Help Decipher Double "S" words

[lelliott19]

23 year old Dr. William Augustus Blount of Beaufort County, NC was appointed Assistant Regimental Surgeon in February 1862. He was later elevated to Surgeon.

This document, a "Certificate of Disability for Discharge" was originally dated August 23, 1862. It seems that Dr. Blount examined the patient and recommended discharge November 20, 1862 at Brandy Station. I included Dr. Blount's signature to demonstrate his use of the "double S" (aka long "s") in the abbreviation for the word Assistant. He abbreviates it as you can see below.

Anyway, supposedly the long s was used in the beginning of a word or the middle - but not when a word ended in double s. I'm having trouble deciphering the words highlighted in green on the image below. It may be excessive diaphoresis? Excess sweating? Here's what I can read:

Captain Blair's Company, and find him incapable of performing the duties of a soldier because of (....) excessive (?) dia???? and a completely broken down constitution rendering him at and recommend his discharge.
Wm A Blount, Asst. & Act. Surgeon
1st No Ca Cavalry.

I'd appreciate any suggestions. Thanks!

Maybe @lupaglupa @John Hartwell @John Winn and/or @Story aka Dr. Story will be able to read it?

 

[charliegold]

2nd highlighted word looks like 'dispute'.

 

[lupaglupa]

I think the first word is excision, but spelled excission.

 

[lupaglupa]

What is the patient's name? We might could find a description of his wounds in a pension document.

 

[Old Soldier]

excessive deafness?

 

[charliegold]

yes. I thought the ex_ - suffix would help nail it down.
anachronistic medical term?

 

[charliegold]

oops sorry; the word 'dispute' does not make any sense in context with 'excission' no matter how the doctor chose to spell it.

 

[Jamieva]

2nd word looks like discharge to me.

 

[lupaglupa]

I can see excessive deafness but that's an odd term.

 

[Old Soldier]

I can see excessive deafness but that's an odd term.

But this was written in the 1860s. They didn't use words or descriptions like we do today. Excessive deafness = VERY hard of hearing.

 

[Ben Ford 987]

23 year old Dr. William Augustus Blount of Beaufort County, NC was appointed Assistant Regimental Surgeon in February 1862. He was later elevated to Surgeon.

This document, a "Certificate of Disability for Discharge" was originally dated August 23, 1862. It seems that Dr. Blount examined the patient and recommended discharge November 20, 1862 at Brandy Station. I included Dr. Blount's signature to demonstrate his use of the "double S" (aka long "s") in the abbreviation for the word Assistant. He abbreviates it as you can see below.

Anyway, supposedly the long s was used in the beginning of a word or the middle - but not when a word ended in double s. I'm having trouble deciphering the words highlighted in green on the image below. It may be excessive diaphoresis? Excess sweating? Here's what I can read:

Captain Blair's Company, and find him incapable of performing the duties of a soldier because of (....) excessive (?) dia???? and a completely broken down constitution rendering him at and recommend his discharge.
Wm A Blount, Asst. & Act. Surgeon
1st No Ca Cavalry.

I'd appreciate any suggestions. Thanks!

View attachment 561616
Maybe @lupaglupa @John Hartwell @John Winn and/or @Story aka Dr. Story will be able to read it?

excessive distress, maybe ?

 

[milhistbuff1]

I concur with Old Soldier, excessive deafness. What were the circumstances/time & place of injury/wound? That might shed light. E.g charging/defending a battery of artillery and a final blast went off very close...

 

[lelliott19]

Thanks everyone. There was no wound. No surgical operation. No sickness, no wounds, no hospitalizations. There are no other medical carded records. Just this one discharge document. It must not have been very serious or if it was, he recovered completely. The trooper returned to the regiment and was marked present through at least Nov/Dec 1864; survived the war; and lived until age 84. Thanks again for everyone's help!

 

[milhistbuff1]

Thanks everyone. There was no wound. No surgical operation. No sickness, no wounds, no hospitalizations. There are no other medical carded records. Just this one discharge document. It must not have been very serious or if it was, he recovered completely. The trooper returned to the regiment and was marked present through at least Nov/Dec 1864; survived the war; and lived until age 84. Thanks again for everyone's help!

Your welcome. Perhaps the deafness was temporary. All four of my serving folks came back with wounds/injuries/disease.

 

[lelliott19]

What is the patient's name? We might could find a description of his wounds in a pension document.

I checked the pension file. At age 64, there is a reference to deafness. I agree that "excessive deafness" is awkward wording. Seems like any deafness would be excessive? But maybe that's what the discharge was for? I guess if you couldn't hear the bugle or the orders shouted, that would be a problem. But he returned to the regt and was marked present through at least Nov/Dec 1864 so maybe they came up with a system to compensate for his inability to discern the commands?

 

[Jamieva]

I checked the pension file. At age 64, there is a reference to deafness. I agree that "excessive deafness" is awkward wording. Seems like any deafness would be excessive? But maybe that's what the discharge was for? I guess if you couldn't hear the bugle or the orders shouted, that would be a problem. But he returned to the regt and was marked present through at least Nov/Dec 1864 so maybe they came up with a system to compensate for his inability to discern the commands?

Or by that point in the war they will take almost anyone willing to fight.

 

[dlofting]

The only problem with interpreting the word as deafness is that would mean he wrote "f" and "ss" the same....possible but maybe not.

 

[Old Soldier]

The only problem with interpreting the word as deafness is that would mean he wrote "f" and "ss" the same....possible but maybe not.

The 'f' and first 's' are written in a similar fashion, with the 'f' having a lower loop, but the 'ss' is followed by another 's'

 

[Allyn]

It's deafness, no question. I've been reading a lot of horrible 19th century German script lately, and I've gotten used to the quirkiness of handwriting!

 

[debwallsmith]

23 year old Dr. William Augustus Blount of Beaufort County, NC was appointed Assistant Regimental Surgeon in February 1862. He was later elevated to Surgeon.

This document, a "Certificate of Disability for Discharge" was originally dated August 23, 1862. It seems that Dr. Blount examined the patient and recommended discharge November 20, 1862 at Brandy Station. I included Dr. Blount's signature to demonstrate his use of the "double S" (aka long "s") in the abbreviation for the word Assistant. He abbreviates it as you can see below.

Anyway, supposedly the long s was used in the beginning of a word or the middle - but not when a word ended in double s. I'm having trouble deciphering the words highlighted in green on the image below. It may be excessive diaphoresis? Excess sweating? Here's what I can read:

Captain Blair's Company, and find him incapable of performing the duties of a soldier because of (....) excessive (?) dia???? and a completely broken down constitution rendering him at and recommend his discharge.
Wm A Blount, Asst. & Act. Surgeon
1st No Ca Cavalry.

I'd appreciate any suggestions. Thanks!

View attachment 561616
Maybe @lupaglupa @John Hartwell @John Winn and/or @Story aka Dr. Story will be able to read it?

Excessive deafness