What would a wounded soldier dream about?

I think it is like when you’ve been in a very intense experience or accident and then when you start to fall asleep, your mind replays some of it and you jump awake. I’ve had that with a couple of riding accidents - I’ll jerk awake with heart pounding and it’s like it just happened again. I can well imagine if they had a rifle nearby they’d start firing it, not fully conscious and realizing what they are doing.
Agree.
I ve been in that realm where you’re in a slumber and not aware of reality and awaken to think think you’re still in that dream for a split few moments.
 
This allows for much more room for thought than what has been given. All of us are prone to dream, now and again. When younger we are given to visions, and as we age our dreams become more vivid and numerous; thus says the prophet (Isaiah).
The interpretation of dreams has an impact on predicting a future, or receiving an answer from our past. Of course, we can always relegate the dream to nothing but entertainment to our sleeping souls, and meaning nothing but the idea passing. These pass so quickly we may lose sight of the dream, once remembered on awakening, soon to be forgotten when our real world draws us into it.
We definitely don't ignore the manic episodes of someone believing they won't live to see the end oof the battle. This premonition can be attributed to a dream or a vision the messenger received, and spoke it. We don't attribute it to nonsense, though we may try to dissuade the bearer of the news with rebuttals.
So, on the above example, I seem to feel the dreamer, regardless of whether it was produced by chloroform or whiskey, had a very quick dream of certain events he could associate with, but he being spellbound in the midst of the swirl; a wizard of Oz tornado type of dream. It must have impacted him and he felt the need to write it down before it would be forgotten. I am sure it diverted his attention for the remainder of his healing progress, and possibly allowed him hope of no further injury in the future, that he would come through unscathed. But I am not a Joseph or a Daniel in either the old or the new testaments, and not an Edgar Cayce either.
But I do enjoy dreams, and because I am getting older now, they are more frequent and more appealing than the visions I had in my youth.
Lubliner.
Love your Biblical prospective.
 
I think it is like when you’ve been in a very intense experience or accident and then when you start to fall asleep, your mind replays some of it and you jump awake. I’ve had that with a couple of riding accidents - I’ll jerk awake with heart pounding and it’s like it just happened again. I can well imagine if they had a rifle nearby they’d start firing it, not fully conscious and realizing what they are doing.
Similar to being shot at and realizing that you have not really been hit. Happened to me twice, and the dream still pops up for me at times.
 
It's been a while since I watched this lecture, but this thread has reminded me that I should view it again. I don't recall whether Mr. White specifically addressed dreams of wounded soldiers. Here's the description from C-Span:

"Author Jonathan White talked about the dreams of both soldiers and civilians during the American Civil War.
He detailed the dreams of several individuals and reflected on the underlying emotions behind them, such as
fear of death or hope of returning home. He also discussed how dreams became part of the wartime culture,
reflected in such things as songs and poems. This discussion was part of the annual Lincoln Forum symposium
in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania."

Dreams of Civil War Americans
 
Very interesting subject. Thanks for sharing.
I recently read that some of the Southern Soldiers at Bloody Angle would awake from a sleep several days after the battle on the 12th and just start firing their rifle for no reason - other than , I suppose, they awoke from a dream and thought they were still in that horrible battle.
I believe it. Hard to believe but a guy on our job woke up and had a gun battle with Intruders in his own home. Only problem there was no Intruders. Luck him the Wife and Kids were not home when it happened. Not gonna let him take a Nap around me while armed! :unsure:
 
Similar to being shot at and realizing that you have not really been hit. Happened to me twice, and the dream still pops up for me at times.
I get the one where I keep pulling the trigger but the **** gun won't go off while the bad guys are coming at me. I wake up or drift off before they get me. How about the one where you keep falling? They say if you hit the bottom like the sidewalk then your dead (how the heck they know that?), I never hit the bottom. Yet.
 
“Slept a little last night, and was troubled by a dream in which demons, rattlesnakes, Hell, brimstone, cannon-balls, and railroad iron, bayonets and pitchforks, powder and smoke were all conglomerated into one shapeless, endless whirl, with me in the midst, though suffering no particular harm.”

Interesting to read about this dream. Also, I love that self-portrait -- a good sketch artist!

R
 
Interesting article in Smithsonian about the Civil War and early cases of what is now termed PTSD.
Did Civil War Soldiers Have PTSD?
The severe hemorrhage probably caused a traumatic brain injury (TMI) and they would have been totally unaware of that or the understanding of that - except in the most extreme brain injuries. Even then, the Drs and the public certainly didn’t understand the impact of TMIs years after the event when things supposedly healed up decades ago.
 
Love your Biblical prospective.
Thank you @Woods-walker.
@bayonet that is a real sweat you could work up in that dream. I stumble around blind in the house, turning on lights, and they won't work while some intruder threatens to come in the door, and then zap, I suddenly find myself again in bed, blind and arise going to the same light switch, and it doesn't work. This may repeat another one or two times before I can actually realize I am dreaming, with a terrible feeling that if I can't wake up this time, I am dead.
Lubliner.
 
Thank you @Woods-walker.
@bayonet that is a real sweat you could work up in that dream. I stumble around blind in the house, turning on lights, and they won't work while some intruder threatens to come in the door, and then zap, I suddenly find myself again in bed, blind and arise going to the same light switch, and it doesn't work. This may repeat another one or two times before I can actually realize I am dreaming, with a terrible feeling that if I can't wake up this time, I am dead.
Lubliner.
A few years ago I kept having a recurring nightmare that was similar to watching a movie in that with each additional dream the story expanded. I talked to my family doctor about it - he did some tests and prescribed over the counter B12 after finding I had a deficiency. It worked! I still have occasional nightmares but nothing as intense as before zzzzzzzzzzzz
 
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