The Civil War and P.T.S.D.

CMWinkler

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The Civil War and P.T.S.D.
By DILLON CARROLL May 21, 2014 6:47 pm
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Disunion follows the Civil War as it unfolded.

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Edson Bemis was a hard man to kill. Rebel soldiers tried three times, and three times they failed. At the Battle of Antietam, a musket ball ripped through his left arm. Two years later, in the horrible fighting in the Wilderness, he was shot in the abdomen, just above the groin. The ball was never extracted, remaining in his body until the day he died.

The Confederates came the closest to killing Bemis in February 1865. At Hatcher’s Run, Va., a Minié ball struck him in the head. He lay near death for several days, his skull cracked and leaking brain matter. Most passed him off for dead. Dr. Albert VanDevour, however, did not, and instead performed a risky surgery to remove the bullet from his skull. Bemis improved immediately, eventually recovering, much to the shock of everyone.

For the rest: http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.co...on&action=Click&pgtype=Blogs&region=Body&_r=0
 
I agree that brain injury is a whole different animal than PTSD. I do know two vets who have it and another person who likely has it - kidnap victim. One of the vets has cluster migraines - suicide headaches - and I think some of the CW vets had these, too. Forrest, for instance, had killer migraines that seemed to have begun about the last year and a half or so of the war. No record of them before that. Grant and Lee also had migraines that began during the war and continued after, but no mention of them earlier. Several generals on both sides had severe digestive disorders. Sherman had insomnia - he was always hyper but he could sleep. Not during or for some long time after the war. Major Rathbone, after service and after witnessing Lincoln's murder and duking it out with Booth, he went on with his life for some years then, for no particular reason, murdered his wife and tried to do in his kids, and killed himself.

Jacob Mendes Da Costa was a doctor who kept seeing CW veterans who all seemed to have the same problems - rapid heart, short breath, panic attacks, headaches, stomach trouble, all sorts of miserable things - but there was no physical cause that he could find. Doctors before him in France, Switzerland and Germany had been noticing a particular set of illnesses in combat veterans for some time - they called it nostalgia, homesickness, or something else. The British navy had a whole fleet full of 'lunatic sailors'. Da Costa was the first to realize these men were not malingerers, weak sisters or mentally challenged. Da Costa Syndrome was called 'soldier's heart' and 'shell shock' in WWI and 'combat fatigue' in WWII and Korea.

It's significant that so many cases occurred in relation to American Civil War veterans. The war was a strange mix of cutting edge technology and old fashioned combat techniques. Soldiers saw enormous slaughter in rapid time. The Roman soldiers might kill a hundred thousand with swords and spears, but cannon and rapid fire rifles made it so fast! There had been no high casualty warfare on the American continent such as battles like Shiloh, Antietam and Chickamauga produced. A private at Antietam spoke of advancing with a line of men and then, seeing them on the ground, fell face forward as well - he thought an order had been given to hit the dirt. It took him a few minutes to realize they were all face first on the ground, in a perfectly straight row, because they'd all been shot dead! He described it as a row of wheat cut by a scythe. When one thinks of how 'innocent' Americans in general were of war - people coming to picnic at Bull Run! - and what these soldiers experienced, I think PTSD might well have started with our CW. And, I personally think our current drug problems have an origin in the CW. Many, many disabled veterans became opium and morphine addicts and some, like William Cushing, ended up in insane asylums because of the addiction. It wasn't Cushing's fault medical abilities couldn't help his back and hip injuries, which were incurred when he blew up the Albemarle. All he could do was dope himself up. There were thousands like him.
 
It's a pretty tragic story and I'm sure we can assume it happened to MANY veterans on both sides. I think his wife was a remarkable person who clearly took her marriage vows (in sickness and in health) most seriously. In my view, she is a true heroine. Some of us get lucky with equally wonderful and devoted spouses. I sure did.
 
Great post Diane! Cluster headaches are miserable- I suffered from them for years. It had to have been hell back then.

When you add in the disabilities some of these men had, you have to be in awe of their guts. The 19 year old kid who was toting Stonewall Jackson out of Chancellorsville was shot and lost BOTH arms. He lived to 86. Incredible.
 
