America's First Wounded Warriors: The Health and Movements of Civil War Veterans Based on the 1890 Veterans Schedules

Abstract

The Civil War was a long and brutal conflict that left many dead but even more wounded. By 1890, the government deemed that these men who fought for the Union Army to preserve the Union should receive a pension. Others disagreed, so in 1890 the U.S. added a Veteran Schedule to the census. The people taking the census also interview every living member of the Union Army and their widows to check on the health of their veterans. They found the amount of health problems of the veterans to be numerous and further studies have found that these army veterans had more health problems than the normal population. The Veterans Schedules asked many other questions aside from the health of these veterans. This study takes a thirty percent sample of veterans living in Minneapolis and looks to see where these veterans had fought during the war and if certain groups of men had health problems that were unique to their service.