The Civil War as noted by many historians as the First Great War was a huge growing pain for our country as a nation and of free people. As all wars are the cost is high and the weight is heavy. The burden of conflict has always rested with the man with the biggest guns and the heart of steel that is the man of the Field
The overall cause of the Civil War will most likely remain in a perpetual state of disagreement amongst historians for years to come. The soldiers however, are not often discussed and are usually ignored for prominent military leaders. The experience of an enlisted man sheds light on important social and cultural issues, which surrounded all aspects of the Civil War. Economic and political issues helped fuel the war but race relations were at the heart of the fire. In What This Cruel War Was Over, Chandra Manning seeks to discuss why men from both the North and the South not only joined the war effort, but also why they continued to do so for four grueling years.
The civil war not only had an effect on the government, foreign policy, finances, but also the people that fought in the war or had loved ones in the war. Reading biographies and first hand recounts of the civil war is the best two ways to understand how it felt to live during this time in history. It’s an important insight that helps paint a picture of how living during the war was, and how people lived. The first recount of the civil war comes from William Stewart Price.
Drew Gilpin Faust’s, This Republic of Suffering: Death and the American Civil War, is an intensive study that reflects on the impact of the Civil war had on the soldiers and civilians. Faust wanted to show that, as they dealt with and mourned over the overwhelming amount of carnage, the nation and the lives of the American people were already changed forever. Although there are many other publications relating to the Civil war, she is able to successfully reflect upon the morbid topic of death in the Civil war in a new and unique way. This book shows the war in a whole different perspective by focusing less on quantifying and stating the statistics of the civil war deaths. Rather, she examines more closely on how the Civil War deaths transformed the “society, culture and politics,” and the impact it had on the lives of the Americans in the 19th century.
In chapter one of What They Fought For, I learned about the letters and diaries of the Confederate soldiers. The themes of the letters were home-sickness, lack of peace, and the defense of home against their invading enemy. The thought of soldiers fighting for their homes and being threatened by invaders, made them stronger when facing adversity. Many men expressed that they would rather die fighting for a cause, than dying without trying and this commitment showed patriotism. Throughout the letters, soldiers claimed their reason for fighting, was for the principles of Constitutional liberty and self-government.
The United States Civil War is possible one of the most meaningful, bloodstained and controversial war fought in American history. Northern Americans against Southern Americans fought against one another for a variety of motives. These motives aroused from a wide range of ideologies that stirred around the states. In James M. McPherson’s What they fought for: 1861-1865, he analyzes the Union and Confederate soldier’s morale and ideological components through the letters they wrote to love ones while at war. While, John WhiteClay Chambers and G. Kurt Piehler depict Civil War soldiers through their letters detailing the agonizing battles of war in Major Problems in American Military History.
Despite the many years after the Civil War ended in 1865, the war’s significance was still great enough to have caused such controversy with the public over its meaning. In David W. Blight’s Race and Reunion, the meaning of the war changes throughout the period of Reconstruction not due to the misconception of it solely, but due to what we wanted to interpret from the war (or rather, what we remembered from the war that eventually changed over time). Blight argues, “I am primarily concerned with the ways that contending memories clashed or intermingled in public memory, and not in developing professional historiography of the Civil War” (Blight, Prologue). With this being said, the meaning of the Civil War changed through what people felt and
Throughout the story we can tell by the way Ambrose Bierce uses military terminology that he had served in the military during the Civil War (Grenander) " An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" carries the reader back to the American Civil War to experience the final days of Peyton Farquhar, and to reflect on the events and ultimate deception that brought him to his fate "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" takes place in 1860 as the civil war ravages the United States. The
The Civil War is one of the most notable events in American history. This war transformed into a struggle for the Union to eradicate slavery, leading to approximately 75,000 deaths. Locke, 14) As time progressed, many new and interesting perspectives about the Civil War arose. In this essay, two of many different perspectives will be analyzed: Budiansky’s perspective on how bloody and tragic the timeframe of the Civil War was for black people in the South, and McConnell’s perspective on how the Civil War was an avoidable tragedy.
The living legacy of the United States Civil War is a complicated time in American history one finds difficult to describe. The ramification of the war prior, during and after still haunt the current citizens who call The States their home. Tony Horwitz’s book Confederates in the Attic: Dispatches from the Unfinished Civil War looks at the wide gap of discontent that still looms in the late 1990s. For some southerners, the Confederacy still lives on through reenactments, stories and beliefs. For others in the South, reminders the land was dedicated to the Confederacy spark hatred and spite.
Ever since the end of the Civil War, historians have been highly intrigued in identifying the reasons that motivated the soldiers both the northerners as well as the southerners to fight. There have been differing opinions given by historians depending on how they interpreted the reasons for why the soldiers fought in the Civil War. The Civil War holds its uniqueness both in the American history as well as the world history due to its intensity and massacre. When the war was declared, the initial impulse was merely the military rage, but in this scenario, the initial excitement did not slow down as if the men were being driven by something big. In any other war, the soldiers' eagerness would have declined with the passage of time, but in this
Ambrose Bierce wrote “ An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” to show how precious time is. This story is showing a guy being hung, but while he was being hung, he was having flashbacks that he escaped the hanging and lived. But then at the end of the story everything went back and it showed that he was just having flashbacks and he was dead. The thesis about the motif of time will focus on how the story is laid out, the way how after he is being hung he goes to a flashback, and in part one the main character is barely known.
35- “Civil War Journal” in StudySync Booklet)”. Although Alcott is homesick and weary, she finds strength and nourishment in helping others through an obstreperous era. Trials can create a positive outcome. The realities about Alcott’s character are that she must face what she used to think about war and that it was exhilarating in an adventurous and entertaining way, but she soon discovers war is all about survival once she begins nursing. She must also face her patient’s needs and orders to keep them alive for as soon as possible, but to also take care of them cautiously.
The short story by Ambrose Bierce, “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” is a story of many different feelings. The story causes the reader to visualize the preciousness of life itself and takes the reader on a roller coaster of different feelings on as to what is going on because of Bierce’s unique style by telling the story through visual aids and highly descriptive language. The story begins on a railroad bridge, where many northern troops stand with Peyton Farquhar standing on the edge of the bridge on a plank of wood in his last moments of life. Farquhar; being the man he is, was unable to join the military due to adverse circumstances. Instead he went on to continue on in a normal lifestyle as a plantation owner, but still heavily supported the southern agenda.
Once upon a time, in a refrigerator in San Diego, there was an apple named Red. Red was a Honeycrisp apple with bright red skin and a short stem. He lived in the refrigerator with many of his fruit friends. His best friend was named Nara. She was a beautiful, round orange.
