Chase. some of those country boys had no resisistance to common diseases they had not encountered in their childhood. Measles killed hundreds, if not thousands of young soldiers.

Some of the lack of sanitation was either ignorance or stubborness. A thousand or so years before the WTBS, Galen, the Greek doctor who wrote medical books, spent some time as what might be called the Surgeon General of the Roman Army.

He had hospitals constructed with air cooled wards, and indoor plumbing. His minions washed thouroughly before and after treating a Roman soldier. He had incinerators for disposing of soiled bandages. Sick patients were segregated from those with wounds. He had a very low mortality rate. I think the Dark Ages wiped out a lot of prior experience, and caused many unnecessary deaths. Stan