★ Eustis, Henry L.

Henry Lawrence Eustis​

Born: February 1, 1819

Birthplace: Fort Independence near Boston, Massachusetts

Father: Brevet Brig. General Abraham Eustis 1786 – 1843

(Buried: Mount Auburn Cemetery, Cambridge, Massachusetts)​

Mother: Rebecca Sprague 1787 – 1820

Wife: Caroline Hall Bartlett 1826 – 1916

(Buried: Mount Auburn Cemetery, Cambridge, Massachusetts)​

Children:

Herbert Hall Eustis 1857 – 1903​

(Buried: Mount Auburn Cemetery, Cambridge, Massachusetts)​

Education:

1838: Graduated from Harvard University​

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1842: Graduated from West Point Military Academy – (1st​ in class)​

Occupation before War:

1842 – 1849: 2nd​ Lt. United States Army Engineers Corps​

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1842 – 1843: Assistant on the U.S. Army Board of Engineers​

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1843 – 1845: Assistant Engineer for Construction of Fort Warren​

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1845 – 1847: Superintendent Engineer of Fort Adams and Goat Island​

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1847 – 1849: Assistant Engineering Professor at West Point​

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1849: Resigned from United States Army on November 30th​​

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1849 – 1862: Engineering Professor at Harvard University​

Civil War Career:

1862 – 1863: Colonel 10th​ Massachusetts Infantry Regiment

1862: Guarded the Upper Potomac Fords

1862 – 1863: Served in the Rappahannock Campaign

1862: Served in the Battle of Fredericksburg, Virginia

1863: Served in the storming of Marye's Heights

1863: Served in the Battle of Salem

1863: Served in the Battle of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania

1863 – 1864: Brigadier General Union Army Volunteers

1863: Served in the Battle of Rappahannock Station, Virginia

1864: Served in the Battle of the Wilderness, Virginia

1864: Served in the Battle of Spotsylvania, Virginia

1864: Served in the Battle of Cold Harbor, Virginia

1864: Resigned from the Union Army on June 27th​

Occupation after War:

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1864 – 1885: Engineering Professor at Harvard University​

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Dean of Lawrence Scientific School​

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Dean of Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences​

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1878: Author of the genealogy of his family​

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Suffered from lung disease for two years before his death​

Died: January 11, 1885

Place of Death: Cambridge, Massachusetts

Cause of Death: Disease of liver and lungs

Age at time of Death: 65 years old

Burial Place: Mount Auburn Cemetery, Cambridge, Massachusetts

 

[gentlemanrob]

Happy Birthday Brig. General Henry L. Eustis! Salutes remembering General Eustis on his birthday.

 

[Sheltowee]

Graduate of Harvard and USMA. Impressive.

 

[JeffFromSyracuse]

Is there anything evidence that supports the rumor / theory that addiction issues prompted him to leave the Army?

 

[ErnieMac]

Is there anything evidence that supports the rumor / theory that addiction issues prompted him to leave the Army?

He officially retired because of health issues, but my reading indicates an opium addiction.

 

[JeffFromSyracuse]

He officially retired because of health issues, but my reading indicates an opium addiction.

I've read the same. Just curious if it had later been debunked.

 

[Luke Freet]

He officially retired because of health issues, but my reading indicates an opium addiction.

Though I do believe him to be a solid brigade commander (6th Corps has those in droves), that one anecdote is honestly the most memorable thing about this man.

 

[Pollaco]

He officially retired because of health issues, but my reading indicates an opium addiction.

He resigned from the Army on June 27, 1864 citing health reasons.However there is some evidence that he was addicted to opium and he was threatened with charges of neglect of duty unless he submitted his resignation. I really can't say for sure but several biographys say he was compelled to resign due to his opium addiction,which caused him to neglect his military dutys.

 

[Luke Freet]

I wonder when and how this man got into opiods, if true.

 

[Pollaco]

When Col William Browne was wounded at Salem Church , Eustis succeeded to command.This was the brigade led at Gettysburg.

 

[Pollaco]

I wonder when and how this man got into opiods, if true.

I don't see where he was wounded, So we can't blame it on some doctor can we?

 

[ErnieMac]

I wonder when and how this man got into opiods, if true.

Laudanum was readily available and legal at the time.

 

[Pollaco]

Laudanum was readily available and legal at the time.

It could be a logical explanation but why would he take laudanum in the first place? From what I've read he never received any battlefield wounds or heard of any real health issues. But who knows? He may have been racked with pain from some unknown ailment.I was under the impression laudanum was kind of a last resort thing.

 

[USS ALASKA]

Anniversary

Promotion

12 September 1863

Henry Lawrence Eustis promoted Brigadier-General USV

Journal Article
Henry Lawrence Eustis
Proceedings of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Vol. 20 (May, 1884 - May, 1885), pp. 513-519
American Academy of Arts & Sciences

https://www.jstor.org/stable/25138790

OPEN ACCESS no log-in required. Please use above link.

Cheers,
USS ALASKA

 

[USS ALASKA]

...but why would he take laudanum in the first place? From what I've read he never received any battlefield wounds or heard of any real health issues.

By the 19th century, laudanum was used in many patent medicines to "relieve pain ... to produce sleep ... to allay irritation ... to check excessive secretions ... to support the system ... [and] as a soporific". The limited pharmacopoeia of the day meant that opium derivatives were among the most effective of available treatments, so laudanum was widely prescribed for ailments from colds to meningitis to cardiac diseases, in both adults and children. Laudanum was used during the yellow fever epidemic. Initially a working-class drug, laudanum was cheaper than a bottle of gin or wine, because it was treated as a medication for legal purposes and not taxed as an alcoholic beverage. As one researcher has noted: "To understand the popularity of a medicine that eased—even if only temporarily—coughing, diarrhoea and pain, one only has to consider the living conditions at the time". In the 1850s, "cholera and dysentery regularly ripped through communities, its victims often dying from debilitating diarrhoea", and dropsy, consumption, ague and rheumatism were all too common.

In the Arms of Morpheus: The Tragic History of Laudanum, Morphine, and Patent Medicines by Barbara Hodgson

"Opium". A Compend of materia medica, therapeutics, and prescription writing by SO Potter

"Chapter 1: Nineteenth-century America—a 'dope fiend's paradise'". Licit & Illicit Drugs by EM Brecher

Laudanum was sold without a prescription and was a constituent of many patent medicines. Patent medicines were supposedly able to cure just about everything. Nostrums were openly sold that claimed to cure or prevent venereal diseases, tuberculosis, and cancer. Bonnore's Electro Magnetic Bathing Fluid claimed to cure cholera, neuralgia, epilepsy, scarlet fever, necrosis, mercurial eruptions, paralysis, hip diseases, chronic abscesses, and "female complaints". William Radam's Microbe Killer, a product sold widely on both sides of the Atlantic in the 1890s and early 1900s, had the bold claim 'Cures All Diseases' prominently embossed on the front of the bottle. Ebeneezer Sibly ('Dr Sibly') in late 18th and early 19th century Britain went so far as to advertise that his Solar Tincture was able to "restore life in the event of sudden death", amongst other marvels. Every manufacturer published long lists of testimonials that described their product curing all sorts of human ailments. Fortunately for both makers and users, the illnesses they claimed were cured were almost invariably self-diagnosed – and the claims of the writers to have been healed of cancer or tuberculosis by the nostrum should be considered in this light.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patent_medicine#Supposed_uses

Did anyone die as the result of a Laudanum overdose? If so, it kinda refutes the "restore life in the event of sudden death" claim.

Cheers,
USS ALASKA