Cold Harbor to the Crater by Gary W. Gallagher Caroline E. Janney

Author:Gary W. Gallagher, Caroline E. Janney [Gary W. Gallagher, Caroline E. Janney]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Nonfiction, History, Americas, United States, Civil War Period (1850-1877), Military
ISBN: 9781469625348
Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press
Published: 2015-07-24T04:00:00+00:00

The End of the Civil War

For all practical purposes, Barlow’s war was over. His devastating experiences in the Overland and Petersburg campaigns led to what contemporaries called an extreme “battle fatigue” and what later might have been described as “battle shock” or even “post-traumatic stress disorder.” Combined with poor health, the psychological shock of his wife’s death likely produced his inability to lead his men as he did in past battles. Barlow faced unrelenting violence on the battlefield, endured the loss of his close friends and comrades, incurred two serious wounds, and with each injury became more physically and mentally weakened.

Due to the grave nature of his various ailments, Barlow was accorded the rare option of taking an extended leave but chafed at being out of the action. One of his confidants, Col. Charles Russell Lowell, consoled him in a letter written on September 10, 1864. “Take care of yourself, old fellow,” advised Lowell. “Unless you give yourself some time now, you will never half complete your career. What the devil difference does it make where a man passes the next six months, if the war is to last six years? If it is to be ended in one year, you have done and suffered your share in it.” Colonel Lowell, destined to die in the battle of Cedar Creek less than six weeks later, ended with affectionate counsel: “There are better things to be done in the Country, Barlow, than fighting, and you must save yourself for them too.”86 The grieving widower surely took that advice to heart, demonstrated by his fierce determination in the postwar years to resume a full and productive life in public service and law.

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