Percentage of company killed is likely a powerful variable because it serves as a proxy for various traumatic stressors, such as witnessing death or dismemberment, handling dead bodies, traumatic loss of comrades, realizing one's own imminent death, killing others and being helpless to prevent others' deaths. |
These Civil War data represent a rare opportunity to look at medical records of war veterans over the life course, from a very young age until death. Not only are the data complete -- meaning all the veterans are deceased -- but the information is remarkably reliable because veterans' ailments were diagnosed by government physicians before being included in their official medical records. |