Why is the Study the Civil War so Important?

[unionblue]

To All,

It has been quiet of late on the board, so I would like to try something new.

Why is the study of Civil War history so important to you personally? Why do you devote so much time to it and why do you argue the postion you take during debates with such determination and vigor?

I really would like to hear from as many members and guests as possible on this one as I have always been surprised by the depth of knowledge and devotion to ones views that have been displayed here.

Sincerely,
Unionblue

[JerseyBart]

Neil,

I find the whole era fascinating. What could have gone so wrong in the first century of this country's existence that we went to war with each other??? What was each side fighting for??? That's STILL debated here daily. I want to know everything about these men. Why would men from Delaware fight men who lived twenty minutes away in Virginia??? I am intrigued by the fact that these same fighting men could call a picket line truce, kill each other in combat, and hours later call a picket line truce again. The fact that in every civil war regimental history I've read, the men and women speak so passionately about their cause or the friend who they are soldiering and dying with. I am amazed to read that after the battle of Gettysburg, Private Henry Taylor of the 1st Minnesota Regiment, knowing his brother Isaac was probably dead, fought on during the second day's battle, then exhausted afterwards, went looking for him, buried him and fought again the next day. There are so many big stories about the Civil War, but double if not triple that in small stories. I want to know everything about it. That's the best I could do for now.

Bart

[ole]

Understanding the WBTS is a key to understanding ourselves -- same humans, same motivations, different century.
Ole

[william42]

Why is the study of Civil War history so important to you personally?

Great thread, Neil. After reading "The Killer Angels", the book that got me hooked on the subject way back when, I found it difficult, and still to this day find it beyond my comprehension, how men and boys could form a line in battle and march forward into withering enemy fire, and almost certain death. I became obsessed with what type of motivation(s) would compel men to march, upright, into a world of death, pain, suffering, knowing full well what awaited them, even before taking that first step forward. My fascination and curiosity with this phenomena has never been adequately satiated, nor will it ever, probably. What held them together during the march from point A, to point B, and annihilation? Belief in their cause, be it Northern or Southern? The reassurance of the man next to them? Valor? Honor? What? ...Why did they do it, and how did they do it? If only those boys could know how much they are admired by those of us on this board... for their courage and their devotion and sacrifice. They might be pleased.

Terry

[richard]

I guess that I became so intrested with the history of the Civil War through the photographs by Brady and others. I wanted to understand just how so many men could get such a hugh amount of supplies, amo, food, men, horses, etc to the field so fast in a day when rail and river was the only rapid means of transportation. The war in the west is really intresting to me as it spans such a vast geo area and the topography is so diverce adding to challanges that faced both armys. It is truely amazing that these thousands of men did what they did under the conditions that faced them.

I have found that if one really looks beyond the the Blue and Gray, you will find that most of these men each have a story to tell. Be it a General or a drummer boy, what we can learn from them is endless.

[samgrant]

A simple harmless addiction?

I always find something new.

I also am facinated by the fact that most of these generals were roommates/classmates/best friends at West Point and elsewhere, and then spent 4 years trying to kill each other!

[matthew mckeon]

Interesting thread.

I remember always being interested in the battles and soldiers. It wasn't a mature interest since I was experiencing what was bloody and tragic as entertainment.

As a grad student, I read Thomas Wentworth Higginson's Army Life in a Black Regiment, and then other accounts, by Seth Rodgers, Charlotte Fortin, Susie King Taylor, and others, about the freedmen who became soldiers, and then citizens, and how it changed them and the war. Briefly the regiment seemed a place where Americans worked away from the racial system we had inherited.

But it was like a battle, where the same hill is taken, lost and attacked again. Higginson once wrote, "revolutions can go backwards," which is what happened. The same struggle, physical and psychological, had be occur again, in the 20th century. Barbara Fields, in the Burns series, says at the end, "the Civil War is still being fought. And it can still be lost" Martin Luther King said that "no lie lives forever."

To me, that is why the war is important. Because of the lie, and the damage it did to us, and to our country.

[larry_cockerham]

Brother against brother, fighting for honor, not for ground. We Americans love a good fight and if we believe there's a reason for it, all the better. Why would we create two armies to invade land and people that we already owned? That didn't make sense; still doesn't. A war with no super highways, rail service that was less than dependable, no airplanes (though a few idiots flew in ballons a time or two); no spy satellites and not an Abrams tank in sight. Why did they go to the trouble. That's the question. My theory is to reduce the population to allow more immigrants. Let us not start another, but merely learn from this one.

[johan_steele]

Study of the Civil War is, I believe, a study of the pivitol defining moment of the United States; the begining of adulthood... adolescence if you will.

It is the first war in US history where detailed records, photgraphy and prolific literary culture allow us, from nearly a 150 year seperation, to read & see the images from what some have called the first modern war.

The machine gun, land mines, submarines iron clads, etc. all advances that were created out of the necessity of a horrid war. Literally tens of thousands of letters & diearies that allow us to look into the minds and sometimes the very soul of the men who shaped our nation for generations to come.

Why? An insight into where we have been and perhaps where we are going.

