Lew Powell's Frostbitten Feet

[Natty]

(08-24-2012 02:36 PM)Gene C Wrote:  

(08-24-2012 02:25 PM)Natty Wrote:  

(08-24-2012 02:20 PM)Gene C Wrote:  

(08-24-2012 02:13 PM)Natty Wrote:  I just read a book about sexually transmitted diseases during the Civil War -

A whole book? Yuk!

Well, it was actually about sex during the Civil War, but to sum it up, yes - it was mostly about STDs and prostitutes with STDs. A whole book.

I hope you washed your hands

You bet! Especially after touching those photographs of people with end-stage syphilis!

[Gene C]

We're going to have switch subjects, or Roger is going to ban us

[BettyO]

Agreed.... I ain't no prude.... But enough with THAT subject....personally I don't think Lewis had that....nough said...

[Natty]

I agree and apologize for letting things go off topic in such a direction!

[BettyO]

(08-24-2012 03:03 PM)Natty Wrote:  I agree and apologize for letting things go off topic in such a direction!

No problem, Natty! There is nothing in that direction regarding Lew that I have ever heard of or know of.....

Personally, I think Lew's ill health stemmed from one of two things or both -
his bad teeth or the effects of the pneumonia. Dr. Houmes thinks he may have even had rheumatic fever sometime in his life which is totally understandable. Also a strong possibility - his supposed "inability to withstand long marches, fainting and falling to the ground, etc."

[Natty]

(08-24-2012 03:33 PM)BettyO Wrote:  

(08-24-2012 03:03 PM)Natty Wrote:  I agree and apologize for letting things go off topic in such a direction!

No problem, Natty! There is nothing in that direction regarding Lew that I have ever heard of or know of.....

Personally, I think Lew's ill health stemmed from one of two things or both -
his bad teeth or the effects of the pneumonia. Dr. Houmes thinks he may have even had rheumatic fever sometime in his life which is totally understandable. Also a strong possibility - his supposed "inability to withstand long marches, fainting and falling to the ground, etc."

Lewis could not withstand long marches, fainted and fell to the ground? I did not know that! I always imagined him to lead everyone on - I was aware of his horrible teeth and the possible complications, but otherwise I always had this impression of Lewis as being physically unbreakable! How long were these marches, do you know?

[Gene C]

Just a reminder....the Confederate army was low on food, so the soldiers were not always at their physical best due to malnutrition and hunger

[BettyO]

Lewis told Dr. Gillette this the night before he died. I was always curious about it and wondered perhaps if the kick in the face had made him epileptic; perhaps mildly so....I don't know. Dr. Houmes thinks he may have had at one time rheumatic fever (I had this as a seven year old child - as did one of Lewis' relatives)....

The marches were from Virginia to Pennsylvania and back (approximately over 300-500 miles both ways or so on foot!) Quite a distance....

[Natty]

(08-24-2012 03:43 PM)Gene C Wrote:  Just a reminder....the Confederate army was low on food, so the soldiers were not always at their physical best due to malnutrition and hunger

(08-24-2012 03:45 PM)BettyO Wrote:  Lewis told Dr. Gillette this the night before he died. I was always curious about it and wondered perhaps if the kick in the face had made him epileptic; perhaps mildly so....I don't know. Dr. Houmes thinks he may have had at one time rheumatic fever (I had this as a seven year old child - as did one of Lewis' relatives)....

The marches were from Virginia to Pennsylvania and back (approximately over 300-500 miles both ways or so on foot!) Quite a distance....

What was the average distance covered in a day? I can imagine that 20 miles or so on restricted rations might pose a trial for most healthy people, but why would Lewis mention it if it didn't stand out in his mind, particularly in comparison to other soldiers?
Rheumatic fever can cause damage to the heart valves, but I'm assuming the consequences of that go beyond mere fainting and falling down. I did check up on it and found the following symptoms:

Shortness of breath or difficulty catching your breath, especially after you have been active or when you lie down flat in bed.
Often feeling dizzy or too weak to perform your normal activities.
Pressure or weight in your chest, especially when you are active or when you go out into cold air.
Heart palpitations or a feeling that your heart is beating irregularly, skipping beats, or flip-flopping in your chest.
Swelling in your ankles, feet, or belly. Sudden weight gain with possibly as much as 2 to 3 pounds in 1 day.

Are there any other lasting effects from rheumatic fever that could explain these fainting spell episodes?

