Hayfoot Strawfoot Analysis

In the article Hayfoot, Strawfoot, Bruce Catton, an American historian and journalist, claims that soldiers in the American Civil War were effective even though they were unorganized, unsophisticated and had harsh conditions. He also explains men were drafted for the war, instead of volunteering like they do today. He shows and supports this in many ways.

He supports his claim first by showing the lack of education and sophistication came from boys signing up for the war that were under the age of eight-teen. Then, he expands evidence by saying the boys under the age of eight-teen would put the number eight-teen in the sole of their shoe. This made is so they could honestly say they were over eight-teen. In this section, he shows that many people wanted joined the army under aged. The young men also could not fully understand what they were getting into. They thought fighting for their country was the most noble and bravest thing to do. In all reality, many men suffered a great deal and many men died. Men at war wrote letters to home saying “It is fun to lie around, face unwashed, hair uncombed, shirt unbuttoned and everything un-everythinged. Sure beats clerking.” A fear for some people was that the war would end before they got a chance to …show more content…
To fight a good war, they had to work hard and push through hard situations. Men fighting for our country were by far some of the bravest. Soldiers that fight now are still put at a big risk, but they have more protective equipment, better food and a better trauma unit. He also is writing to show that at the beginning everyone wanted to go into the war. However, the idea of war being great wore off quickly. The men going thought they were headed off to a “high adventure” and going to “have fun.” The reality of war hit fast and it no longer was a “high adventure” or