The Civil War killed and injured over a million Americans, roughly a third of all those who served. That, however, doesn't include its psychic wounds. Military and medical officials in the 1860s had little grasp of how war could scar minds as well as bodies.
However, that is changing as conditions such as post-traumatic stress disorder are becoming more well known. medical officials are looking back for it in the Civil War. Corporal John Hildt would certainly qualify as a sufferer.
Men back then who suffered psychic problems were thought to have character flaws or underlying physical problems.
An example would be of a soldier suffering from constricted breath and palpitations, a condition referred to as "soldier's heart" or "irritable heart" back then, was blamed on exertion or knapsack straps being drawn too tightly across the chest. Asylum records frequently listed soldier problems as being the result of "masturbation."
--Old Secesh
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