TWO CIVIL WAR BOOKS.   Term Paper ID:30620 Click to get this paper

Essay Subject: Examines Union and Confederate attitudes towards the war.... More...

8 Pages / 1800 Words 2 sources, 22 Citations, MLA Format $32.00 Return to List of Papers

Paper Abstract: Examines Union and Confederate attitudes towards the war. Information used from William Blair's "Virginia's Private War," and C. W. Wills' "Army Life of an Illinois Soldier." Discusses the individual torment of war & its affect on the soldiers, the enemy and civilians. What compelled Rebel sodiers to sacrifice their lives and health for their cause. Paper Introduction: TO PRESERVE THE UNION! From a callow youth who joined the Union Army because, as he put it, it ‘beats clerkin’” (Willa 1996 vii), Charles Wills eventually rose in the ranks from recruit to commanding officer. He was not a typical “farm boy” but had gone to the university. Nevertheless, as one can see, he had promised to defend the Union, but he was ambivalent at best about the issue of slavery. As the foreword states: “He (Wills) had gone to war solely to preserve the Union…” (p. ix) War is Hell, General Sherman was supposed to have said. In these pages, we discover the individual torment of war, how it affected the soldiers, as well as the enemy and the civilians they met along the way. In general, this book proves that war is a hellish way to mature. As one reads the pages from the initial boredom to the final disturbed and even dis Text of the Paper: The entire text of the paper is shown below. However, the text is somewhat scrambled. We want to give you as much information as we possibly can about our papers and essays, but we cannot give them away for free. In the text below you will find that while disordered, many of the phrases are essentially intact. From this text you will be able to get a solid sense of the writing style, the concepts addressed, and the sources used in the research paper. 121) There is perhaps no more tellingview of what it must have been like to fight the South, and to deal withsome officers who seemed to have lost their desire for a quick victory.Years of deprivation of sleep and decent accommodations, far from thecomforts of home, the seeming hopeless struggle to win, has caused thissort of rift among the officers (which Wills eventually became) and thecommon soldier. In that year,we can see how Wills's feelings about the South have hardened. 37) Further,"Something kept the Confederate army, filled primarily with nonplanters,intact long enough to push the Union war effort to the utmost and give it achance to win well into the summer of 1864." (Blair 149) The end of the war stirred up both little emotion, and yet on theother hand, a sense of pride at his accomplishments. He was as dedicated topreserving the Confederacy's way of life as the Union soldiers were nowconvinced that their cause was to preserve the Union at all costs.Referring to the first year of the Civil War, Blair writes: "At this pointin the war, then men remained more citizen than soldier." (p. 383) Of course, that was the talk of both someone on thewinning side, and at the same time someone who survived, and thus able toreturn home and pursue a life, interrupted by some four years of service.Wills not only matured, he grew, and despite his hatred of the enemy(obviously for good reason) he was one of the lucky ones to have survivedwithout bitterness.Surely, like most who survive wars, there were visible and invisible scars.But, the even-handed tone of the letters and the information Wills conveyedmade him a worthy chronicler of the events of the Civil War . "To reducefraternization with civilians, Lee instituted strict orders in lateSeptember, 1862, requiring soldiers to have passes before leaving camp...The stern efforts worked to some extent, although not perfectly..." (Blair66) Moreover, "Because of continuing disorder in towns, the public greetedincreased control by the military with resignation." (Blair 68) At the same time, Wills becomes hardened to the enemy- even thecivilians. Wills condemns his ownUnion fellow solders as much as the enemy: "This little squad of 5 men inthe two months they have been mounted have committed more devilment thantwo divisions of regular cavalry could in five years. CITATIONS: Blair, William: (1998) Virginia's Private War New York: OxfordUniversity Press Wills, C.W. But, these were civilianvolunteers, not army men, and not used to military discipline> "Volunteerssteeped in a militia tradition found it hard to accept that they could notfreely come and go.....The wear spirit had not died; rather, the menfollowed a local kind of patriotism in keeping with the militia traditionrooted in American life since the colonial era." (Blair 36) If there is one thing to be gathered from the opposing points of viewof Willis' and Blair's books it is the fact that