Here’s something very cool just posted on the FB page of our pals at the National Archives in Kansas City (where we did the single largest event on the Appetite for America book tour). Their collection includes the medical records for men in Missouri examined as possible Union soldiers for the Civil War.

In Record Group 110, Entry 4381, Line 146 of the Records of the Provost Marshal General’s Bureau, 7th District of Missouri, Medical Register of Examinations of Enrolled Men, we find none other than our hero Fred Harvey being examined because he had varicose veins–at the age of 29. (Close readers of chapter notes to Appetite for America will recall that according to records in the National Archives in DC, Fred was rejected in St. Joseph in 1864 as a soldier due to “physical disability.”)

Anyway, the National Archive in Kansas City selected this medical record of Fred’s as one of it’s Top Ten documents for 2010, and here’s a link to their Facebook page to see all ten of them.

Here’s their shot of Fred’s record, which was on display when I gave my talk there:

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