Civil War, both due to combat deaths and the treatment of doctors toward wounded patients. During combat there were many reasons that soldiers died on the battlefield, first the size of some of these battles caused many deaths, some battles had more than two-hundred thousand soldiers. Also the strategies used by generals during the time were very ancient, which involved advancing with your comrades for close combat and frontal assaults. With new weapons advancements it made this strategy deadly, new rifle developments made attacking soldiers sitting ducks. If you did make it out of the battles alive your chances in the hospitals weren’t as great back then. Doctors were ignorant about the medical hygiene often using the same bloody smocks for days along with washing their hands and scalpels in buckets of dirty water; this was a main spread of infection to thousands of wounded soldiers. For these reasons the Civil War saw astronomical death tolls not only because of battle but for medical blunders.
1. If you could go back to the times of the Civil War and help in one area between the ancient battle strategies and the medical mistakes which would you chose and why?
2. Why were so many Americans during this time so surprised by the death tolls that came along with this war?