Shelby Foote's "Civil War"

For the past two years I have been reading Shelby Foote's The Civil War: A Narrative. It's about three thousand pages of detailed history. Having read all that, I don't really know what to say. First of all, it's the first in depth history I've every read. It's still not at the academic level, as far as I know. The the detail is more than anything I've ever experienced.

I was surprised by how repetitive the descriptions of battles became. The attacker either tried to get around the defenders flank, or concentrated forces for a break through. What was tricky and much more interesting was larger scale view of keeping the troops supplied and dealing with the geographical considerations.

What was sobering for me, besides the sheer number of casualties, was the political situation. Hardliners on both sides refused to budge, preferring blood. They, at least, had Lincoln. A moderate despite the South's hatred of him, he was catapulted onto center stage out of no where. Prior to his election he was mostly unknown and lived the life of a typical country lawyer. He served in congress in a fairly unremarkable fashion before losing his seat and returning to Illinois to practice law.

Once he had the job of President, he proved to be a brilliant politician. Then he died, just as the war was ending. Foote talks about him being a sort of late bloomer.

There are some interesting passages. Here's one from Jefferson Davis, Confederate President, which he stated in 1862:

"There is indeed a difference between the [North and South]. Let no man hug the delusion that there can be renewed association between them. Our enemies are a traditionless and homeless race. From the time of Cromwell to the present moment they have been disturbers of the peace of the world. Gathered together by Cromwell from the bogs and fens of the north of Ireland and England, they commenced by disturbing the peace of their own country; they disturbed Holland, to which they fled; and they disturbed England on their return. They persecuted Catholics in England, and they hung Quakers and witches in America."

He continues:

"The issue before us is one of no ordinary character. We are not engaged in a conflict for conquest, or for aggrandizement, or for the settlement of a point of international law. The question for you to decide is, Will you be slaves or will you be independent?"

I find the way he conflates the North with Puritans and the hypocrisy of "Will you be slaves..." fascinating.

Lincoln's second inaugruation address is famous and shows his intended leniency for the south - leniecny he could not practice because Boothe killed him thus putting reconstruction in the hands of the South's worst political enemies. Here's the closing of the speech:

"With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation's wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan - to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace, among ourselves and with all nations."

Previously in the same speech he had noted:

"If we shall suppose that American slavery is one of those offenses which, in the providence of God, must needs come, but which, having continued through His appointed time, He now wills to remove, and that He gives to both North and South this terrible war, as the woe due to those by whom the offense came, shall we discern therein any departure from those divine attributes which the believers in a living God always ascribe to Him?"

I think that once evil is entrenched in society it can't help but cause devestation.

Sergeant Berry Benson served in Lee's army from before the war broke out until Lee's surrender to Grant. Here's what he said about war in later years:

"Who knows but it may be given to us, after this life, to meet again in the old quarters, to play chess and draughts, to get up soon to answer the morning roll call, to fall in at the tap of the drum for drill and dress parade, and again to hastily don our war gear while the monotonous patter of the long roll summons to battle? Who knows but again the old flags, ragged and torn, snapping in the wind, may face each other and flutter, pursuing and pursued, while the cries of victory fill a summer day? And after the battle, then the slain and wounded will arise, and all will meet together under the two flags, all sound and well, and there will be talking and laughter and cheers, and all will say: Did it not seem real? Was it not as in the old days?"

Is war a part of us, I wonder? Deep down, do we lust for it? Freud talked about "thanatos", a death instinct, a desire for violence, as being an inherent part of human psyche.

In contrast to Benson, there was George H Wood, a line officer who fought in all the major battles of the army of the Potomac during the last three years of the war. Wood was fatally injured by the accidental discharge of a gun after hostilities had ended. As he lay dying he spoke to his chaplain saying, "[D]o you suppose we shall be able to forget anything in heaven? I would like to forget those three years."