An Ode to Delicate Men

I feel fairly certain that I was the only attendee at today's Banner Lecture at the Virginia Historical Society who drew a connection between a Confederate soldier's quote and a line from a song by the National.

Not that there's anything wrong with that.

Author and historian Jeffrey McClurken was doing the talking today and his topic was his new book Taking Care of the Living: Reconstructing Confederate Veteran Families in Virginia.

I was impressed with his inspiration for writing the book, a Baptist minister's quote after the war, that while "It was fine to raise monuments to the dead, but more importantly to take care of the living."

And with nearly 20% of white men of military age (that would be ages 13-43) dead by the end of the war, there were a lot of families needing attention.

McClurken spent two years compiling a database of the men who served, using military records and census records (some future historian/author will be eternally grateful for my census efforts in J-Ward someday).

Two years!

His research showed that having a family member return from the war maimed, sick or having been imprisoned was nearly as financially devastating to the family as if the man had been killed.

Household incomes fell more than 80% as a result of either circumstance.

What surprised me most was that having a male in the family return from war healthy and unscathed still resulted in a 70% drop in household worth, so the stress levels on families must have been terrific.

To the aid of these desperate families were churches, rich folk, the state asylum (Western Lunatic Asylum) and State Confederate Aid, which amounted to a limited social welfare system exclusively for whites (are we surprised?).

With the war framed as the central event of every Southerner's life, it's hardly surprising the number of people who developed psychological issues as a result of participating or witnessing the horror.

As one applicant for state aid was described, "He was discharged from the army...and has been a very delicate man ever since."

As Matt Berninger of the National describes himself in the song Lemonworld, "This pricey stuff makes me dizzy. I guess I've always been a delicate man."

Historically or musically, I would say that delicate men have always held a certain fascination for me.

I'm sure that's nerdy, too, although I've not yet sure how so.

And are you really surprised?