Heavy Laden
Union Veterans, Psychological Illness, and Suicide

Highlights the severity of the Civil War's psychological aftereffects for veterans of the Union army.

Larry M. Logue (Author), Peter Blanck (Author)

9781107589957, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 8 August 2019

283 pages, 24 b/w illus. 22 tables
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.6 cm, 0.5 kg

'This genuinely interdisciplinary work offers the exciting potential opportunity for further research into veteran communities which integrates History, Law, Disability Studies, Medicine, and Policy.' Michael Robinson, War in History

The psychological aftereffects of war are not just a modern-day plight. Following the Civil War, numerous soldiers returned with damaged bodies or damaged minds. Drawing on archival materials including digitized records for more than 70,000 white and African-American Union army recruits, newspaper reports, and census returns, Larry M. Logue and Peter Blanck uncover the diversity and severity of Civil War veterans' psychological distress. Their findings concerning the recognition of veterans' post-traumatic stress disorders, treatment programs, and suicide rates will inform current studies on how to effectively cope with this enduring disability in former soldiers. This compelling book brings to light the continued sacrifices of men who went to war.

Introduction
1. What is a Union veteran?
2. Changed men
3. When war came
4. Perilous years
5. Aftershocks
6. Trials of black veterans
7. Heavy laden
Conclusion.

Subject Areas: Legal history [LAZ], Military veterans [JWXV], Psychology [JM], Care of the mentally ill [JKSM], History of the Americas [HBJK]