The American Civil War
1861-1865
The American Civil War (1861-1865) saw the first in-depth investigations in tracing what had not only physically had occurred to the veterans of both the northern states as well as their southern rebellion neighbors. It remains one of the most devasting as well as defining times of American history as well as consciousness.
Further research into Civil War "soldiers heart” fatigue revealed that these soldiers experienced tremendous deprivations and hardships during that conflict. In the case of the 11th Indiana Infantry, soldiers marched an average of 10 miles a day, some even longer regularly, under all kinds of weather conditions (Dean, 47). This trauma was not just confined to the north or the southern soldiers as both sides not only had to march these lengths under all sorts of weather. These men also had to carry their knapsack containing extra clothes, a blanket, half-tent, extra ammunition, as well as several days rations along with a musket weighing at least 12-15 lbs each (Dean, 47).
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These marching men carried all of this heavy gear, a heavy, ungainly musket through rain, deep mud, crossing rivers at flood stage, and then be expected to fight a significant engagement. Senior officers must have believed these men had just gotten out of a beautiful warm bed after a good night's slumber, instead of enduring horrible circumstances. These men, all suffering these appalling conditions, all under a blazing sun or through suffocating dust storms or thick muddy roads, would cause anyone a significant kind of mental as well as physical trauma. A weakened soldier, or even one with a "soldiers heart" resulted in many men becoming violently ill and experiencing actual psychical convulsions, often leading to sudden death from such prolonged exposure to the elements, even before real battles had been joined.
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Civil War soldiers on both sides faced turbulent situations that caused them to experience fear and anxiety. These men often found themselves exposed to hand-to-hand-combat, excessive artillery barrages, and the horrible and excruciating deaths and mutilations of their friends and comrades; individual episodes resulting in the wholesale slaughter of an enemy at a distance, than a mere meter away, seeing helpless prisoners executed at close ranges and facing silent killing diseases that also caused significant physical and mental trauma. Many of these men, mere boys fresh off the farms, with no idea what to expect from a well-oiled killing machine.
In attempting to identify symptoms, regimental medical staffs tried to cope with these cases of "soldiers hearts," and to attempt to identify these causes. Sometimes the emotional status of these men would manifest through increased hostility to their enemies or even their friends and comrades in camp. This hostility would become significantly increased by the exhibition of aggressive behavior that was not just constrained to the battlefield. These types of effects would also be accompanied by significant periods of depression, negativity, anxiety, hopelessness, recurring high-stress periods, and horrible memories of past events or occurrences.
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Military medical professionals began to document significant triggers to initiate the onset of these patterns of behavior. Records show that indicated both passive and active elements. Combat soldiers under constant fire or the fear of a looming artillery barrage could lead to a significant episode that would disable all functioning of the soldier in combat. Similarly, combat soldiers skilled in ambush or individual assignments, that witnessed close-up and personal deaths or significant woundings of their comrades would trigger extreme variations of aggressive or passive behavior in some veterans. The one condition that some military medical practitioners could agree upon was that severe trauma caused the physical as well as a mental disorder. Nevertheless, these same men concluded, "why some and not all."
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The term "soldiers heart" was added to the already long and growing list of phrases to describe the mental and physical disturbances that had occurred in these Civil War veterans. Soldiers on both sides were welcomed home with parades and great warmth; even the "lost cause" rebels came back to celebrations and family welcomes. These kinds of parties helped assuage some of the outward signs of mental trauma that these men had experienced in the Civil War. Acceptance and celebrations served as a decisive factor to assist in the process of healing these warriors who saw and experienced during the war. Even with a million words from a dictionary, words failed to describe their mental horrors accurately. The debate continued until the First World War when the words from both the physicians and the psychiatrists used the term of "Shell-Shock" to describe both the physical and mental states of their many thousands of patients.
