Feral House's video: Roving Bill Aspinwall: Dispatches from a Hobo in Post-Civil War America

Child soldier. Ladies’ man. Mechanic. Tramp. Drunkard. These descriptions capture an aspect of William Aspinwall’s life, yet none does him justice. He was severely wounded and left for dead while fighting for the Union in the Battle of Champion Hill, one of the bloodiest battles of the American Civil War. He recovered from his wounds, but lived the next 60 years with shrapnel embedded in his brain and right arm. Aspinwall attempted settling down. Got a job as a mechanic at a wool mill, then married and started a family. For many reasons, including what we now recognize as PTSD, he left home at the request of his father-in-law, to protect Aspinwall’s wife from his drunken rages. He wan- dered throughout the United States for the rest of his days, amiably making friends, working hard, and then pulling up stakes when it all became too comfortable. William Aspinwall’s post-Civil War alcoholism was not a moral failing unique to him. Historians have established that the amount of alcohol and drugs consumed by soldiers during wartime is astronomical. Drinking was a cheap and easy method to alleviate the twinned horrors of waiting for battle and battle itself. Alcohol dependency was so endemic among Union and Confederate troops that national leaders feared for civilians when these veterans returned home to resume their lives. A fear that was well- founded, as many of these veterans could not reintegrate into “normal” American culture while they suffered from the “Army Disease.” Temperance advocates had sprouted up before the Civil War, but the movement went national by the 1880s as it became clear that an entire generation of men was dependent on alcohol, opium, and morphine. Activists blamed the intoxicants but generally never looked to the root cause: war itself. Aspinwall learned of Trinity College Professor James McCook’s interest in the rise of men who rejected the bootstrappers’ so-called American Dream. McCook was a militant temperance advocate who sought to collect and document first-hand experiences of how alcohol destroyed men’s lives. In 1893, McCook began and maintained a twenty-four-year correspondence with Aspinwall and provided one of the earliest and most direct accounts of life on the road ever written by a hobo. Why should we care? For one, William “Roving Bill” Aspinwall’s story is not a Campbellian hero’s journey. Aspinwall tried to be a good man while battling his personal demons. In Aspinwall’s letters to McCook, we see a man constructing a story for himself about who he is, and who he wants McCook to believe he is. American history is fetishized as a story of exceptionalism. It’s a tale of winners, and if that’s not you, you better get right with the Lord to earn your reward. It is said that America’s fascination with family genealogy is an obsession with aristocracy and superiority, and a denial of the reality of who we are, as few might want to be descended from morally bankrupt chancers and alcoholic ne’er-do-wells. And like many a poor and ailing soldier, both found refuge at the Disabled Veterans Home in Marion, IN, staying there for months to heal from whatever had laid them low before leaving to once again try to find the right city, the right job, the right love, that would make them whole. It is a mistake to assume that Aspinwall was ignorant. His grammar and spelling are irregular, to say the least, but reflect the time before public schooling when formal education was patchy at best. Nevertheless, he was well-read on current events and had developed opinions about politics and government policies. In Aspinwall’s letters to McCook, he tries to respectfully tell McCook he is not a “bum”, but a different sort of fellow, one whose life and experiences echo veteran experiences to this day. He wanted to be seen, not as a type or a social problem but as a person; not just as a tramp, but also as a soldier; not just as “Roving Bill,” but also as William Aspinwall. BUY THE BOOK: https://www.amazon.com/Roving-Bill-Aspinwall-Dispatches-Post-Civil/dp/162731122X/?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_w=uZnEJ&content-id=amzn1.sym.e4bd6ac6-9035-4a04-92a6-fc4ad60e09ad&pf_rd_p=e4bd6ac6-9035-4a04-92a6-fc4ad60e09ad&pf_rd_r=SF8CEMD6JERM21M9XBK6&pd_rd_wg=GXIIM&pd_rd_r=91e0a4b1-cb19-4acd-aecd-c9ccd79dfbd9&ref_=pd_gw_ci_mcx_mr_hp_atf_m