both sides stemmed fromthe same colonial roots. He is disdainful of the women who seem to "court" Unionsoldiers, and complains that at "three different places there were groupsof very healthy looking young ladies... " (p. (He is too circumspect to put it in those words, ofcourse.) While it was not until after the War was over that Wills ventured intosome sort of politics (as did his brother-in-law, Kellogg), politics rearsits ugly head in Wills' rather mild denunciation of General Sherman: "I amvery sorry for him, but we have thought for a year, and it has been commontalk in the army, that he was ambitious for political honors, etc." (p.374) One can easily see that while the ordinary soldier talked about, butdidn't care much about politics, those who were officers were concernedwith that thin divide between politics and the army. "I have steadily discountenanced it, and watched my men carefully.I am willing to be responsible for all they did, and will probably have achance, as I understand a board of inquiry sits on the subject shortly."(p. It is anargument that, to this day, is not truly and totally solved. Everything you canthink of... 61) Of course, this is seeing the War from the North's side. If war changes people, Wills' letters certainly prove that. Asone reads the pages from the initial boredom to the final disturbed andeven disgusted feelings that Wills had about the reasons for the war, thebehavior of the Rebel soldiers and the civilians (especially the women)abandoned by their men gone off to fight for the Confederacy, one caneasily see why the divisions that were responsible for the war and forgenerations afterwards were sop deep. On the other hand,the industrialized North seemed to have a different standard ofindividuality and responsibility to family and society. For they (or nearly all of them) cannot buyhorses. Havingtasted battle, seen friends wounded and die, and territory fought over,won, lost, and then re-taken, his letter home now reflects a bitternessthat was certainly not there a year earlier: "For myself, I know it's ahuge thing we have on our heads, but I believe I'd rather see the wholecountry red with blood, and ruined together than have this 7, , ofinvalids (these Southerners are nothing else as a people) conquer, orsuccessfully resist the power of the North." (p.121) A former clerk andminor "official" in Southern Illinois, having experienced the horrors ofwar, his friends wounded and dying, Wills now turns on the enemy: "I hatethem now, as they hate us. One needs tobe aware of how the Rebel soldiers felt, and what compelled them tosacrifice their lives, their health in the conviction that the cause forwhich they were fighting was just and honorable. "Prosperous Virginians believed that the'best men' with a direct interest in the war should stay home where theirleadership could be used." (Blair 89) This takes nothing away from thespirit and patriotism of the ordinary Rebel soldier. 77) Ifnothing else, this begins to point out to the reader that the men enlistedin this war not only are making personal and bodily sacrifices, but theymay well be in debt for the horses and other equipment they bring alongwith them, which is their property not the government's, and which theyseem to have pledged as part of their determination to go to war and getthe fighting over and done with. 121) There is also a telling event when he writes"I was talking to a man last night who had his two sons shot dead in hishouse by his side last week...I can hardly believe that these things arerealities, although my eyes and ears bear witness." (p. I have no idea that we'll ever be one nation,even if we conquer their armies." (p. He was not a typical "farm boy"but had gone to the university. Sherman, as Willsseems to explain in his letters, crossed that line. What must be understood, throughout the book, is that many of Wills'comrades, as well as most other Union soldiers, had no idea about thesignificance of the war, or the reasons the South was fighting the North.For the most part, all they knew was that the South had seceded, made theU.S. More thana year after he enlisted, in 1861, it is now August, 1862. Most of them are still owing for the horses they have " (p. Did not excite an emotion." (p. "Heard of Davis'capture. 77) Equally serious wasthe condition of the troop's horses: "...our horses dying off very fastfrom horse cholera. In Virginia, for example, Representatives "knew the need toplacate soldiers who complained that the poor man fought the rich man'swar." (Blair 81) Still, as Blair points out (p.59) a number of those whopaid for substitutes had already served in the army earlier and felt theyhad done their patriotic duty. He, andhundreds of thousands of others had the task to preserve the union, and didso. 