Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome

PTSS or PTSD is what they call it if a person has psychological problems after some kind of trauma. It is popular with plaintiff lawyers when they are claiming pain and suffering. There have been so many claims of it recently that those who originally had it, received after experiencing war and it's horrors get drowned out by the woman who is suing over her hot coffee.

The original diagnosis was probably shell shocked. Like if you were on the receiving end of a canon shell. In researching the pension record for my great great grandfather, Joseph Rowell I discovered he made a claim of shell shock during his civil war service.

He was serving in the 11th Florida Infantry in February 1865 near Petersburg, Virginia when a Union artillery shell exploded next to him. He was thrown to the ground on top of several canteens and received a "rupture."

The injury never healed and he was disabled for the rest of his life. He died in 1896 and his widow, Versanoy Smith Rowell made a claim under the Florida Civil War pension laws for his injury. She said he was a "sound man" when he went to war but wasn't when he came home.