The Accursed Ills I Cannot Bear

Confederate veterans returned home, many of them broken physically and mentally, their manhood obliterated. They suffered from war trauma, but also from the humiliation of defeat, the destruction of the Confederacy, loss of their slaves, uncertainty about their future, financial ruin and political impotence. Many veterans, with physical and mental wounds, struggled to reintegrate into civilian life. Their identities as men had been undercut by war and defeat. This chapter traces the trek of southern veterans -- including former POWs, amputees, alcoholics, and addicts -- as they struggled to regain status in the home and in their communities. The most severe cases of veterans suffering the effects of war trauma entered insane asylums with symptoms today we know to be associated with PTSD: violence, paranoia, startle reflex, depression, anxiety, alcoholism or addiction, suicidal thoughts or behavior. Yet Southerners largely failed to grasp the causal link between mental illness and veterans’ military experiences. Struggling veterans exhibited social pathologies like marital conflict and the inability to hold a job. Suicide provided an exit from failure and suffering.