The View From The Ground Chapter Summary

Craig Stevens
Dr. Cuff
American Civil War Book Citation: Sheehan-Dean, Aaron Charles. The View from the Ground : Experiences of Civil War Soldiers.Lexington, Ky.: University Press of Kentucky, 2007. Web. New directions in Southern history; New directions in southern history.

Summary: The View from the Ground: Experiences of Civil War Soldiers is a collection of writings in which men and women express their views on the situations regarding the war such as slavery, racism, and even their faith. Several Civil War scholars used diaries from soldiers themselves to gain their views on the Emancipation, the conflicts between Union and Confederate soldiers, and the horrible truth of what warfare is. The book begins by examining the questions that

As the book continues it shows the soldiers experiencing the realities of war. It then goes onto show the soldier's role in their home fronts and the struggle to stay as their former selves. The book’s major point to me was to show these men weren’t just soldiers but ordinary people. For example, the book shows the importance of faith during the war with the soldiers. David W. Rolfs explains that many Northern Christians went off to war but they had no idea the effect it would have on their faith. Being at war tested their faith because the soldiers were separated from their families and the churches. Besides the separation from faith these men had a negative view of their actions by killing people. Kent T. Dollar shares the story of Marion Hill Fitzpatrick who was a private in the forty-fifth Georgia infantry. He wrote a letter to his wife explaining how he has changed, and that if he were to return home alive he will remove his name from the church's book because of what he has done. As someone learns about the Civil War we learn the numbers of casualties and their campaigns but we don’t understand how these men