This Mighty Scourge

I just finished reading Drew Gilpin Faust’s book, “This Republic of Suffering: Death and the American Civil War.”  This was recommended to me by a post on the discussion boards at Civil War Interactive.

Ms. Faust, is president of Harvard University and holds the Lincoln Professorship in History.  She has written five other books about the Civil War and Antebellum south.

The book is well organized, with the first chapter dealing with death, on the battlefield – a soldier’s view of death.  Specifically, Ms. Faust speaks of “Good Death,” which in the mid-1800’s meant many things, but none more important than accepting one’s fate and turning it over to God, knowing that they would have everlasting life in heaven.  I want to stress that this book is not a faith based study, but describes how a soldier’s acceptance of Christian dogmas, sometimes on their death bed, made for a “Good Death,” one that would comfort their family and allow them to move on, knowing their son, brother, father, or husband died bravely with an acceptance that they would enter heaven, where ultimately they would be reunited with their family.

In chapter two, the author discusses the challenges, a largely volunteer army, would face when they had to kill another man.  With the Christian revival, of the time, it was very hard – even though your target was willing to kill you - for the average volunteer to aim, pull the trigger and watch their target fall.  Faust goes on to postulate, that as the volunteers became veterans, that during the heat of battle, it became easier for the common soldier to revel in the carnage – to the point of total excitement.  However, the author goes on, “In the aftermath of battle, when the intensity and frenzy dissipated, when the killing at least temporarily ceased, when reason returned, soldiers confronted the devastation they had created and survived – ‘the unmistakable evidence,’ as one soldier put it after Spotsylvania, ‘that death is doing its most frightful work.’”¹

In the next chapters: three, four, five and six, the author examines the struggles that those at home, civilians near battlefields and the press faced when dealing with the war’s carnage.  I found this portion of the book particularly interesting.  Most books on the Civil War, deal primarily with the battles, from the view of commanding generals, or those at division and brigade level.  Once in a while, you get glimpses of the soldier’s view of war.  Inevitably, and this is a good thing, for Civil War enthusiasts, the books deal with battlefield tactics and the larger operational tactics.  Ms. Faust, in this section of the book dissects what the general populace, the Sanitary Commission and other relief organizations faced when confronted with the tremendous carnage of battle.

The last several chapters of the book provided an excellent ending, that really closed all remaining “loose ends.”  Chapters seven and eight, and the epilogue, specifically focused on post Civil War issues, related to counting the dead, honoring the dead and leaving no soldier unaccounted for – even if he was an “Unknown.”  In the late 1860’s it became a priority to provide a proper burial for all soldiers killed in action.  These chapters deal with the dichotomy of Federal actions to locate, retrieve, count, identify and re-inter Union soldiers, and the South’s more uncoordinated actions to do the same.  This part of the book was fascinating for me.

I highly recommend this book to anyone that has an interest in the American Civil War – and how it affected other portions of the American society.  Ms. Faust’s research is impeccable and her writing style makes it a very easy book to read.

Mike’s Star Rating

¹ Drew Gilpin Faust, This Republic of Suffering, p. 55.