Sacrifices Forgotten
Detail from 'The Insatiable Glutton,' Puck magazine cartoon, December 1882.
Courtesy National Library of Medicine
The selflessness of soldiers fostered great respect in the years after the war. Pension payments were increased regularly, and men pursuing political office often found that their obvious injury proved useful in attracting voters. Yet as Americans sought to put the memory of the conflict behind them, they increasingly ignored the plight of aging, disabled, impoverished veterans. Instead, memorializing the dead and asserting national patriotism became the focus of Civil War remembrances, and the image of the disabled soldier became one of a money-grabbing dependent.
Lucius Fairchild lost his left arm on the first day of the Battle of Gettysburg in 1863. He was elected Governor of Wisconsin in 1866.
Courtesy Library of Congress
Francis R. T. Nichols lost an arm and a foot in separate Civil War battles. He became Governor of Louisiana in 1877.
Courtesy Library of Congress
Puck magazine, 20 December 1882
By the 1880s support for the veteran was diminishing, as seen in this representation of a Union soldier grasping, ironically with many arms, at government funds.
Courtesy National Library of Medicine