If his brain was traumatized by the blow, then yes, it is possible that he developed epilepsy, even from the slightest form of damage. If he suffered a concussion from the mule accident, he might have developed such a condition. But I suppose Dr. Houmes would know more about that.

[MaddieM]

(08-24-2012 01:56 PM)Gene C Wrote:  Betty wrote:
"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."


IF his health was so poor or he got sick a lot, why would the Confederate SS pick him for such an important job? Seems to me they would want someone more reliable and rugged?

That seems to be a good point. Also, weren't Mosby's Rangers a tough lot. Rampaging around the countryside on raids on horseback ain't for sissies, and I would imagine would be utterly exhausting if you weren't a well or hale and hearty person.

[BettyO]

Lewis seemed to have bouts of sickness interspersed with periods of wellness. Unfortunately, we cant be certain at all because most all Confederate
Medical records were destroyed on April 3,1865

---

(08-24-2012 04:45 PM)BettyO Wrote:  Lewis seemed to have bouts of sickness interspersed with periods of wellness. Unfortunately, we cant be certain at all because most all Confederate
Medical records were destroyed on April 3,1865.

It took great courage to be one of Mosby's elite Rangers.

And they sure weren't sissies...Lew Powell had what it took .

[MaddieM]

(08-24-2012 03:45 PM)BettyO Wrote:  The marches were from Virginia to Pennsylvania and back (approximately over 300-500 miles both ways or so on foot!) Quite a distance....

[Bill Richter]

From my book the Historical Dictionary of the Civil War and Reconstruction:

DIET AND MALNUTRITION. Lloyd Lewis, a newspaperman-turned-historian who had just finished a biography of Union general William T. Sherman (q.v.) and was beginning on a similar, monumental study of Ulysses S. Grant (q.v.), got to thinking about the diet of Southern soldiers and wondering if it and semi-tropical disease (q.v.) might not have had wider implications for the whole Confederate war effort. Although Lewis died before he could finish his study of Grant, he wrote regular letters to his editor that were collected and published for the benefit of other scholars.
In these letters Lewis mused over how the Rebels would win the first day’s battle and then almost inexplicably seem to falter. Examples are startling: Gettysburg, Shiloh, Perryville, Corinth, Stone’s River (qq.v.)—the names go on and on. He also observed how first person accounts would describe how Confederate soldier often went berserk when they captured Yankee camps, wagon trains, and warehouses, looting the myriad foodstuffs that Union quartermasters specialized in providing for their men in the field.
Lewis theorized that Southern troops were undernourished even when supplied by their own commissariat, so much so that it affected their performance on the battlefield. Perhaps their defeats were caused by a lack of stamina caused by the traditional diet of the poor (white and black) in the South—the three Ms of meat (pork fatback), cornmeal, and molasses. The Yankees, on the other hand, fed on bacon and wheat hardtack, real sugar and coffee, not to mention the beans, desiccated vegetables, canned fruit, and canned milk that adorned their diets at regular intervals.
Lewis posited that the longer the campaign, the more likely a Union victory, especially as the war lengthened. “I wonder how much of it was pure physical weariness,” Lewis mulled, “born of the lack of consistent food, imposed upon physiques not nurtured properly from infancy. They weren’t lazy in battle, but they were called lazy in succeeding generations as visitors described them in their upland or swamp houses.” It was all in the nutrients common to each section of the nation

[Natty]

(08-24-2012 04:55 PM)MaddieM Wrote:  

(08-24-2012 03:45 PM)BettyO Wrote:  The marches were from Virginia to Pennsylvania and back (approximately over 300-500 miles both ways or so on foot!) Quite a distance....

(08-24-2012 04:59 PM)william l. richter Wrote:  From my book the Historical Dictionary of the Civil War and Reconstruction:

