Apparently the inefficiency of the VA is very traditional
https://thehandwrittenpast.com/2018/...ension-office/
More at link, w/ neat photos and details of his ancestor's fight with the Pension office.My Ancestor’s Struggles with the Civil War Pension Office
David Moberly / 9 hours ago
As I write our series of tips about how to do Civil War genealogy, I think regularly about my own ancestors in the Civil War. My great great grandfather, Newell Elijah Gile, comes to my mind very often. He fought hard to receive an adequate pension for wounds he received during the conflict. I imagine his struggle with the US Pension Office will be very familiar to many veterans out there trying to get VA benefits. So, this post is for him and for all his fellow vets who find themselves in similar circumstances.
Newell Elijah Gile served for the Union Side during the war, in Battery G of the 4th US Artillery. He spent most of his time fighting as part of the Army of the Potomac, where he experienced many of the most famous battles of the war. During his service, he received the following wounds:
- A support beam snapped as he unloaded artillery from a rail car, striking him in the head. This wound rendered him unfit for anything other than light duty. He spent the rest of the war tending to and driving the horses that pulled the artillery guns. Later, as a farmer in Kansas, he found himself unable to tend to his crops. His head wound caused serious migraines and caused him to be easily “sunstruck.”
- A Confederate soldier bayoneted him in the face during the Battle of Malvern Hill. The blade pierced his cheek and knocked out almost all of his upper teeth.
- A piece of artillery shell struck him in the shoulder at the Battle of Gettysburg, giving him back problems.
- While at an overcrowded and filthy military field hospital tending to one of his wounds, he contracted serious diarrhea, which caused hemorrhoids so severe that he rode wagons standing up for the rest of his life.
- One day, while driving the horse-drawn artillery through the mud, the large guns tipped over on top of him–directly onto his stomach and genital region. He suffered from a hernia for many years after.
- On top of all this, after the war, he dealt with what his doctor in Ohio called “mental derangement.” Nowadays we would probably call this PTSD.
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