Reconstruction Dbq

How does a war impact the lives of the soldiers fighting it? Most would assume that during a war soldiers have hard lives, but after the war ends it quickly becomes better. In the case of the Civil War, that idea would be inaccurate, and especially inaccurate for Confederate soldiers. During Reconstruction the quality of life for Confederate soldiers decreased, but these struggles were self-inflicted and started before the Reconstruction period. There were major shortages of food for the returning soldiers and their families, as well as major economic struggles. During the war, Confederate soldiers lived struggle filled lives, constantly having their lives threatened by starvation, hunger, exhaustion, and diseases. Southern desires that caused

The ideas from Lincoln and his speech were supposed to set the standard for the Reconstruction. Ideally, the Reconstruction was supposed to reunite and rebuild the United States. Through the Reconstruction, the quality of life for the people in the South was supposed to become better, especially for the ex-Confederate soldiers. Though, as the Reconstruction advanced it began to fail, due to constant political disagreements between the North and South, as well as corruption. Uncooperative Southerners exploited the times of political corruption, which further ruined the efforts of the Reconstruction. Since the Reconstruction failed, that means the quality of life for Confederate soldiers did not improve, but their low quality of life started way before the

Due to the war, people in the South were drafted into the Confederate army, and this is when their quality of life began to worsen. The experience of Newell McEachern and H. B. Harris shows the poor quality of life Confederate soldiers lived. These men were both members of the Confederate regiment known as the 6th Arkansas Volunteer Infantry (172). At first, Newell McEachern was well fed and enjoying his time, until he quickly got sick a few days later. d. 173. A few months after this, H.B. Harris wrote letters to family saying that many more men in the regiment are getting sick, and some dying (173). Some people he wrote about were J. A. McEachern, Davie, Garrison and Newell, and Wade, who all died from diseases spread around the regiment (173-174). He also wrote about 7 more men, who are all suffering from illnesses (175). Part of the reason the disease could spread so easily was because of the living conditions for these soldiers. The Appomattox campaign well shows the way these soldiers lived. On February 8th, General Lee’s army was unable to retreat from their trenches because the roads were muddy and their horses were