“The dead, the dead, the dead -- our dead -- or South or North, ours all -- our young men once so handsome and so joyous, taken from us -- the son from the mother, the husband from the wife, the dear friend from the dear friend...And everywhere among these countless graves we see, and ages yet may see, on monuments and gravestones, singly or in masses, to thousands or tens of thousands, the significant word Unknown.” (Walt Whitman, 1865) The people who lived through the Civil War knew it was momentous. People believed that the Civil War was almost a kind of a second American Revolution, or at least a culmination and reaffirmation of the first one. The Civil War pitted the Union against the Confederate States of America and resulted in the death of more than 620,000, with millions more injured. The incredible numbers of dead and wounded really changed Americas’ relationship with death itself. It changed soldiers and the family's perception of the war, attitudes about mortality, the functions of the state, and the duties of the citizens. But the greatest impact of the Civil war was the new nation it created.
For one thing, soldiers dealt with death and war much differently than how families dealt with it. Approximately one in …show more content…
The Civil War took more lives than any other war in U.S. history. During the war, soldiers had a unique familiarity with human mortality. In other words, they knew they were going to die. In the midst of war, unorthodox views on death and the dead body emerged out of the entirely unparalleled experience with human violence, suffering, and the death that surrounded them. On the other hand, some people had a more traditional view on the meaning of death, and reinforced deeply rooted religious beliefs at the time. But nothing changed the way people felt, the soldiers knew they were going to die, so did their families and
For one thing, soldiers dealt with death and war much differently than how families dealt with it. Approximately one in …show more content…
The Civil War took more lives than any other war in U.S. history. During the war, soldiers had a unique familiarity with human mortality. In other words, they knew they were going to die. In the midst of war, unorthodox views on death and the dead body emerged out of the entirely unparalleled experience with human violence, suffering, and the death that surrounded them. On the other hand, some people had a more traditional view on the meaning of death, and reinforced deeply rooted religious beliefs at the time. But nothing changed the way people felt, the soldiers knew they were going to die, so did their families and