Although reading historical biographies is one of his favorite pastimes, Duke neurologist Dr. Marvin Rozear never thought he could couple his passion with his profession. But five years ago, a biography about Civil War Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee stirred his interest in the neurological causes behind the general's death.
"It didn't say much about his death except how he had a stroke and some sort of illness that made him stop talking and moving," Rozear said. "They sat him on the floor in the living room for two weeks, and he didn't really respond to anything or care to do anything."
But after reading more about Lee, Rozear said he found no record of the general's medical examinations. So the associate professor of neurology decided to delve into the matter himself.
"I did some research and found out that there were two Confederate Army doctors who were in the town and came and saw him several times per day. They administered to him until he died," Rozear said.
To get more information, Rozear called the archivist at Washington and Lee University, where Lee had served as president before his death. "I told her, OI believe these guys sent notes to some journal or newspaper and y'all lost it.' In a historical sense, these notes were lost, and I dared her to find them. I was trying to get her interested without making her mad," he said.
Several days later, the archivist found the information. Lee's doctors had kept meticulous notes and upon his death, sent them to a medical journal in Louisville. They were published in 1870, but the journal stopped publishing shortly thereafter.
After examining the notes, Rozear said, he determined that Lee died of a debilitating stroke that mimicked a frontal lobotomy. Rozear said doctors find this condition in varying degrees varying degrees in stroke patients, but rarely in the pure form as manifested in Lee.
Rozear and colleague Dr. Joseph Greenfield, a professor of cardiology at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center, said they are 90 percent sure of the cause of death.
Others doubted that such a discovery could be accomplished.
'It's interesting to me that they can make that kind of finding. One hundred and thirty years later is a long time to wait to make a medical diagnosis,' said Lawrence Goodwyn, a professor of history who teaches a course on the Civil War.
Greenfield, who is working with Rozear on a similar project involving Confederate Civil War Gen. Thomas 'Stonewall' Jackson, said they can never be completely certain of their conclusions.
'Our evidence is conjectural; we have no way to prove how he really died. In the case of Stonewall Jackson, we know he had his arm amputated, and we think that caused his death, but there will always be an argument. We think we're 70 percent right,' Greenfield said.
Margaret Humphreys, associate professor of history, said research of this type is not unusual and can be accurate.
'[Rozear] worked with a medical article. If you have informed observations from descriptions of symptoms, it's easy to draw conclusions in the modern day,' she said. 'You just have to do the best you can. It's really dependent on the strength of the evidence and how much evidence you have.'
The discovery has increased Rozear's interest in Civil War history, leading him to tour battlefields and meet with Civil War historians.
'One of their favorite things to do is to write books about old Civil War generals. They do research and get involved in the medical history. They've gotten us to read the medical records and see what we can make of it,' he said.
But Rozear said the questions asked by historians often have a deeper purpose.
'It's a constant topic among these historians whether an illness could have affected the outcome of the war. And if the Civil War would have gone differently, the whole course of the Western Hemisphere could have changed,' he said.
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