The Responsibility Of Soldiers During The Civil War

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In a period of rising national discord, the turmoil between the north and the south over the “peculiar institution” of slavery created a national divide. The disagreements grew to such feverish extents that, finally, war seemed to be the only option. As true to the name, the civil war brought out the most unlikely, seemingly noncombatant of soldiers to defend their strong-held convictions. As a result, many inexperienced men found themselves on a battlefield or in the barracks constantly amidst chaos and trial entirely foreign to the comfort of their previous civilian lives. In the 1860s, on the frontlines of an American civil war battlefield, it would not have been uncommon to see a wide variety men suited up in mud-stained combat boots ready for war; the previous owner of family bakery could be found standing alongside a bright eyed seventeen-year-old boy who lied about his age to get a glimpse of the action. Both the Union and the Confederate army consisted of men from varying qualifications, but rarely did those qualifications involve being familiar with a war rifle. Statistics show that over two million soldiers enlisted with the Union during the war were under 21 years of age, most older men took higher ranking jobs with more required skill. With armies comprised primarily of young men who were inexperienced on the battlefront, the tribulations that accompany wartime were intensified for all. Soldiers were not only unfamiliar with the reality harsh of having to kill other men, but they also had to adjust to entirely new and uncomfortable living conditions. As the excerpt from “Diary of a Union Soldier” demonstrates, it was not uncommon for young soldiers to enter the war with high spirits and enthusiasm and leave exhausted and broken, that is, if they were fortunate enough to survive at all. Life as a civil soldier meant days without rest, proper nutrition and rare comfort or luxury. Army brigades took a “hurry up and wait” mentality as they would travel for days and nights on end with no rest just to arrive at the site of battle and be required to wait, sometimes for days, for the right moment to make a move. Elisha Rhodes states in his diary the account of his brigade breaking for rest for the first time in days only to be woken only moments later by an enemy attack and being required to move to safer grounds— this was reality for civil war soldiers. Their lives were characterized by spontaneity and disorder in which they could never be certain whether they would live to see another day. On the rare occasion that soldiers stayed in one solitary place for more than twenty-four hours, the comforts of the soldiers home lives were foreign the that of civil war campgrounds. In only a matter of hours, the small camp sites that brigades were set up on would turn essentially into mud pits. With mass amounts of soldiers treading on such compact space, fresh ground to walk on was a luxury in of itself. Soldiers usually slept on the bare ground under the stars but in some cases were provided with tents. As Rhodes recorded in his diary, nightfall was sweet relief for the soldiers. Brigades would spend all day marching in the scorching summer heat only to be relieved by occasional shaded forests or at nightfall. The comforts of padded beds with cotton sheets and the seemingly basic necessity of a wooden roof became distant memories over time. Soon enough, all the soldiers knew was marching forward and attacking the enemy. As military patterns throughout history have repeated, health was not held in very high regard on civil war battlefields. Lack of proper hygiene and access to vaccinations resulted in more deaths than any casualties caused by bullets. Civil war soldiers …show more content…
Millions of soldiers entered the war as young boys excited by battle, and left as rugged men who had lived through some of the roughest war conditions in history. As inhumane and exhausting as the battlefield was, civil war soldiers took pride in the good faith of their homeland and fought to defend what they believed to be justice despite the vulgar conditions that threatened to stand in their

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