Robin Bates

• BA (Hons) History
• Institutionalising the Infantry: American Civil War Soldiers and the Long-Term Effects of Conflict

In the context of contemporary concerns over the physical and psychological effects of warfare on individual soldiers and on their societies, this research offers an introductory historical case-study focussed on American Civil War soldiers from the South (Confederacy) forced to apply for admission to the Robert E. Lee Camp [Virginia] Soldiers’ Home. Inspired by the work of Eric T. Dean (Shook Over Hell, 1997), who identified a link between the Civil War and the Vietnam War in regard both to psychological stress and institutionalisation, this case study examines the social, economic, and psychological pressures facing veterans in late-nineteenth-century Virginia.

Funding source: Newcastle University