Lew Powell's Frostbitten Feet

[BettyO]

(08-24-2012 01:01 PM)MaddieM Wrote:  

(08-24-2012 12:56 PM)BettyO Wrote:  Lewis could have been ill at Dranesville and did not fight -- I don't know....I do know that he was ill quite a bit with bouts of unspecified sickness. On June 30,at the battle of Gaines Mill he fought for one day and then was carted the 12 miles to Richmond where he spent over 3 months in the Florida Hospital (still standing) with illness. He was there until mid November 1862. The anthropologist who discovered Lew's noggin stated that he suffered apparently from chronic sinusitis. We do know that he had an attack of measles when he enlisted and was sent to the Camp of Instruction (boot camp) at Jacksonville, FL at the beginning of the war. This childhood illness turned ultimately into pneumonia from which he almost died. This could have also weakened his constitution. We don't know....He apparently began recruitment for the SS in November 1864 and then left for Baltimore on January 1, 1865. For all his hearty appearance, he appears to have been a somewhat frail lad constitutionally.

As for those girls -- we have yet to see. I know a bit more but can't divulge it yet. He also had a girlfriend in VA - so he DID get around a bit! Boys will be boys!

I've been reading up about chewing tobacco, and it said that it can make you ill if you swallow it, give you sickness and upset stomach. Could that have been his problem?

Oh, no....I'm sure that kid new all about chewing tobacco -- he could spit, I'm sure!

Now - long story, but I did that once years ago as a teenager. We had horses and we kept a "quid" of tobacco in the barn to worm the horses as well as a bottle of whiskey to drench them if they had colic. I was 16. My sister 14, and another schoolmate also 16 got into the tobacco and whiskey out of curiosity. I took a bite of that plug, swallowed it and I thought I'd die! Never again. I didn't know you were supposed to spit it! By the way - didn't like the Whiskey either! HA!