rosefiend
First Sergeant
- Joined
- Jun 5, 2014
- Location
- Confusion, Missouri
I'd say this could qualify as a case of PTSD.
The Washington Post, July 9, 1913, page 4
The Washington Post, July 9, 1913, page 4
Oh dear, poor man! My dad used to dream that his weapon had jammed.I'd say this could qualify as a case of PTSD.
The Washington Post, July 9, 1913, page 4
View attachment 64759
My mother used to tell me that my father, for years, would leap off the bed, and shout for his company to "take cover". He was an officer in WWII. He most definitely had PTSD until the day he died, by his own hand. Those poor CW soldiers--there was no diagnosis for it then--and I'm sure many, like my dad, didn't seek help for what they couldn't understand. "Men just don't do that" attitude...Oh dear, poor man! My dad used to dream that his weapon had jammed.
I can't find further information on the Civil War use of Louisiana Hospital in Richmond as a mental hospital. This page on the Civil War use of that hospital doesn't mention it.From page 164 The Army of Robert E. Lee, by Philip Katcher.
"A number of soldiers, affected by both nostalgia and the pressures of battle, succumbed to what today is know as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Many of them in Lee's Army were sent to Louisiana Hospital in Richmond which was, as of 27 March 1865, set aside strictly for the treatment of such cases of mental illness."
The treatment of mental illness was in its infancy during the Civil War. I can not help but wonder what the treatment for mental illness during the Civil War consisted of. Where did the Confederate Army find enough doctors trained in the treatment of mental illness to properly staff a mental heath hospital?
Was thinking about this while reading nurse Julia Wheelock's journal- disclaimer being it's ridiculous, diagnosing disorders from 150 years distance. Still, PTSD and war? Little different than the 10 years it takes to come up with bipolar. Julia replays her brother's death again and again and again- while dealing with awful death in field hospitals, the war at its worst. Understandably never gets over her experience ( like a lot of nurses- when asked to write their pages for the book " Our Army Nurses " some simply provide a statement saying they are unable to due to how traumatic the memory remains. ) to the point where her eventually published journal is titled ' Our Boys In White '. Decades post war, ' white ' boys are the men who she says turn white at the moment of death- they stay with her.
Getting further an further into this part of the war you begin to understand what a cohesive bond these people had post war, men and women, wounded and those who somehow were not. There's a thread somewhere ( probably quite a few in the long history here ) discussing how it would have been impossible, the idea that veterans of both armies really did drop their animosity towards each. That the photos we see of them at Gettysburg's reunion must be the exception, or something which happened just for that occasion then everyone went back to hating each other. Bet it wasn't like that no matter how handy that is for Agenda. Bet this was so awful no one but each other, North and South knew what it was like- both during the war and to live with what it had done to them.
I am not doubting him, I'm trying to find out more about the use of this place as a mental hospital. I kind of thought that was the purpose of the thread.A lot of hospitals had dual or triple uses- some are listed as prisons like Moore Hospital in Richmond. That was right next door to ( I think ) Hospital #11 , Legons? Leggons? It's difficult to find lists of all the hospitals in Richmond much less prisons. There's no central data base covering all of them much less what they were variously assigned as. My point is not all sources contain all the information on these places.
I'm curious as to why the source is required, is there something about having this place used as a mental hospital which is controversial? I'd have think it a splendid thing on the part of those caring for veterans in the south right? In an era which did not deal well with mental illness societally, for these men to be specifically cared for is amazing! It raised my eyebrows- so, so many veterans had to deal with their shattered nervous systems all by themselves. For post war mental trauma to be recognized and addressed like this puts Richmond decades ahead of the times.
Well, it's not a matter of being accustomed? Because you can't see the d*m thing it's frequently discounted which is why it took so long to be recognized. It's literally a broken nervous system. The neuro pathways have been rerouted, like a creek finds new ways to run, or electrical circuits, new ways to flow- the brain is just, plain broken. We're just not glued together to deal with the kind of adrenaline dumps war hands you- so extreme and on such a massive level, for SO, so long, too although it only takes one dreadful event to break the system. War PTSD is a whole, different animal because it's so, so shattered a person's nervous system, who on earth can coax that creek back to it's correct banks? You can't. All the circuits went and found the wrong wall sockets, plugged themselves, everything's gone POOF. Running 220 through 110 wiring.
If someone came away from the war without PTSD, you'd have to think they were badly wired going in. There's no cure, just management- and how does one manage something no one acknowledges you have?
Our family was destroyed by the ACW. What had been a family producing doctors, lawyers, preachers and well off large farmers, changed. When 2 of the 6 brothers came back from the war they drank a lot. We had a 640 acre farm owned by my direct ancestor which in a generation was gone. The men didn't work good or do much for that generation or the next.And it's probably not so much about stoicism in the CW folks as it was about things "not being talked about" or covered up.
It's easy for important stories to vanish in the space of one or two generations, especially if they aren't written down -- in the space of three or four generations, the stuff you don't talk about is very, very hard to dig up, if there's any trace of it at all. My grandma's uncle, upon his return home from the service, was constantly drunk, and he died while walking on a train trestle over the Nodaway River -- killed by an oncoming train. Maybe he was drunk and careless, maybe he was up there on purpose. (Though Grandma said the engineer said he was running.) But only a few people know this story, and he was only a generation back.
With my own grandpa, who was in the 82nd Airborne in WWII, oh yes, the war affected him too. But my generation, his grandchildren, doesn't know his story at all. I'm already having to dig for it.
As far as ACW soldier was concerned I think their physically demanding life actually helped. I think ahead of the chance for trauma the physical toil and physical requirements placed on the body and brain chemicals was actually preventative and restorative. Now not to the point of enduring disease, just a great deal of strenuous physical activity. Men on the march were immeasurably healthier than men in camp., also.
Yes, if extreme it became a liability. But marching mixed with some fighting as with Sherman seemed to be physically healthier than some other armies. But Sherman did try to accommodate their needs.I feel like I read something somewhere at sometime that stated extreme physical exertion combined with lack of sustenance and water can really mess with your brain chemistry, too. Though maybe I made that up?
I kind of wonder if Harry Truman's mom's experiences in CW Missouri didn't affect some of his decisions about the Cold War, for example.
No Mr. Katcher did not provide a source. I purchased his book The Army of Robert E. Lee at a friends of the library book sale yesterday and was looking through it last night and saw this statement about PTSD.I can't find further information on the Civil War use of Louisiana Hospital in Richmond as a mental hospital. This page on the Civil War use of that hospital doesn't mention it.
http://www.mdgorman.com/Hospitals/louisiana_general_hospital.htm
Does Katcher give a source that could point me in the right direction?