I read that Rufus Dawes (6th Wisconsin) suffered from PTSD. Historians came to this conclusion from the tone of his letters and writings after the war. No doubt many Civil War combat vets suffered from it, but unfortunately there was no diagnosis. Even in WWI it was classified as Shell Shock and WWII combat fatigue I believe. Many from all of those conflicts self medicated with booze and narcotics. With out any help I don't blame them for doing that at the time. I have some personal experience with a couple of family members that were combat vets, so am definitely sympathetic to all veterans who suffer from PTSD and don't have the help they need.
 
There's a beautiful, powerful scene in The Best Years of Their Lives (which deals with the adjustment back to civilian life after WW2) where the double-amputee played by Harold Russell is showing his fiance what life with him would be like- having to help him with the most basic of tasks for everyday life- in an effort to drive her away. She helps him, showing she intends to stand by him in marriage. The article reminded me of that scene, and also of how important family and friends are in dealing with such problems. Maybe society was tighter back then, and it was easier for vets to get support from the community- the story about the milk delivery shows that they did what they could to make the man productive. Maybe wedding vows meant more. I know too many vets who have no support structure to fall back on, and all the promises of aid and support fail to materialize when they most need it.

One thing which bugs me is the reaction people have when they find out you're a vet of the recent wars, like you've got some stigma attached to you. Especially where I live now, and there isn't a significant military presence. A lot of people still put a stigma on vets, especially those who have been wounded. One college was floating the idea of requiring any vet with PTSD to register with campus security; aside from being discriminatory, it's pretty pointless- those are the least likely to engage in violence, statistically. Self-harm, yes. Others, not so much.
 
So is there a big difference between having your brain damaged/affected by a blow to the head (TBI) and having it damaged/affected by what you have experienced (PTSD). I think as medical science learns more about the brain it will find that while the mechanism of injury may be quite different the results are similar.
 
So is there a big difference between having your brain damaged/affected by a blow to the head (TBI) and having it damaged/affected by what you have experienced (PTSD). I think as medical science learns more about the brain it will find that while the mechanism of injury may be quite different the results are similar.
The differences are pretty dramatic- a TBI is a physical injury to the brain's tissues, and can result in permanent mental disability, impairment, and even death. Personality changes can manifest dramatically, where previously mild-mannered individuals are now aggressive to the point of violence for example. PTSD is a catch-all for a trauma-induced anxiety disorder; no physical damage is inflicted on the brain, although tissue scans can reveal changes to different centers of the brain (these are thought to be chemical changes). Those who live with it tend to shy away from stressful situations and/or trigger events, withdrawing into a protective "zone." In each case, hypervigilance, depression, anger issues, and drug/alcohol abuse are commonly observed.

Sufferers of PTSD are doubly-cursed due to the public perception (shaped by any number of 70s and 80s films) of the "whacked-out vet" who suffers flashbacks before going on a murderous rampage. The stigma persists even now, with those who incur a TBI being seen as injured and those with PTSD as being afflicted- one is a physical injury (with Purple Heart award) while the other is a mental problem...
 
The differences are pretty dramatic- a TBI is a physical injury to the brain's tissues, and can result in permanent mental disability, impairment, and even death. Personality changes can manifest dramatically, where previously mild-mannered individuals are now aggressive to the point of violence for example. PTSD is a catch-all for a trauma-induced anxiety disorder; no physical damage is inflicted on the brain, although tissue scans can reveal changes to different centers of the brain (these are thought to be chemical changes). Those who live with it tend to shy away from stressful situations and/or trigger events, withdrawing into a protective "zone." In each case, hypervigilance, depression, anger issues, and drug/alcohol abuse are commonly observed.

Sufferers of PTSD are doubly-cursed due to the public perception (shaped by any number of 70s and 80s films) of the "whacked-out vet" who suffers flashbacks before going on a murderous rampage. The stigma persists even now, with those who incur a TBI being seen as injured and those with PTSD as being afflicted- one is a physical injury (with Purple Heart award) while the other is a mental problem...

With all due respect it still sounds to me like the result of both "injuries" can be similar, allowing that a TBI can be serious enough to cause death whereas PTSD is unlikely to do that (at least unlikely to do that directly).
 
