THE WASTE OF WAR
In most of the eras recorded by military history, it was a reliable truism that an army could lose more men to disease than to the lethal efforts of its enemies. Diseases, particularly those of the insect-borne or water-specific types, have been responsible for untold millions of deaths in militaries across the millennia. Ironically, armies ravaged by disease have usually carried the seeds of their destruction with them in the form of poor field sanitation habits. After all, a sufficiently provisioned army of 10,000 men could produce about four tons of fecal waste every day; without adequate latrine facilities carefully situated away from water sources and field kitchens, it would only be a matter of time before debilitating, deadly diseases began rampaging through the ranks. In light of this, there is good reason to argue that the humble latrine was every bit as important to the waging of a successful military campaign as were good artillery, logistic support, sufficient ammunition, and well-trained troops.
Today in the U.S. Army, protecting soldiers from disease vectors is such a command priority that field sanitation doctrine is taught and enforced at all levels of military training and in every unit. Effective sanitation policies are a fairly modern development, however, gaining official acceptance and emphasis only after the inexcusable losses of the Civil War and Spanish-American War. Military traditionalists stubbornly resisted change. While medical officers argued for improved sanitation practices, tactical commanders did not always share their concerns or understand the relevant science, often with drastic consequences. As a military surgeon who served as a sanitary commissioner in the British Army in India wrote in 1868, “The recommendations of Medical Officers did not always meet with the attention they now do.” For the British Army, the dangers of such willful disregard were demonstrated all too clearly during the Crimean War—according to official sources, it lost 25 times as many men to disease as to enemy action during that conflict.
The importance of a reliable water supply and efficient field sanitation have always been recognized, to varying degrees, and no commander worth his rank has ever willfully ignored those necessities, especially if his army
