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Over 700,000 Killed the Civil War: What Were They Thinking?
The latest research shows that over 700,000 were killed in
the Civil War. It is the most tragic,
sad situation that I can imagine. The years of reconstruction were even worse
as the south struggled to get on their feet economically, while suffering the
indignity of losing the war and trying to integrate the new found freedom of
slaves into society.
I have never been a history buff. I blame it on my high school teacher, who was
a physical Education instructor and was only filling in an open class period,
but then I guess, ultimately, it was me who was to blame for not being
interested. It was only when I began to
research the Civil War and Reconstruction (especially in Alabama) for an
up-coming book that I am co-authoring that I realized the immense and un-called
for tragedy of the war. I also realized
that I would never understand America today, if I didn’t know and try to
understand what happened during the Civil War.
What were they thinking?
I ask myself over and over again.
I asked myself why was there so much hate – enough hate for
700,000 people to die? After trying to
get into the minds of my ancestors in the 1800’s, I came to the conclusion that
the white people who enslaved black people had a different mind set. It wasn’t
so much as hate towards the black as it was they did not want to view black
people as human. They did things you
just don’t do to human beings. They
tried to justify these ideas by pointing out differences such as language,
appearance and the fact that they were uneducated. That was their justification
for using the black race of people as if they were cattle. By reasoning that
they were not really human, they could use them as a commodity that could be
bought and sold. We had the same opinion about Indians and called them
“savages.”
Another reason for the war could be that a few generations
ago a man would rather lose his life than break his word. In those days’ women
and men valued courage and integrity above power and profit. In the 1860's, a
generation of men bled and died because they believed that they were fighting
for a better world. In the south it was called, “honor.”
Also, there was this belief that suffering
destruction and death are “glorious.” For example:
"Major, tell my father that I died
with my face to the enemy."
- Colonel I.E. Avery, Confederate soldier at Gettysburg (1863
- Colonel I.E. Avery, Confederate soldier at Gettysburg (1863
Thousands of children were directly involved in the Civil
War. Older boys served as soldiers. Many younger boys were also involved, some
boys as young as 11 years old. The younger boys generally served as drummer or
bugle boys. Commonly the drummer and bugle boys were 13-15 years of age (from http://histclo.com/youth/uncw.html).
These boys thought of war as “glory” and would do just about anything to be a
part of it. How crazy is that?
Of course, we know there is never any
justification or reason for a war, not really. Here is what C. Vann Woodward,
said about it: "What The War Made Us"
After it was all over and the fury and fever had died away, survivors of the Civil War were still haunted by the horror and madness of what had happened in the last few years. From John Brown at the beginning to John Wilkes Booth at the end of the killing, madness seemed to have taken over... More terrible than the number of casualties was how they were inflicted — not by foreign enemies, but by fellow citizens. Despite the South's desire to call it a War Between the States, it was a civil war. Thousands of southerners fought for the Union, and thousands of northerners fought for the Confederacy — father against son, brother against brother, for the war divided families as well as states. To justify the mad things they were doing, both sides learned to live with paradox. Both armies sang a war song called 'Battle Cry of Freedom' to the same music, but with different words. Southerners equated bondage for slaves with freedom for themselves and rebellion from the nation with loyalty to the Constitution. Northerners began the war as part of the world's largest slave-owning republic, pledged to protect the rights of slaveholders, but then in the midst of war reversed themselves with the pledge to abolish slavery. Both sides waged relentless war as the only means of achieving peace.
And Mary Chestnut, who survived the war said this: "We are scattered, stunned; the remnant of heart left alive is filled with brotherly hate... Whose fault? Everybody blamed somebody else. Only the dead heroes left stiff and stark on the battlefield escape."
And then there are the soldiers who are asleep in God’s loving arms. There are no words that describe the helpless and sick feeling when I think of these men. God help us all….what were they thinking?
CW2
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