Jim Downs is a 39-year-old assistant professor of history and interim director of the American Studies program at Connecticut College. As a historian, Jim Downs has spent much of his time learning about the Civil War, but it was his intention with his book Sick From Freedom to bring light to the darker history of the emancipation era in the United States, and more importantly, what he believes is the “largest biological crisis of the 19th century.” When people think about the Civil War, many people think about the military causalities, and the division created between the North and South; Jim Downs goes beneath the surface to give a deeper look at the health crisis that unfolded in the years following emancipation, and the hundreds of thousands…
The Importance of the Civil War The Civil War in 50 Objects, by Henry Holzer and the New-York Historical Society, is a collection of fifty primary sources, varying in type and format. Each of these objects is accompanied by a description of the source, as well as a story which establishes the source in the proper context in history. Through the sources Holzer shows the importance of the Civil War, especially for the people who lived through it. The Civil War transformed the United States in many ways, bringing lasting change to our nation, and establishing the war as important to everyone in the country, even up to today.…
Even though Clara Barton is most famously known for starting the organization: The American Red Cross, she has also impacted the political world. Clara Barton began her political career in July of 1854 as a clerk in Washington, DC in a Patent Office. Due to the scutanization towards women during the 19th Century, Barton was not always appreciated for her hard work as much as the men were. Since Clara Barton was “one of the few women in government positions” her competition with men arose often. Barton did not let the men intimidate her.…
Clara Barton Who? Clara Harlowe Barton was born on December 25, 1821, in Oxford, Massachusetts. She was the youngest of 5 children in her family. Caring for her ill brother was the only experience with medicine she had before she worked with soldiers.…
These problems were extraordinary difficult during the time to diagnose. As well for the doctors, it was challenging for them during the civil war, especially if they had other soldiers to…
The Civil War was a devastating war that wiped out much of America’s population. The book written by James M. McPherson, What They Fought For 1861-1865, describes the views of the soldiers that fought in the war. McPherson uses letters left behind written by different civil war soldiers to portray a more round view of actions that took place on the battlegrounds. McPherson’s thesis does not present from both sides of the war what the soldiers, volunteers and enlisted men, of the Civil War had to faced, how they dealt with their emotions and experiences, the bond made between comrades, and how it affect their overall psychological, physical, and mental well-being of each combatant. This book contains diary entries from Union soldiers that were from the northern states.…
A Review of Sick From Freedom Jim Downs, notable historian who researches the civil war and reconstruction’s effect on slaves is the author of the fascinating book Sick From Freedom. The Civil War is infamous for how disease claimed lives of more soldiers than military combat. In his book Downs exemplifies that disease and sickness actually had a more devastating effect on emancipated slaves than on soldiers. Downs encourages readers to look beyond military casualties and consider the public health crisis that faced emancipated slaves in the years following the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863. Estimates show that at least a fourth of the four million former slaves got sick or died between 1863 and 1870, including at least 60,000 who perished in a smallpox epidemic that began in Washington and Spread throughout the south.…
There were about three million soldiers fighting in the civil war, and about six hundred thousand died both in the Confederate and the Union. The most common causes of death were diseases, and being killed in action. Gunshot wounds, infections, and other wounds were also common. With these injuries, the nurses could only save the minor injured. The men in the war were fighting for what they believed in, weather to end slavery, or to defend it.…
The Civil War was one of the most deadliest wars in American History. The Civil War was a battle between Union states and Confederate states. Over hundred thousand soldiers died during the war. The war didn't just affect the soldiers though. Everyone living in the U.S was affected in some way or another.…
Clara Barton supported many of the 19th century reform movements that affect our lives today. In her early years as an educator, Clara Barton advocated for public funded schools and established Bordentown’s first public school in 1852. While teaching in Hightstown she recognised the great need for free public schools in New Jersey. Barton travelled to Bordentown to secure permission from officials to build a free public school. This proved to be successful as seen in the increased attendance (from 200 to 600 students).…
One of the most notorious and honored nurses in American medical history is a woman named Clarissa Harlowe Barton, more commonly known as Clara Barton, the founder of the American Red Cross. Clara Barton was the…
Clara Barton was a woman of incredible stamina and valor to whom America as a whole owes much. Her efforts in the Civil War are well remembered and well documented. Her bravery in helping wounded soldiers on the battlefield set her apart from other women of her time, initiating her social work for years to come. The skills she learned as a child she used for the good of humanity. The far reaching influence of Clara Barton’s tireless work helped to drastically improve the healthcare of the United States, and expand medical horizons.…
When the Civil War commenced on April 12th, 1861, more than 3 million Union and Confederate soldiers geared up for battle. Men from all over America were appointed to go support their side in the war. While their battles are often historically analyzed, well known, and greatly documented, there is one aspect that rarely gets attention: the role of women in the American Civil War. The lives of women were drastically affected by the Civil War. Several disguised themselves as men to be able to join the battlefield.…
The Civil War was a pivotal moment in the United States’s history being a high point in a sectional discord that’s affects have continued to be evident in several issues in today’s society. As most wars, there’s at least two decidedly divided and biased sides to the story. With two perspectives coming from one country America had to decide how they wanted to remember this war. Being such a complex dispute with two very distinct viewpoints, each side had their personal view on the reasons for the war, the events throughout the war, and the effectiveness of reconstruction. Through extensive measures by multiple people, each side go their story out and shaped how others viewed the war decades after the fact, no matter how contrasting these memories…
The Civil War fought from 1861-1865 was rough on citizens all around the country of America, especially those from the south, as the Civil War was also called the War of Southern Independence. Throughout these four years, the Southern and Northern ends of the country fought recklessly for bloodshed practically against each other. For the first eighteen months of the war, federal soldiers fought solely to uphold the Constitution and preserve the nation (Roark et al). As the world’s first modern war, it mobilized the entire populations of the North and the South, harnessed the productive capacities of both economies, and produced battles that fielded 200,000 soldiers and created casualties in the tens of thousands (Roark et al). During this time, it had a major impact on slavery.…