[Stonewall Jackson]

I've been studying the history of Fort Laramie, out in the Nebraska/Dakota/Wyoming Territory (depending on what year it was), and have found a large number of officers and men who died between 1865-75 of lingering wounds from the Civil War, including at least one man who held the rank of brigadier general during the war, but was later reduced back to lieutenant colonel in the post-war cuts.

Union Major General Joshua Chamberlain, of Gettysburg and Appomattox Courthouse fame, died of his wounds in February 1914, almost sixty years after receiving them at Petersburg in the summer of 1864.

Just a few years ago, a Vietnam vet died of the lingering effects of his wounds, some forty years after receiving them, and his name was added to the Vietnam Wall.

The list could go on and on; the WW1 submariners who almost all died before 1950 because of the chemicals in their confined spacing, the doughboys, Tommies, and their other counterparts, who lingered on for years after being gassed in the trenches; and the POW's who died as a result of the malnutrition and abuse they received in the camps.

[rockrr]

We have a Civil War-era military cemetery here in western Washington (The Washington Soldiers Home Cemetery). Several dozen CW soldiers are buried here, including several Congressional Medal of Honor awardees.

Apparently the lingering affects of the war plagued many veterans with what would now be called PTSD so they were brought here to Washington state, given pensions and land to live out their days, and given a military service when they passed.

This past Memorial Day I had the honor of scrubbing the memorial markers for many of them.