163), he does so for the most part in a very matter-of-fact tone. In theend, as a commissioned officer, he had come to realize that his dutyincluded doing whatever was necessary to enforce the Emancipationproclamation and therefore fight for the Negroes to survive as citizens,not slaves. and one told the boys she wishedfor them to come back after they were mustered out, for 'you have killedall our young men off.'" (p. Nevertheless, as one can see, he hadpromised to defend the Union, but he was ambivalent at best about the issueof slavery.As the foreword states: "He (Wills) had gone to war solely to preserve theUnion..." (p. In general, this book proves that war is a hellish way to mature. 2 9) The same problems occurred with the Rebel soldiers. But,obviously- with the exception of some of the anger against the Southerners(both fighting men and civilians) and some of the "deviltry" his outfitperformed- he tried to calm the fears of his family back in Illinois. But, those roots split off, one growing in a slave-owning, rural South where sensibilities were different and slave owning wasnot so much a "social" activity, as a means to survive. At the beginning, the army seemed boring and uneventful, according toWills' correspondence: ""I haven't written for a full week...Althoughsoldiering is a hugely lazy life, yet these short days we seem to havelittle spare time." (p.38) Wills is obviously trying to spare the folks athome about the miseries of camp life, and the illness that comes withliving in close quarters and in tents, regardless of the weather. "Thesickly season is over now and the health is improving very much...I tellyou I feel as strong as two mules and am improving." (p. ix) War is Hell, General Sherman was supposed to have said.In these pages, we discover the individual torment of war, how it affectedthe soldiers, as well as the enemy and the civilians they met along theway. 375) At the same time, he provides the opinionthat these same women lured their beaux off to war, and now that the Yankswere winning, they were turning to the enemy for some sort of eventualsexual release. One can consider this War as a struggle ofMan against Man, as much as one of merely political or social principles.If the "little picture" is that men became hardened to wounds and death,blood and a hatred of the enemy, the "big picture" is that, while the Unionwas preserved, the rancor of the four years' fighting continued forgenerations. The latter is a serious thing in a regiment where themen own the horses themselves. From a callow youth who joined the Union Army because, as he put it,it 'beats clerkin'" (Willa 1996 vii), Charles Wills eventually rose in theranks from recruit to commanding officer. Yet, this was onenation, now divided in spirit, with Americans fighting Americans, and bothsides believing that they represented the true spirit of America. 39) But, whenWills and his troop encountered fighting, he had to report that "Two menkilled on the plank road, two more wounded..." (p. What is fascinating about reading these letters over the years is thateven when Wills talks about battle, wounds and death and even when he says"I am accepting the disgrace of having one of my men desert, decidedly gladto be rid of him" (p. War often turns basicallyhonorable and upstanding men into something else. 2 9) At the same time he writes home that he was not partof this. It is sad to report, in reading both these books, that Man tends tolose his basic instincts of honor and justice. (1996): Army Life of an Illinois SoldierCarbondale IL: Southern Illinois University Press 381 he wrote upon hearing of thecapture of Jefferson Davis, the President of the Confederacy. Yet, at thevery conclusion of his diary he remarks that he and his soldiers"participated in the Grand Review of the Grandest Army that ever wascreated," (p. One thing that Blair recounts, and Wills' diary does not, is the factthat wealthy men paid for "substitutes" to serve in their place in thefighting. On both sides, boys became men, some men became cowards, other heroes.Some men accepted command responsibility (as Wills did) and some opted forothers to fight their battles. 121) And yet, at the same time theordinary Union solider feels this sort of frustration, Wills reports on theofficers: "Many of the officers have given up all hope of our conqueringthem and really wish for peace." (p. weaker, and divided the nation as nothing or no one had before. TO PRESERVE THE UNION! He could not have always been that even-tempered. The depth of Wills' emotions continue in the same letterwhen he writes: "The feeling is too deep on both sides, for anything butextermination of one or the other of the two parties to cure, and of thetwo, think the world and civilization will lose the least by losing theSouth and slavery." (p. If this paper is not what you are looking for, you can search again: Search for: or Click here to request an essay written just for you.