The American Civil War

I am currently watching Ken Burn's documentary, The Civil War. I haven't seen the entire thing in quite a while. I am struck by a number of things in the film. Each battle took an incredible toll of life. 5,000, 10,000, even 20,000 dead at each battle was not uncommon. I can't even begin to imagine what it must have been like to be in the middle of that much carnage. That doesn't even include the equal numbers of horrendous injuries from each battle. The surgeries had huge piles of hands, feet, arms, legs: all amputated.
The regiments were often all from one town, county, or area. In many towns in America, the entire young male population was wiped out in one battle.

I bet that was the worst smelling war ever.

Originally posted by elvendreamgirl
I am currently watching Ken Burn's documentary, The Civil War. I haven't seen the entire thing in quite a while. I am struck by a number of things in the film. Each battle took an incredible toll of life. 5,000, 10,000, even 20,000 dead at each battle was not uncommon. I can't even begin to imagine what it must have been like to be in the middle of ...[text shortened]... or area. In many towns in America, the entire young male population was wiped out in one battle.

it's impossible to grasp the scale of casualties in wars like this. in the first world war, the somme campaign serves as a mind-boggling example. on the first day, the british forces took nearly 60 000 casualties. the loss of life (british, french and german) throughout the whole campaign was 1.1 *million* soldiers. and the end result of this carnage was an advance that at its deepest point was only 7 miles. and, as with the american civil war, recruits were encouraged to enlist en masse from the same villages and towns. an entire generation of our brightest minds slaughtered, the soul ripped out from whole communities. it's a miracle we ever recovered, even though we don't seem to have learnt any lessons from it...

Can you say infection? I can not begin to consider the horrible suffering that people have suffered through. War is the worst thing that people do to each other. I read the book With The Old Breed At Peleliu And Okinawa by E. B. Sledge. War is a terrible thing that happen to both sides. It bothers me to think that the people that start wars draft people like me to fight it while they live a nice life. I doubt that Togo would have started a war with us if he would have to fight on the front line.