Book Synopsis
David Calvin Bledsoe was a poor man who in the best of times never owned land and could barely support a family. When his nation called for volunteers he risked his own death to preserve the union of the United States. He returned home without a scar. No musket ball or shell fragment ever found him on the battlefield, but in the course of his military service his health was shattered. He afterward lived a ruined physical life and a disastrous financial one. He and his wife were dependent upon the charity of family and friends for their day to day sustenance. The Union veteran pension system - the physicians, politicians, and bureaucrats - did not know how to deal with Bledsoe, and those who were like him. Lincoln's genuine desire to "care for him who shall have borne the battle" was very imperfectly implemented by narrowly focused doctors and administrators. This short book is the story of one Union soldier, David Bledsoe of the 221nd Kentucky Infantry, a veteran who genuinely needed to be cared for. In the final analysis, Lincoln's call was disregarded.