The American Civil War

Writing Task 5

The American Civil war lasted from 1861 to 1865. There were 2.1 million Northern (Union) soldiers and 0.9 million Southern (Confederate) soldiers fighting in this war. According to statistics, the war leaded to total 750,000 estimated death, which 60% were Union soldiers, and also forced 75% of Southern men of military age to become soldiers.

On the battlefield, although soldiers were called for victory, they believed the context of Christian faith that dying honorably was rather than killing. They hoped to have the tradition of ‘Good Death’, or ‘ars moriendi’, which was to die on the battlefield with a memento of one’s family and a Bible, and a death witness would send a letter to the family that they had died honorably and with noble last words of family and God.

All soldiers dreaded dying. However, the worst way fate was to die slowly in battlefield medical tent from diseases caused by war wounds. These wounds and the bad environment could cause Epidemic diseases such as measles and mumps were rampant. Besides, soldiers were also threatened by other transmission of infectious diseases like measles, typhoid, and dysentery.

The war not only threatened soldiers’ life but also broke their morality. As the war progressed, the sense of vengeance overcame soldiers’ moral concern with their belief. Because of Vengeance, the moral dilemma appeared when soldiers took another’s life in war, which contravened the Sixth Commandment to not to kill. Even for some, especially from rural areas, shooting people from a distance, made possible by more accurate long distance rifles, was almost like a spot. What is more, due to racial discrimination, confederate soldier treatment of Afro-American Union soldiers showed no nobility. For example, as black soldiers were considered sub-human, prisoners were ruthlessly murdered.