ABSTRACT
Union private Albert Morton Hayward, writing home from his camp in Virginia, reported that an officer had “got the Dr to give me some medicine for my diseese ‘what it is I dont no but I have got about well again.’” The typical Civil War soldier or sailor could hardly be expected to know the content of proffered pills or powders or understand the reasoning behind giving them. The prescribing decision, after all, was influenced by the physician’s individual and specialized knowledge, experience, and style. In fact, the entire process of medication use in the military reflected a complex interplay of diverse and often conflicting practices, beliefs, and attitudes. It included a wide array of players from drug merchants in faraway lands to patients like Hayward, who could accept or reject treatments and usually had something to say about them either way.
