I recommend you read NAM Rodgers "The Wooden World" an excellent description of the (British) Royal Navy in the period about 1750-1820. The Navy was almost obsessive about cleanliness as it was recognised that dirt in a wound often guaranteed infection. There was (I think still is) an order given when going into battle "clean into fighting rig" which orders the crew to change into clean clothing because they knew that if shot or shell carried dirty clothing into a wound, infection was inevitable.