One of my pals took almost 25 years to get his disability from the VA. He didn't have a war related injury, he was just nuts. This is sooooo wrong. Even if you are just nuts, you weren't before you went to war. It's no different than being shot up.

With all due respect it still sounds to me like the result of both "injuries" can be similar, allowing that a TBI can be serious enough to cause death whereas PTSD is unlikely to do that (at least unlikely to do that directly).

I understand your position. Brain injury is very much an unknown country. Having had two brain injuries, I know there is a spectacular difference between what goes on with me and what goes on with my friends who have PTSD. I may have mobility problems and difficulties with epilepsy but, when I could walk, I and one of my sons used to drive over to Paul's house and collect all the guns, knives, drugs and ropes so he couldn't kill himself with them, then sit all night listening to him call to his squad about the Charlies out in the front yard. There was no doubt those people and that combat situation was as real to him as anything around us. Paul was a hermit - a raggedy character who lived as far out in the boondocks as he could possibly get. Anything near town was a trigger for some amazing adventure for somebody - usually us! Paul is a fabulous jeweler - when he can make anything.
 
Lemme try again. A TBI is a physical injury- concussions are a type of TBI- which causes direct damage to the brain. It's like any other injury to the body- swelling, bleeding, scar tissue, etc. Since it's the brain, the location and severity of the impact will cause different symptoms/outcomes. Some people end up with speech impediments, memory loss, vision difficulties. Others suffer loss of balance/coordination, still others lose emotional control, and so on. Point is, it's a direct result of physical trauma.

PTSD is classified as an anxiety disorder- it's not a physical problem, but a mental one. The symptoms are rarely physical (aside from those common to anxiety disorders) and generally those with PTSD can lead a "normal" life to all appearances. However, the changes to the brain are more localized and only detectable through advanced brain imaging (TBI can be detected using MRI). It can be brought on by physical trauma, but doesn't require physical trauma. TBI and PTSD can co-occur, where the traumatic incident (an explosion or car crash for example) causes physical damage to the brain and causes an anxiety disorder.
 
A couple of my granduncles who returned from service in Europe and the Pacific in WWII (US Army and Navy) came back with battle fatigue or PTSD, as it would be referred to now. I never met either of them, though relatives have told me they were never the same after the war.

I think many don't understand that it is not only that of the traumatic experience of combat that causes soldiers to breakdown emotionally in the field or experience PTSD after returning home. The physical endurance of it all, living a soldier's life in the field - marching, going for days without eating and drinking little, being away from home for so long - causes PTSD as well. Having read many memoirs written by soldiers who fought in the ACW, WWI, WWII and Vietnam many speak of how hard it was on them, both physically and mentally, even out of battle, just enduring the conditions in the field.

Though others like Eugene Sledge, author of With the Old Breed, speak of how enduring combat for prolonged periods of time can also be a factor. There were a higher number of cases of combat fatigue in battles such as Peleliu, Iwo Jima, or Okinawa compared to the shorter, but rough battles seen in the Pacific theater, such as Tarawa. That was due to the terrible conditions the troops were subjected to, such as constant rain or heat, mixed with the constant harassment by enemy artillery or sniper fire, for weeks or months. The troops lived in terrible conditions while always in danger. I would think some campaigns during the ACW such as the Overland and Atlanta Campaigns, where soldiers saw combat almost daily, while marching in the heat or rain over rough ground caused a larger number of men to breakdown.
 
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Agreed- and the article itself states he would be diagnosed with TBI; the title is misleading.

However- I'd really like to know about PTS in CW vets. Looking at some of the records in ancestry, there are some tantalizing clues with some of our CW ancestors- nothing definite, but just some patterns of behavior which are familiar.

I'm fairly convinced that two of my relatives suffered from PTSD after the war. My great x3 grandfather served in 1864-65, seeing considerable combat during the Overland Campaign, Petersburg, and the Shenandoah Campaign. Prior to the war, he was a typical northern New York farmer with a wife and 4 children. After the war, he basically crawled into a bottle and was arrested multiple times for seriously beating his wife and children. His wife ended up leaving him and when he remarried, he barely did anything beyond getting his wife pregnant and drinking. He ran up significant debts, neglected his farm, and ended up dying in a ditch.