DIET AND MALNUTRITION. Lloyd Lewis, a newspaperman-turned-historian who had just finished a biography of Union general William T. Sherman (q.v.) and was beginning on a similar, monumental study of Ulysses S. Grant (q.v.), got to thinking about the diet of Southern soldiers and wondering if it and semi-tropical disease (q.v.) might not have had wider implications for the whole Confederate war effort. Although Lewis died before he could finish his study of Grant, he wrote regular letters to his editor that were collected and published for the benefit of other scholars.
In these letters Lewis mused over how the Rebels would win the first day’s battle and then almost inexplicably seem to falter. Examples are startling: Gettysburg, Shiloh, Perryville, Corinth, Stone’s River (qq.v.)—the names go on and on. He also observed how first person accounts would describe how Confederate soldier often went berserk when they captured Yankee camps, wagon trains, and warehouses, looting the myriad foodstuffs that Union quartermasters specialized in providing for their men in the field.
Lewis theorized that Southern troops were undernourished even when supplied by their own commissariat, so much so that it affected their performance on the battlefield. Perhaps their defeats were caused by a lack of stamina caused by the traditional diet of the poor (white and black) in the South—the three Ms of meat (pork fatback), cornmeal, and molasses. The Yankees, on the other hand, fed on bacon and wheat hardtack, real sugar and coffee, not to mention the beans, desiccated vegetables, canned fruit, and canned milk that adorned their diets at regular intervals.
Lewis posited that the longer the campaign, the more likely a Union victory, especially as the war lengthened. “I wonder how much of it was pure physical weariness,” Lewis mulled, “born of the lack of consistent food, imposed upon physiques not nurtured properly from infancy. They weren’t lazy in battle, but they were called lazy in succeeding generations as visitors described them in their upland or swamp houses.” It was all in the nutrients common to each section of the nation

Thank you Bill! I've read that troops were sometimes marched 30 -40 miles a day; malnutrition would not have done them any favors! I am curious as to why Lewis bothered mentioning his fainting to Dr. Gillette at all, particularly if it was a common and widespread result of insufficient dietary provisions. How did he even breach the subject and why would it be so present in his mind the night before he died?
If other soldiers were regularly suffering the same fate, it would make no sense for him to retain this memory, unless he was speaking of the general hardships which they had endured.

[MaddieM]

(08-24-2012 05:08 PM)Natty Wrote:  

(08-24-2012 04:55 PM)MaddieM Wrote:  

(08-24-2012 03:45 PM)BettyO Wrote:  The marches were from Virginia to Pennsylvania and back (approximately over 300-500 miles both ways or so on foot!) Quite a distance....

(08-24-2012 04:59 PM)william l. richter Wrote:  From my book the Historical Dictionary of the Civil War and Reconstruction:

DIET AND MALNUTRITION. Lloyd Lewis, a newspaperman-turned-historian who had just finished a biography of Union general William T. Sherman (q.v.) and was beginning on a similar, monumental study of Ulysses S. Grant (q.v.), got to thinking about the diet of Southern soldiers and wondering if it and semi-tropical disease (q.v.) might not have had wider implications for the whole Confederate war effort. Although Lewis died before he could finish his study of Grant, he wrote regular letters to his editor that were collected and published for the benefit of other scholars.
In these letters Lewis mused over how the Rebels would win the first day’s battle and then almost inexplicably seem to falter. Examples are startling: Gettysburg, Shiloh, Perryville, Corinth, Stone’s River (qq.v.)—the names go on and on. He also observed how first person accounts would describe how Confederate soldier often went berserk when they captured Yankee camps, wagon trains, and warehouses, looting the myriad foodstuffs that Union quartermasters specialized in providing for their men in the field.
Lewis theorized that Southern troops were undernourished even when supplied by their own commissariat, so much so that it affected their performance on the battlefield. Perhaps their defeats were caused by a lack of stamina caused by the traditional diet of the poor (white and black) in the South—the three Ms of meat (pork fatback), cornmeal, and molasses. The Yankees, on the other hand, fed on bacon and wheat hardtack, real sugar and coffee, not to mention the beans, desiccated vegetables, canned fruit, and canned milk that adorned their diets at regular intervals.
Lewis posited that the longer the campaign, the more likely a Union victory, especially as the war lengthened. “I wonder how much of it was pure physical weariness,” Lewis mulled, “born of the lack of consistent food, imposed upon physiques not nurtured properly from infancy. They weren’t lazy in battle, but they were called lazy in succeeding generations as visitors described them in their upland or swamp houses.” It was all in the nutrients common to each section of the nation

Thank you Bill! I've read that troops were sometimes marched 30 -40 miles a day; malnutrition would not have done them any favors! I am curious as to why Lewis bothered mentioning his fainting to Dr. Gillette at all, particularly if it was a common and widespread result of insufficient dietary provisions. How did he even breach the subject and why would it be so present in his mind the night before he died?
If other soldiers were regularly suffering the same fate, it would make no sense for him to retain this memory, unless he was speaking of the general hardships which they had endured.

perhaps they were talking about how strong people thought or perceived he was, and he related that tale as a balance to some misconceptions.. He seemed rather self effacing. It seems he showed a very vulnerable side in that cell, just before he died.