How Did Lee Cause Severe Illness

In September of 1863 Lee experienced another bout of severe illness. During the Battle of Chickamauga, Lee experienced acute rheumatic pain which he described to be intense debilitating pain in his back. At first the general was not able to ride his horse, but his condition progressed to the point where he could not walk and eventually was completely confined to his tent (Riley 497). Lee's doctors attributed his pains to lumbago, which is simply mild to severe pain confined to the lower back; sciatica, which is pain along the sciatic nerve running from the lower back down each leg caused most often by compression of spinal nerves; or rheumatism, the inflammation and pain in joints associated with arthritis, but did not deliver a definite diagnosis. In a letter to his wife, Mary, Lee wrote: I have been suffering ever since …show more content…
Interspersed with periods of comfort were days of intense pain and fevers. Even with his compromised health, Lee continued to exhibit characteristic paternal support for his army by providing positive encouragement as the Confederates lost more and more battles (Pryor). On June 1, the day of the Battle of Cold Harbor, General Lee was still weakened from his diarrhea but was so insistent on attending on attending that he had to be transported in a carriage (Liere 114). General Longstreet writes in a letter a few months after Lee's chronic diarrhea that he seemed “worn by past labor besides suffering at seasons from sciatica, while his work was accumulating and his troubles multiplying to proportions that should employ half a dozen able men,” (Dowdey 677). After the Confederate states surrendered, photographic images of Lee showed a rapid age progression. Several sources indicate that he seemed to age 10 years in a matter of months. The war had taken a huge toll on the general. His age combined with more frequent ischemic heart disease related symptoms led to his death on October 12,