During the Civil War, many different occupations existed for people with different skills. One of the main occupations was nursing. Every wounded soldier needed a nurse so there had to always be many of them on hand for when they were needed. They were needed for many things such as illnesses, diseases, sores, and injuries. The participants in the war were not immune to communicable diseases and did not know the way to avoid them; therefore they were wide open to the many germs in the world. Many