"What Union soldiers thought about the war" Topic

What Union Soldiers Thought About the Civil War

They weren't all selfless idealists. Many, like Charles Biddlecom, were deeply cynical about the war's aims.

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I can't help but recall the journal of Private John Haley of the 17th Maine Infantry. It's available as "The Rebel Yell and the Yankee Hurrah."

It has been some time since I read his journal, but I recall that Haley expressed his share of cynicism about all kind of things too, especially hardship on campaign. At least once, Haley admired the toughness of the southern people and believed that the people of the north could not have endured the same suffering.

On the other hand, I got the impression that Haley truly was a Unionist, in spite of his thoughtful nature. He saw a ruined "rowdy house", and said that it was the sort of place where "the younger bloods of the south perfected the science of rowdyism, which left the older bloods free to pursue their machinations against the Union" (!) And at the end of the war, in Richmond, his regiment marched past the burnt ruins of the building where one of the south's best-known newspapers had been published. Haley remarked, "I trust the flames have purified it."

Haley and his companions probably would not have been content to live in a wooden dog kennel like Biddlecom did (although Biddlecom sounds like he had miserable health.) At one point in his account, Haley and his fellow soldiers built their own winter quarters, and even did a little boasting about it: he was proud that he and his buddies knew how to do such things.

I know I'm no expert on how Union soldiers, or any other soldiers at any time, thought or acted. But I felt moved to share a brief glance of a Civil War journal that I really enjoyed. I imagine that factors like a soldier's health (Biddlecom sounds sickly, Haley was relatively healthy) would play a pretty big part in how he saw things around him. In Biddlecom's defense, I hate being sick myself. Having to live outdoors in harsh weather conditions would be pretty hard to take.

College professor who spent his entire career cloistered in academia discovers soldiers bitched. Somehow that's new?

Maybe it's now new, but it's interesting.
Are you saying that everything you learn is original and groundbreaking?

I recall seeing(back in the 70's) a Civil War diary of a Union soldier that had been found in an attic by his family, complete with simple watercolors. He was wounded at the Wilderness and became of member of the Veteran Reserves, who served as a kind of military police in Washington DC. One of his stories begins on patrol in what the editor identified as a red light district. The next page was removed by a razor cut. The page after that starts in the middle of another story. I always wondered what had happened on that patrol. I guess he decided it was too racy to be kept.

College professor who spent his entire career cloistered in academia discovers soldiers bitched. Somehow that's new?

Yeah, as if it's a surprise that of the hundreds of thousands of soldiers that served, in that war or any other, didn't have uniform opinions.

"What one Union Soldier thought of the war" would be more apt a title methinks.

Find the Diary of Sgt Rice C. Bull of the 124th NYVI. The title is simply "Soldiering".
He was no fan of Abolitionists. The further he went with Sherman into the South the more pointed his disdain becomes. Using him as a source could get you thrown out of most college history programs today I think.

Interesting, thanks for the post.

Raylev3, the only "uniform opinion" I've seen in my 8 years in the military is an absolute disgust with politicians of all sorts. I've literally never heard a good thing said about Congress by anyone in uniform.

Cerberus: that sounds like something someone with absolutely no idea how history scholars operate or what academia is actually like would say.

21 years, and the only politician I heard ANY complements about was RONNIE REAGAN. No exceptions , none what so ever. Period……