Help me with ACW ASB TL: How do I do this in the CSA

I decided to post this thread here instead of the ASB one so that I'd get more people knowledgable of the ACW to help me.

I plan on writing an ASB Tl in which people with knowledge of the future try to provide some modern medical techniques and substances to the CSA in order to decrease the death rate of its soldeirs and POWs (with the knowledge that eventualy the USA will adapt to using them too and thus save more lives). In my story they'd rather keep how they got this info secret though. So how could I get the CSA to accept and use their knowledge and there materials (medical tools, drugs, etc.) within my TL while still being plausible.

To be specific some modern medical supplies I'd like to involve in the TL are, Prontosil, penicillin, the regular use of alcohol as an antiseptic and cleaning tool, and the use of extracellular matrices to heal wounds (plus the detergent and the process used to extract them from organic materials).
 
They could get a job as doctors on the front lines and when their rumoured success spreads it becomes more widely used.
 
It is impossible for such medicine to become widespread and mass produced without it becoming open knowledge. We are not talking about a single, secret installation making these drugs, but widespread demonstrations and trials and education on how to do so. Assuming you could somehow convince someone that this is possible, the knowledge would quickly spread throughout the Confederate war department and medical community in the CSA. Most likely, various foreign observers will also become involved. This kind of thing can't be kept secret in that society. Most likely, the CSA might have a 6 months head start, but within a year the USA not only catches up but begins out producing the CSA such medicine and implements it throughout the Union army.

As for getting initial buy in, whoever dessiminates this information has to have credibility somehow. willbell is probably correct with the easiest implementation. Have the person join as a combat physician. As long as he is knowledgable, I don't think whatever CSA regiment he joins is going to complain, and if he is successful then he'll be noticed and promoted, and eventually he can convince a superior officer to let him teach his techniques to others. He'll eventually need to go up the chain of command to whoever the equivalent of the Surgeon General is in the CSA.

Of course, this will probably take time, and he risks being killed until he can go behind the lines. I suspect it'll be mid 1863 before such a thing can happen, during which his work will be very limited to within the regiment, division, or corps he is directly responsible for. Not sure how they organized battlezone hospitals back then.
 
Antisepsis was a idea whose time had come. I was surprised to find that Lister hadnt come up with it yet, but that was apperently 1867. Antisepsis is entirely possible.

Penicillin. The discovery that Penicillium molds produce an antibiotic effect would be easy. Actually cultivating it in sufficient quantities and extracting the drug, thats going to be a LOT harder. Apparently in wwii it took signiglficant tech, e.g. rotating stainless steel incubators, iirc, to get industrial scale production going. Thats not going to happen in the csa. Now, on the 1632 forums people have pushed crude extracts of penicillin as a poultice, but im not sure a random medical team would know about it. Oh, and they started with a modern high yielding strain which MUCH more productive than a random wild one.

Sulfa drugs. Had to look up the name of the one you mentioned, as that name wasnt familiar. Is this possible to produce, given the chemical knowledge of the time? Actually, if they start fiddling with anyline (sp?) dyes, they could fund most of their war effort, and would ensure the brits break the blockade. Which might make more difference to the war effort than a medical advance. Of course the long term results of dyes will not be a lot, as the brits, yanks and germans will quickly take the market over.
 
Antisepsis was a idea whose time had come. I was surprised to find that Lister hadnt come up with it yet, but that was apperently 1867. Antisepsis is entirely possible.

Penicillin. The discovery that Penicillium molds produce an antibiotic effect would be easy. Actually cultivating it in sufficient quantities and extracting the drug, thats going to be a LOT harder. Apparently in wwii it took signiglficant tech, e.g. rotating stainless steel incubators, iirc, to get industrial scale production going. Thats not going to happen in the csa. Now, on the 1632 forums people have pushed crude extracts of penicillin as a poultice, but im not sure a random medical team would know about it. Oh, and they started with a modern high yielding strain which MUCH more productive than a random wild one.

Sulfa drugs. Had to look up the name of the one you mentioned, as that name wasnt familiar. Is this possible to produce, given the chemical knowledge of the time? Actually, if they start fiddling with anyline (sp?) dyes, they could fund most of their war effort, and would ensure the brits break the blockade. Which might make more difference to the war effort than a medical advance. Of course the long term results of dyes will not be a lot, as the brits, yanks and germans will quickly take the market over.

Interesting I didn't think of those things. Any other info you could give about the effect of sulfa dyes, replacing Penicillian, etc.

Edit:
I looked up the preparation of sulfonamide which is the active group of Prontosil which works just the same on its own and it says that Sulfonamides are prepared by the reaction of a sulfonyl chloride with ammonia or an amine. I know that doctors in the CSA more than likely had supplies of Ammonia but I'm not sure about sulfonyl chloride or other forms of sulfonyl halides. Anybody know?
 
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