Germ Warfare New Civil War Museum Traces Battle against Diseases

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Ambulances, the nursing profession and many other touchstones of modern medicine can trace their American roots to the Civil War, according to a new museum near the Gettysburg and Antietam battlefields.

When the National Museum of Civil War Medicine opens today, visitors will also learn that germs and not bullets killed most of those who died in the war.

"Of the 600,000 dead, two died to disease for every one killed in battle," said Burton Kummerow, the museum's executive director.

"Bad food and bad water made many sick. There was also a general lack of sanitation at the beginning of the war. The latrines were often near the drinking water supplies," he …