Two soldiers were sitting next to each other during a break in
battle during the Civil War. As one soldier sipped from his
canteen, a shell suddenly slammed into the other man,
obliterating him. Blood and tissue dripped from the surviving
man, his canteen and his lips. "He was never the same," said Dr.
Michael Gabriel, professor of American history at Kutztown
University. The soldier was haunted by the memory the rest of
his life, and it affected everything he tried to do. The
survivor had a case of what at the time was called "soldier's
heart," which society recognizes today as post-traumatic stress
disorder. The condition has been acknowledged for centuries, but
it struggled to come to prominence until the Civil War and
conflicts since. "Particularly in the Civil War, there were many
cases of soldiers noticing behavioral patterns after certain
experiences or a culmination of experiences," Gabriel said. "In
some cases, those men were relieved of duty. In some cases, the
behavior was not manifested until they