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1. “Such a Dirty Set of Creatures”: The Divide between Union Soldiers and Civilians
- NYU Press
- Chapter
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>> 7 1 “Such a Dirty Set of Creatures” The Divide between Union Soldiers and Civilians Most of the Union soldiers who went off to war in 1861 had no concept of what they were about to experience. There were certainly military conflicts in the recent past, but nothing that involved large numbers of inexperienced volunteers. Clashes with Native Americans and the recent war with Mexico from 1846 to 1848 required only the efforts of the professional Regular Army and a number of state volunteer regiments. For a large-scale national war that demanded significant sacrifices from the people, one had to look back through nearly half a century of peaceful history to the War of 1812. The volunteers of 1861 could perhaps be forgiven for lacking an understanding of modern military realities. Amidst expectations of a short war and minimal risk, soldiers held romantic visions of what warfare entailed and little inkling of how untidy a battle could become. Among their romantic visions was the concept of separation between military and civilian existence. Soldiers did not just separate themselves geographically from their families and communities by marching off to war; they separated themselves in a cultural sense as well. They adopted a new set of behaviors, obligations, and outlooks by becoming warriors, entitling them to engage in acts, most notably killing , that civilian life found intolerable. The cultural separation of soldiering also generated a romantic notion of how civilians were to behave and how they were to be treated. Civilians were spectators to war, observers whose sole task was enthusiastically to support the army in the field. Conversely, soldiers respected the status of civilians and maintained the chivalrous view that warriors protected noncombatants, regardless of side. That view, in turn, connected to the spectator role of civilians as non-participants. Soldiers respected civilian boundaries as long as civilians remained spectators and nothing more. Like all romantic beliefs associated with the Civil War, the pleasant view of inviolate civilians vigorously and unanimously backing the Union Army’s efforts proved an illusion, as Northern civilians did not universally endorse 8 > 9 occupation duty. “How the civilized home folks will ever be able to live with them after the war is, I think, something of a question. If we don’t degenerate into a nation of thieves, t’will not be for lack of the example set by a fair sized portion of our army. Do you remember that I used to write that a man would no sooner lose his morality in the army than at home? I now respectfully beg to recall the remark.”4 For most, the loss of prewar morals was the fault of the war, an attitude that absolved soldiers of personal responsibility. “War is a horrible thing,” Private John Follmer realized. “It makes men heartless, brutal, and in many instances sinks out of sight all higher and nobler manhood .”5 Instead of excusing the shift in conduct, other more conscientious soldiers recognized that simple explanations did not absolve them of amoral behavior. “Many a man does that here that he would be utterly ashamed to do at home,” a New York soldier detected, “and excuses himself by saying that others do it or that it is customary in the Army to do it. But that is no excuse . . . it is worse than no excuse at all.”6 Reflecting upon the impact of combat and army life, some veterans feared that they could never readjust to civilian life and that the change in their persona was permanent. Although he sometimes pondered returning home when his enlistment ended in 1864, Isaac Abraham predicted he would reenlist, admitting “I expect I would be lost in civil life.”7 Others feared the change in them made it impossible to pick up their lives where they left off. “To-day makes four years soldiering for me,” a thoughtful veteran pondered, “It is a terrible waste of time for me to have to make a start in life yet . . . I have almost a dread of being a citizen.”8 Many soldiers never did adjust. Private Herman White took a long time to settle after the war, moving from town to town in search of work, his sleep plagued by “dreams of war & fighting.”9 An indicator of changing and hardening attitudes amongst veterans was their declining acceptance of traditional social mores. Manifesting a willingness to ignore conventional conduct, soldiers began to think and act in a manner that shocked the sensibilities of their...