Non-Combat Injuries

[rbortega]

Did anybody have any ancestors or relatives who sustained any non combat injuries while serving in the Civil War? According to his pension file my 4th great grand uncle William R. Price was injured as the result of being kicked in the face by a horse while serving in the 1st Indiana Cavalry.

 

[Pollaco]

Horses seemed to be the number 1 cause. A few generals were injured by falling from a horse or having their horse fall on them. I think there was even one after the war who had his buggy roll over on top of him.

 

[lupaglupa]

I have a great something uncle who was a teamster in the Union Army and was stepped on by a mule.

 

[RedRover]

An ancestor, Sgt. Davie Brainerd Beale of the 139th New York was apparently herniated at Cold Harbor in 1864 while assisting with the burial of the dead, and was apparently invalided out of the service shortly after. He wore a truss in later years.

 

[lupaglupa]

You have to wonder how these guys felt when they hung out at the post next to men missing a leg from a gunshot wound.

 

[Sheltowee]

So far, have found three with recorded non- combat issues. All three were disease. All three died.

But I believe you are speaking to traumatic injuries?

 

[east_beast]

So far, have found three with recorded non- combat issues. All three were disease. All three died.

But I believe you are speaking to traumatic injuries?

Only three? Pretty much every service record I've looked at from soldiers who served a good amount of time records time missed for sickness. Disease ran rampant in Civil War camps.

One of my direct ancestors missed Gettysburg due to illness. He was in the NC 26th F Company. The unit suffered 100% casualties in Pickett's Charge. I'm probably only typing this because he was sick.

 

[Stryker65]

I saw once in a Florida infantry regiment's roster that a man was wounded "by a wagon running over his foot" or something like that. Ouch.

 

[Stryker65]

Horses seemed to be the number 1 cause. A few generals were injured by falling from a horse or having their horse fall on them. I think there was even one after the war who had his buggy roll over on top of him.

For example:
- Brig. Gen. William E. Baldwin (CS) died after a fall from his horse
- Brig. Gen. Michael Corcoran (US) died from a brain contusion after being thrown from his horse
- Maj. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant (US) was wounded by a horse kicking him right before Chattanooga

 

[dfostermem]

Thomas Henderson of Henderson's Scouts was shot twice by accident. The first time was just before Shiloh when his gun got caught up in brush/limbs as he was riding. Took off his ankle and he was crippled throughout the war. So now we have four men hanging out after Shiloh and one says I missed the battle because I had the trots, another says I missed the battle because I was stepped on by a mule, the third says I missed the battle because I shot myself by accident, and finally the fourth says none of those happened to me and I had to go into battle.... No wonder there are arguments today about the number of men who actually took the field in any given battle and why it is almost impossible to say if any particular person actually fought in a given battle.

 

[Stryker65]

Thomas Henderson of Henderson's Scouts was shot twice by accident. The first time was just before Shiloh when his gun got caught up in brush/limbs as he was riding. Took off his ankle and he was crippled throughout the war. So now we have four men hanging out after Shiloh and one says I missed the battle because I had the trots, another says I missed the battle because I was stepped on by a mule, the third says I missed the battle because I shot myself by accident, and finally the fourth says none of those happened to me and I had to go into battle.... No wonder there are arguments today about the number of men who actually took the field in any given battle and why it is almost impossible to say if any particular person actually fought in a given battle.

Add the fifth guy, who says he was holding the horses...Cavalry is weird.

 

[dfostermem]

Maybe that should have been seven: trots, stepped on, shot myself, run over by a wagon, injured from burying dead, thrown from my horse ...

I guess its amazing if anyone took the field!

 

[lupaglupa]

The percentage of fit to fight as opposed to on the rolls is pretty impressive. Most units had a good number who couldn't actually take the field at any one time.

@dfostermem I almost never says someone I'm researching fought in a particular battle unless I have a record showing they were wounded there. That's the only standard of proof that can be verified!

 

[13 IL Cav & 64 GA Inf]

I have a great something uncle who was a teamster in the Union Army and was stepped on by a mule.

Ouch!

 

[lupaglupa]

Ouch!

He was known as a Copperhead and was not happy about getting drafted. So maybe he wasn't too unhappy about the mule injury.

 

[John Winn]

I don't have a relative who was injured (that I know of) but I've researched many a CW veteran - and a few Indian War veterans - and quite a few were injured by non-combat accidents. One guy fell through a bridge which was likely damaged. A number were injured by mules or horses (mules more often). I think there were several other things but I don't recollect exactly what those were now. Like farming, war in the nineteenth century was dangerous even if you never got into line.

 

[river444]

My 3rd great-grandfather George Pool was kicked by a horse and lost his eye
My 4th great-grandfather William Guthrie devolped hemorrhoids. They troubled him for the rest of his life.
Part of cousin James McChesney's jaw sloughed off due to typhoid fever

 

[damYankee]

Somewhere in my collection of family records is the story of one ancestor who survived the entire war without so much as a stubbed toe.
In 1880 while harnessing a horse he scratched the back of his hand on one of the buckles and was dead in three days from an infection.

 

[13 IL Cav & 64 GA Inf]

Somewhere in my collection of family records is the story of one ancestor who survived the entire war without so much as a stubbed toe.
In 1880 while harnessing a horse he scratched the back of his hand on one of the buckles and was dead in three days from an infection.

Wow!

 

[lupaglupa]

I see hemorrhoids a lot in veterans health records. And every old guy who had them says he developed them because of the war.