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Sarah Handley-Cousins, Allison M. Johnson, editor. The Left-Armed Corps: Writings by Amputee Civil War Veterans., The American Historical Review, Volume 129, Issue 3, September 2024, Pages 1264–1265, https://doi.org/10.1093/ahr/rhae209
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Ira Broshears, a farm boy from Indiana, lost his right arm at the Battle of Chancellorsville while serving the federal army. Three years later, he reflected on life without his arm in a letter to writer and reformer William Oland Bourne: “No one can imagine except by actual trial, how spirit-crushing, soul-sad-denying and heart-burning is that sense of helplessness that is felt by a crippled man who has devoted his life to active pursuits. It curbs the ambition, dampens the ardor and unmans the energy, thrusting him down soul and body to a treadmill existence in the great conflict of lift. Hence words of cheer coming from any source are hailed as harbingers of good, as an evidence that we still live in the affections and esteem of those for whom we fought and bled” (386).
Such glimpses into the internal lives of disabled Civil War veterans like Ira Broshears aren’t common. While the Pension Bureau required copious paperwork from disabled veterans in exchange for funding, which often included brief biographical statements, and a veteran’s pension file might include inquiries and correspondence, it’s far less common to find letters penned outside the context of the pension system, let alone ones rich with musings and self-reflection on the disabled experience. Broshears’s letter is part of the archive collected by William Oland Bourne, gathered during the two left-handed writing contests he sponsored through his newspaper, The Soldier’s Friend, between 1865 and 1867. Bourne encouraged soldiers to discuss their postwar lives and disabilities in their handwriting submissions for the prize, and follow-up letters, such as the one written by Broshears, provide even more insight. It’s little wonder that the collection, housed at the Library of Congress and now digitized, has been such a rich archive in recent years for scholars of disability during the Civil War era.
