PTSD in the Civil War-- Part 7: The 16th Connecticut, "Broken Regiment"

Another former member of the 16th Connecticut, Wallace Woodford flailed in his sleep, dreaming that he was still searching for food at Andersonville.  He died at age 22 and was buried beneath a headstone that reads "8 months a sufferer in Rebel prison; He came home to die."

Others managed to live longer, before killing themselves or being committed to insane asylums.  Lesley Gordon, in his research on the 16th, was amazed at how many times the members returned to the twin horrors of Andersonville and Antietam in their diaries and letters.  "They're haunted by what happened until the end of their lives," she says.

She wrote a book on the 16th Connecticut called "Broken Regiment."

--Old Secesh

PTSD in the Civil War? You Betcha. --Part 6: The 16th Connecticut

Historian Lesley Gordon followed the men of the 16th Connecticut from home to war and back again and found that "the war had a very long and devastating reach."

The men of this regiment had just been mustered in and barely trained when they fought at the Battle of Antietam, the bloodiest day of combat in U.S. history.    They rushed directly into a Confederate crossfire and then broke and ran, suffering 25 percent casualties in a matter of a few short minutes.  One soldier wrote, "We were murdered."

In a later battle, nearly the whole regiment was captured and sent to the infamous Confederate prison at Andersonville, where a third of them died from disease, exposure and starvation.  Upon return to home, many became invalids, emotionally numb or abusive of family.

Alfred Avery, traumatized at Antietam, was described as "more or less irrational as long as he lived."

William Hancock, who had gone off to war  as "a strong young man" returned so "broken in body and mind" that he didn't even know his own name.

--Old Secesh