VA hospitals are havens of repair for those able to return after combat. To visit one is to see the remnants of those once full of life. They mill about on wheel chairs or supported by canes, some blind and yet all thankful that their service did something for the free. One such haven fo rthose alive or buried is Togus in Maine where I was a patient. There are others in Colorado and throughout the States. Visit one and you'll never forget

ABRAHAM LINCOLN'S HOME FOR VETERANS

"How oft have I thought of home.

That place that I formerly so little appreciated".

Thomas D. Newton

Confederate Soldier

May 28, 1862

In a remote forested bypass about four miles east of Augusta, Maine sits Togus--500 acres of habitat, wildlife and buildings along with two massive graveyards. In its midst is a hospital, medical clinic and home for American veterans, many deprived of limbs, lungs and thought. It is the remnant of a dream brought forth by the greatest humanitarian of all humanitarians--Abraham Lincoln, Americas 16th president, a month before his assassination on April 14, 1865.

It is the site of a national cemetery, the final resting place of American Civil War veterans, many who followed and even one dating back to The War of 1812.

The wounds of America's Civil War must have been heavy on his mind the night of March 3, 1865, when Lincoln went to the Capitol to sign the final bill passed by Congress. He signed the act silently and without known written comment established The National Asylum for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers. It was an act of heart..

The name Togus is drawn from an Indian name, Worromontogus which means mineral water. Originally a summer resort known as Togus Springs, it was built by a wealthy granite merchant named Horace Beals from Rockland, Maine, whose dream was to establish a second Saratoga Springs. He spent more than $250,000 for a hotel, stables, a bowling alley, farmhouse, bathing house, driveways and a racetrack. It opened in 1859. But business was bad during those Civil War years and in 1863 it closed to become known locally as Beals' Folley . Along came the U.S. government and got the land and buildings at a bargain price of $50,000.

The Civil War years bore times when Americans fought their deadliest war in which 618,000 Yanks and Rebs were slaughtered over issues of state's rights and slavery.

Lincoln was dead when the first veterans were admitted to Togus during the punishing cold on November 10, 1866. They came by covered wagon, on horseback, limping, on crutches. Some were among the 400,000 veterans who bore the marks of what was called the Army Disease--morphine addiction, because the drug was used for pain, many resulting from amputations which were common. They displayed what we refer to today as, "The Thousand Yard Stare." Vacant eyes. They came home to die.

Today, traveling the pristine road leading to the Togus campus, I shut my eyes and ears and imagine the ratt-a-tatt-tatt of the regimental drums as the corps limps toward its new home, each member with a Civil War discharge in his pack. A few marching to Hay Foot! Straw Foot. From the forest I sense the sounds of fifers and hear the hummers. When Johnny Comes Marching Home Again Hurrah! Hurrah! I hear the Confederate parody, For Bales, and the angry northerner vocalizing, Johnny, Fill up the Bowl. There's the thump, thump, thump of John Browns Body Lies a Rotting in His Grave, The Battle Hymn of the Republic and the beloved Dixie, which some heard Abraham Lincoln sing.

Around campfires and bundled around wood stoves I hear them speak of heroes at Ft. Sumter and the battle of Bull Run; Thomas Stonewall) Jackson who was wounded in the battle of chancelorville. And a few who survived the horrors of Andersonville Prison in Georgia hiss at Captain Henry Wirz who ran the hell home for more than 49,000 Union prisoners between 1864-65. More than 13,000 died there of starvation and in pain.

Known to all as their home, and later to become known as the National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers, it became the resting place for the first 400 patients until a building program in 1868 that provided living for 3,000 veterans. It was much like a military camp with the men in barracks wearing modified Army uniforms. A 100-bed hospital was completed in 1870 with minimal medical care. But as day follows night, so does death follow life. And the nearby veterans cemetery rolls mounted. The National Cemetery now had 5,373 graves in 2003 when I was a patient there, row on row, with its first Civil War veteran buried in the West Cemetery in 1867.

...that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain; that this nation shall have a new birth of freedom; and that this government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth.

Lincoln s Gettysburg Address.

November 19, 1863

Togus evolved into a Veterans Administration facility after the Consolidation Act of July 1930 when all agencies administering benefits to veterans and their dependents were united. Thus the role of Togus changed from domiciliary or home to a full-service medical center with the biggest impact occurring after World War II when a large number of returning veterans needed medical care.

Currently Togus medical services are provided to about 30,000 veterans. Its director in 2003 was was Jack Sims. No honorably discharged veteran who applies is turned down. But, there's a void in the facility with which Abe Lincoln, Ol' Doc Taylor and Hippocrates might take issue. It sometimes takes five months for a patient to be seen by a primary care person, and more than likely it doesn't turn out to be a physician. In November of 2003, this massive complex had one cardiologist on board with a second scheduled to arrive. It took one patient with an irregular heart beat and misaligned mitral valve, complaining of shortness of breath and fatigue, four months to be seen. The patient is alive but not breathing any easier. The medical facility had two pulmonologists. It could use a half dozen, but the money isn't there. Physicians in metropolitan cities earn considerably more than the VA can pay.

The primary care clinic at that time was manned by four physicians and three lady nurse practitioners.

Abe Lincoln stands high on our Presidents Day. He was a man of his word. He was self-educated from borrowed books. Not having a padded daddy, he never attended Harvard or Yale. He wrote his own speeches was hujble, not cocky and spoke eliquently. Nor did he campaaign or give speeches for his own campaign or election. As president, ne never invaded the Confedrate's territory but ressponded when atacked. No president today can wear his shoes.

(Reprinted from INTREPIDATIONS & FUNNY BUSINESS, a book of 65 short stories depicting the life of David Alter--a trek back in time.) Contact him at owlbeara@comcast.net