What is it we, as re-enactors, are trying to do? We dress in the gear of a Civil War soldier; we try to live the life of one for a few days. We read books such as Hardtack & Coffee and All for Union along with scores of other books to give us an idea of the experiences of the men. We research roles and try to grab a fleeting moment of history and hold it close to our breast. For we are only grabbing a moment; a moment that might help us to understand the feelings and motivations of the men who fought and died so long ago.

Why do we, as re-enactors, do what we do? That is a difficult question to answer. Is it to learn and understand something new? Is it to teach those who don't know? On the other hand, is it to try to live a moment of history? On the other hand, perhaps simpler reasons the fun of dressing up as one of a different era and playing at war as we did as children. We have to decide why we are re-enactors.

Many of us try to live that moment as a Union soldier and to understand his motivations and his sacrifices. To do so we dress in the clothing he would have worn carry the gear he knew so well. We live a day or a weekend as he did trying to understand or relive his actions. However, we know in our heart of hearts that we are going home on Sunday evening. We need not worry about dysentery, typhoid fever, the measles or other lethal diseases. There are no bullets marked to whom it may concern or one addressed specifically to us. We miss the truest understanding of the men who faced such terrifying experiences. Can we ever truly understand them? We face powder, minus the deadly minnie ball. We face a weekend under canvas or the night sky without the lethal consequences. We play at war without all of the nasty experiences, without getting dirty, without the pain. That makes what we do incomplete, a pale shadow of the real experience. Nevertheless, it also makes us appreciate the sacrifices of Civil War soldiers all that much more.

Can we improve upon that understanding? Does it come with comprehending Hardees manual or the regulations familiar to the Civil War Soldier? No, it comes from the pure unadulterated terror that comes with combat, working your hands raw digging rifle pits and company sinks. Thank God that fear and terror is something we cannot duplicate. Most importantly, we lack an understanding of the sacrifice that comes with being away from loved ones and family for months and even years on end.

What can we do to bring ourselves closer to that magic moment? That fleeting moment when we are truly men of 1863. That moment of intense stress and anxiety that comes from seeing a line of gray and butternut emerging from the mist with bayonets fixed and murder on their minds. We can approach that moment; but only with the realization that there really is no danger inherent to what we are doing. We are safe in knowing that home and a job that awaits us on Monday morning. We have something going for us that no soldier in the Civil War did; we have safety and an assurance that no one is really trying to kill us.

Does that somehow cheapen what we are trying to do? No, for with understanding of what we do not need to fear or worry about we garner a bit more respect for those men who did face such dangers. The mere understanding of what they faced is a start; coupled with what we do attempt to replicate we come that much closer to them. We, as re-enactors, help to bring history alive for the public. A public that lacks an understanding of the sacrifices made by the men of the American Civil War. We are living Historians trying to do justice to men dead a century and more. Most importantly, we do not want their memory to fade from the American conscience nor their sacrifices to have been in vain. As re-enactors, we try to bring history alive and keep the memories of their sacrifices from being relegated to the dustbin of history.

[johan_steele]

What was that first moment that led to an interest in the Civil War? I have to think hard to remember. I remember reading a book on the Gettysburg Address as a youth but I don’t really remember being all that interested. At the time I think I was more intrigued with the Star Wars movies and World War Two. I remember well admiring; actually I think it was more awe and hero worship of the Legion members who had served in World War II. They were men who dropped their lives for four years to go off to foreign lands far from home to battle an evil the likes fiction has a hard time inventing.

So where did my fascination with the Civil War begin? I don’t think it was as youth, but in college my fascination was still with World War Two and I was doing my thesis on the Mongol Conquests of Asia. My father asked me to see if I could find some information on family members who had served. I was very little help.

I needed an American history class for my major and the chair of the department was offering a 2 credit winter coarse on the Civil War. Professor Lybarger was a man who gave simple but poignant lectures with only one or two text books and a lot of suggested readings. The text was the very readable Battle Cry of Freedom the Ken Burns Video series and notes and papers from his own classes under the venerable Profesor Hesseltine with a classmate by the name of Stephen Ambrose. We were given several options for our final, one was to pick a very specific portion of the war and research it or to pick a mistake or error in Battle Cry of Freedom or the Ken Burns Series. Others chose specific bits of the Ken Burns series and picked it apart. I chose the firearms of the era and learned a lot from William Edwards timeless classic, Civil War Guns. That class and that book started a passion in me but it was in fact a slow growing seed.

Years later while stationed in South Carolina I developed a taste for Maurices BBQ and through a strange happenstance found a young lady who shared a passion for history and she worked at the South Carolina Historical Society. She introduced me to some microfiche of period newspapers and letters. I enjoyed studying the words of men who had been there and talking with her about them... that she was quite pretty didn't hurt things either.

It was at the SC Historical society that it really sank in that those letters were written by men not at all unlike me or those veterans of World War Two that I had idolized as a child. They were men of my age with dreams and hopes like mine. Those letters started a slow growing interest that turned into a passion. Now through books and Living History my passion has grown almost to an obsession. The more I learn the more I want to know about those men. Luckily my passion has grown to encompass my entire family.

I have gained an understanding of the day to day life; day to day trials and tribulations that still haunt the average soldier. All in all I have garnered an understanding of our history; a knowledge that the more things change the more they have stayed the same.

Through re-enacting & Living History I am able to garner a taste of life in the 1860's and better pass that taste of history onto the childrne of this generation... who knows I might one day plant that seed that will lead to anothr historian.