William Chester Minor: Difference between revisions

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He was accepted by the Union Army as a surgeon and served at the [[Battle of the Wilderness]] in May [[1864]], which was notable for the horrible casualties suffered. According to modern historians, he was ordered to [[branding persons|brand]] the face of an [[Ireland|Irish]] [[desertion|deserter]]. [[Paranoia|Paranoid delusions]] about the [[Fenian Brotherhood]], a group of Irish revolutionaries, were part of his later madness.

After the end of the [[American Civil War]] Minor saw duty in [[New York City]]. He was strongly attracted to the [[Red-light district|fleshpots]] of the city and devoted much of his off-duty time to going with [[prostitution|prostitutes]]. By [[1867]], his behavior (then viewed as bizarre) had come to the attention of the [[United States Army|Army]] and he was transferred to a remote post in the [[Florida Panhandle]]. By [[1868]] his disease had progressed to the point that he was admitted to [[St. Elizabeths Hospital]], a lunatic asylum in [[Washington, DC]]. After eighteen months he showed no improvement. He was allowed to resign his commission and take retirement pay.

In [[1871]] he went to the [[United Kingdom|UK]] settling in the slum of [[Lambeth]], in [[London]] where once again he took up a dissolute life. Haunted by his paranoia he fatally shot a man [[named George Merrett]], whom Minor believed had broken into his room, on [[February 17]], [[1872]]. Merrett had been on his way to work to support his family of six children, himself, and his [[pregnancy|pregnant]] wife, [[Eliza Merrett|Eliza]]. Minor was found not guilty by reason of [[insanity]] and incarcerated in the asylum at [[Broadmoor Hospital|Broadmoor]] in the village of Crowthorne, [[Berkshire]]. As he had his army [[pension]] and was not judged dangerous, he was given rather comfortable quarters and was able to buy and read books.

It was probably through his correspondence with the London booksellers that he heard of the call for volunteers from what was to become the ''[[Oxford English Dictionary]]'' (OED). He devoted most of the remainder of his life to that work.

He wasproved to be one of the most effective of the volunteers, systematically reading through his library, and compiling lists of the occurrence of words. These he kept current with the words needed in the volume currently being worked on. As his lists grew, he was able to supply quotations on demand for a particular word. Eventually he became well acquainted with the editor of the OED, Dr. [[James Murray (lexicographer)|James Murray]], who visited him at the asylum and befriended him. Minor's condition deteriorated and in [[1902]] he [[penectomy|cut off his own penis]]. His health failed and he was permitted to return to the [[United States]] and St. Elizabeths Hospital. The science of [[Psychiatry]] had progressed in the meantime and Dr. Minor was diagnosed as suffering from ''dementia praecox'' or [[schizophrenia]]. He died in [[1920]] in [[New Haven, Connecticut]].

Minor's tale is told in [[Simon Winchester]]'s [[1998]] book ''[[The Professor and the Madman]]'' (see Further Reading, below).