January 24, 1864---The Clap

JANUARY 24, 1864:           

As with all armies throughout time, sexually-transmitted diseases were a scourge upon fighting men in the Civil War. 

Along with the childhood diseases that ran rampant in military camps, venereal diseases were endemic wherever soldiers managed to come into contact with significant civilian populations (that would be virtually anywhere, of course). Nashville alone had over 1500 known prostitutes at this point in the war in its notorious Smokey Row. 

Total syphilis cases among Union soldiers numbered approximately 75,000. Total gonorrhea cases numbered approximately 110,000.  "Colored" troops had incidences of S.T.D.s less than half that of white troops. Confederate numbers are estimated to be 70,000 and 100,000. 

However, it is likely that at least that many thousands of cases went unreported or were documented as other illnesses in the sexually-repressive Victorian Age atmosphere of Civil War America. 

Part of the reason for the relatively low number of reported cases was the brutality of the medical treatments for venereal diseases, which included the forced application of caustic substances or boiling water to infected areas or the ingestion of arsenic and other poisons to check the infection. At least in the short run, the cures were often harder to bear than the diseases, though in a time before antibiotics sexually-transmitted diseases often had horrifying consequences.

Another treatment involved applying acute pressure to the penis (often with a spring-loaded wooden implement resembling a giant clothespin) to loosen accumulated pus in the urethra. The short, sharp banging sound made by the implement gave gonorrhea the slang name it is still known by:  The Clap.