The change in a soldier goes through in the Civil War
Primary Source Paper Chad Armbuster 14/06/14
The Change
The American Civil War was truly a unique war in American history as well as world history. It stands as one of the worst, if not the worst, stain on the history of the United States of America, and should be studied to find how things managed to go so wrong so that the horrors witnessed will never be seen again. Perhaps the worst mistake was that the American people woefully underestimated how truly devastating the American Civil War would become and unfortunately by the time Americans came to this realization it was too late.
America’s ignorance and then realization of what was to come is expressed through two letters written by James A. Carman a Pennsylvanian volunteer of Company E. 107th Regiment, as if he was speaking on behalf of the collective conscience of America. The letters that James A. Carman wrote to his father were written about six months apart, with the second letter coming after James A. Carman’s participation in the Union defeat at Fredericksburg. In James A. Carman’s first letter he writes about how he and his men are prepared and eager to get into battle. He writes “Father there is an army in this valley 80 thousand Strong good troops General Pope at their head. we fear nothing if General McClellan watches his time as we approach to Richmond. he will be able to whip them and go into Richmond”1. The confidence of James A. Carman's seems to come from the fact that he had not participated in a battle yet even though he had the knowledge that the Union had suffered a series of losses and hard-fought battles that ended inconclusively while still resulting in more Union casualties than Confederate casualties, not to mention the Peninsula Campaign (1862)2 that failed to take Richmond the first time. Despite this, James seemed confident that they would take Richmond in an upcoming campaign with ease. James was also preoccupied with
The Change
The American Civil War was truly a unique war in American history as well as world history. It stands as one of the worst, if not the worst, stain on the history of the United States of America, and should be studied to find how things managed to go so wrong so that the horrors witnessed will never be seen again. Perhaps the worst mistake was that the American people woefully underestimated how truly devastating the American Civil War would become and unfortunately by the time Americans came to this realization it was too late.
America’s ignorance and then realization of what was to come is expressed through two letters written by James A. Carman a Pennsylvanian volunteer of Company E. 107th Regiment, as if he was speaking on behalf of the collective conscience of America. The letters that James A. Carman wrote to his father were written about six months apart, with the second letter coming after James A. Carman’s participation in the Union defeat at Fredericksburg. In James A. Carman’s first letter he writes about how he and his men are prepared and eager to get into battle. He writes “Father there is an army in this valley 80 thousand Strong good troops General Pope at their head. we fear nothing if General McClellan watches his time as we approach to Richmond. he will be able to whip them and go into Richmond”1. The confidence of James A. Carman's seems to come from the fact that he had not participated in a battle yet even though he had the knowledge that the Union had suffered a series of losses and hard-fought battles that ended inconclusively while still resulting in more Union casualties than Confederate casualties, not to mention the Peninsula Campaign (1862)2 that failed to take Richmond the first time. Despite this, James seemed confident that they would take Richmond in an upcoming campaign with ease. James was also preoccupied with