Sickness and Disease in the Continental Army | David W. Johnston
Lack of knowledge about medicine and supplies were a huge problem for Revolutionary War soldiers.
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Wound infection was depressingly common. Battlefields were often farmland that had been contaminated with bacteria containing animal feces for years. Surgical procedures were carried out with no understanding of antisepsis and no attempt to prevent wound contamination. In fact, it was universally accepted that wounds would not heal until they had begun to drain so-called laudable pus, a situation that we now understand to be the result of staph infection. During the Revolution, approximately 25 percent of the wounded who were admitted to hospitals died, and the vast majority of those succumbed to unrelated infections. In the final analysis, bacteria killed far more soldiers in the early republic than did bullets.
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Science gets better in most areas.
We should try to do better, though, with the understanding of mental illness. That science has a very long journey ahead of it to get anywhere near knowledge of the human body.