His younger brother also seems to have been affected by the war. Before enlisting in 1861, he was a typical farm kid who knew how to have a good time. After 4+ years of combat, he was a loner and by 1868, had moved West, ultimately settling in Montana. When his health started to fail, he began moving his way back East, staying in veteran's homes on the way. He ended up back home, living with his sister for the last couple years of his life. By all accounts, he didn't like being around people.

Of course, both suffered personal losses during the war. Their younger brother died in Washington after having been wounded at Spotsylvania and my uncle's close friend, with whom he tooled around and enlisted with, was killed at Petersburg. The evidence is circumstantial but I tend to believe that PTSD changed them.

R
 
My ancestor from the 19th Indiana simply disappeared from the record after he mustered out. No indications he made it back to Indiana, doesn't show up anywhere else. Could be that he died- accident? Injury? Misfortune?- before he reached home, or that he changed his name for whatever reason. Or, given that he fought from Antietam to Petersburg and ended up the 2IC for his company, he may have decided he'd had enough and just dropped out of sight, avoiding contact with anyone.
 
I'm fairly convinced that two of my relatives suffered from PTSD after the war. My great x3 grandfather served in 1864-65, seeing considerable combat during the Overland Campaign, Petersburg, and the Shenandoah Campaign. Prior to the war, he was a typical northern New York farmer with a wife and 4 children. After the war, he basically crawled into a bottle and was arrested multiple times for seriously beating his wife and children. His wife ended up leaving him and when he remarried, he barely did anything beyond getting his wife pregnant and drinking. He ran up significant debts, neglected his farm, and ended up dying in a ditch.

His younger brother also seems to have been affected by the war. Before enlisting in 1861, he was a typical farm kid who knew how to have a good time. After 4+ years of combat, he was a loner and by 1868, had moved West, ultimately settling in Montana. When his health started to fail, he began moving his way back East, staying in veteran's homes on the way. He ended up back home, living with his sister for the last couple years of his life. By all accounts, he didn't like being around people.

Of course, both suffered personal losses during the war. Their younger brother died in Washington after having been wounded at Spotsylvania and my uncle's close friend, with whom he tooled around and enlisted with, was killed at Petersburg. The evidence is circumstantial but I tend to believe that PTSD changed them.

R

I see this kind of thing back in my family, too. The wars and massacres and traveling around all seems to have produced some unusual people. My grandfather, a CW vet, never said one word about ANYTHING. He was a loner, old people who knew him have told me he was a sumabi*ch and would shoot you for a little bit of nothing. As far as I can tell, they weren't lying! I wouldn't doubt just being an Indian in the 19th century would give one PTSD, let alone adding the CW to it.
 
The Civil War and P.T.S.D.
By DILLON CARROLL May 21, 2014 6:47 pm
disunion45.gif

Disunion follows the Civil War as it unfolded.

  • e-mail
  • facebook
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Edson Bemis was a hard man to kill. Rebel soldiers tried three times, and three times they failed. At the Battle of Antietam, a musket ball ripped through his left arm. Two years later, in the horrible fighting in the Wilderness, he was shot in the abdomen, just above the groin. The ball was never extracted, remaining in his body until the day he died.

The Confederates came the closest to killing Bemis in February 1865. At Hatcher’s Run, Va., a Minié ball struck him in the head. He lay near death for several days, his skull cracked and leaking brain matter. Most passed him off for dead. Dr. Albert VanDevour, however, did not, and instead performed a risky surgery to remove the bullet from his skull. Bemis improved immediately, eventually recovering, much to the shock of everyone.

For the rest: http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/05/21/the-civil-war-and-p-t-s-d/?_php=true&_type=blogs&module=BlogPost-Title&version=Blog Main&contentCollection=Disunion&action=Click&pgtype=Blogs&region=Body&_r=0


CMWinkler,

It is amazing what a supposedly fragile body can endure in physical injurty and punishment, that the mind cannot be forced to bear.

Thanks for posting this story.

Sincerely,
Unionblue
 
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