Saturday, February 8, 2014
Civil War Battles
Post Due by February 13
The Rebel Yell- why can historians say, with accuracy, that no living person has ever heard the rebel yell, despite their being a video of actual confederate soldiers re-enacting it?
Please watch Ken Burns: The Civil War (Available on Netflix) Episode 6 (Shadow of the Valley of Death) from the start until min. 50.
Even though this campaign was not the bloodiest, in what ways was it the worst for soldiers? (Give at least 3 examples) What does it tell us about/prove the strategies for victory (And ultimately, how they planned on ending the war ) of General Lee v. Grant?
Walt Whitman's The Dresser (Later, renamed the Wound Dresser.)
Louisa May Alcott- exceprt from her Hospital Sketches
How were Whitman and Alcott's volunteer nursing experiences the same/different based on their memoirs/poems?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Even though there is a recording of these soldiers doing their rebel yell, the soldiers were doing it in front of an audience not in front of a charging battalion of soldiers. To get an accurate guess of the true rebel yell, you would have to get a stadium full of people to yell at the top of their lungs while chasing after another group. One reason that it was one of the worst battles of the war, was that the soldiers were already fighting on top of the skeletons and decomposing bodies of the already fallen union and confederate troops. Another reason that this campaign was the worst of the war, was that grant had lost more men in 2 days than Hooker did at Chancellorsville. A third reason it was the worst for the soldiers was because hundreds of injured soldiers would die due to the fact that they can’t be saved from fire. However with the defeat, the union army still marched on chasing General Lee and his army which up to this point in the war had never happened. This chasing and long battles showed the unions resolve to end the war. Both Walt Whitman and Luisa May Alcott saw to a preponderance of sick and wounded men. However Whitman seemed to take his job as something that he enjoyed while Alcott seemed to do her job as if it were her livelihood. In Whitman’s poems, it seemed as if each person he talked to was of interest as a person and a companion. When Alcott interacted with her patients, it seemed like she only connected with them enough to understand what was ailing them and then treating them.
ReplyDeleteNo one has actually heard the rebel yell because there is no surviving confederate war veterans left alive. Even though we heard the video of several veterans screaming the rebel yell, it is not accurate with what it would really sound like to a union solider because in battle there were thousands of soldiers yelling. The difference between the yell of eight or nine soldiers and thousands of soldiers can be very different.
ReplyDeleteThe campaigns in 1864 were not the bloodiest battles of the war, but the fighting was constant for two months straight. Never before had there been battle after battle. The two generals, Lee and Grant, were fighting a war of attrition. Each new that they had to defeat the others army completely or the war would never stop. Grant’s greatest weapon was that he had more men than Lee; therefor he could suffer more casualties as long as he caused large amounts of causalities to Lee’s army. Lee’s greatest weapon was his brilliant tactical mind, and his superb troops. The campaign ended in a standstill after two months because they beat each other to a pulp, with no large victory for either side.
In Walt Witman’s the Wound Dresser and in Louisa May Alcott Hospital Sketches, both volunteer nurses see the honors of the hospitals during the civil war. In the Wound Dresser, Witman is more of a triage nurse as in she deals with the wounds with the doctor in surgery. In the Hospital Sketches, Alcott is a nurse in a hospital where the soldiers have already been treated and she is trying her best to keep their wounds clean and them comfortable in their misery.
The Rebel yell was a yell for your life, a tool used to give a slight, but powerful advantage. The conditions of the yell were not replicated, meaning that when these men preformed the yell on the battle field it could have very well been a different thing entirely. Another reason no one living has really heard the yell, is because it was a shout made up of the power of thousands of men, all screaming their devotion.
ReplyDeleteThis battle was a computation of many horrible conditions and the outcome was one of the worst battles to take place on American soil. Upon starting the battle the ground was already littered with thousands of bodies, upturned form their shallow graves, put there form the battle of Chancellorsville, which occurred the previous year. The battle took place in the thick of the wilderness, in close quarters; men were fighting and crawling over their dead comrades. After the battle, a fire broke out, scorching the wilderness, and trapping the wounded men, to burn to death.
This battle showed us that the one that could last the other one out, would be the winner. It became a battle of endurance. Grant had to follow Lee, until Lee’s men were all dead and his resources were expended. Grant would eventually trump Lee, and go on to win the war between brothers.
The reason that historians can say with accuracy that no living person has heard the rebel yell is because of the situation in which it was produced. The yell was done in the heat of battle. The yell can never be accurately reproduced because the war can never be reproduced. Furthermore, thousands of adrenaline filled men were screaming the rebel yell as loud as they can. This cannot compare to the video of a few soldiers re-enacting it.
ReplyDeleteThe battle was one of the worst during the course of the Civil War for a couple reasons. First of all, the battle of Chancellorsville was fought in the same area previously. Many of the men that had died at this previous battle were buried in shallow graves and had become exposed do to the elements. So the men were fighting in the corpses of fallen soldiers. Second, the men who were wounded during battle could not be helped do to the fire that started as a result of the battle and a wilderness going through a drought. Grant's tactic of chasing Lee's army proved to be the better strategy for this battle as well as the war, though the causalities suffered because of this tactic were harsh.
In The Wound Dresser and Hospital Sketches, written by Walt Witman and Louisa May Alcott respectively, showed the hardships of being a nurse during the war. The two nurses see the need for more and improved medical care in the hospitals. Whitman dealt more with direct wounds, while Alcott dealt with post-surgery care of the wounds. Witman was more empathetic to the wounded soldiers he encountered and befriended them. Alcott was more focused on how to make the soldiers more comfortable physically.
Although confederate soldiers have been recorded re-enacting the rebel yell, they did so as elderly men. Not only would the sound of their voices have changed over time, but they are likely to be hard of hearing, which could alter how they project the yell. The yell was also re-enacted by a much smaller number of men than were actually present for it during the war, making it more inaccurate. For these
ReplyDeletereasons, historians can accurately say no living person has ever heard the true rebel yell.
Although this campaign was not the bloodiest of the war, the conditions soldiers had to endure were by no means pleasant. For instance, after the battle of the wilderness, many wounded men were burned alive by a brush fire because their regiments did not have time to move them to safer ground. The weather and terrain were also particularly difficult for soldiers to navigate through. Wounded men were often sent back out into action after receiving rushed medical care, such as immediate limb amputation. There were even times in which wounded men were buried in the piles of dead bodies because they were assumed to be dead. This campaign demonstrates the fact that Grant was focused on constantly pushing forward, at all costs, in hopes of ending the war as soon as possible. Lee desired to destroy Union resolve early on so that they could not regain their position before a new president was elected, also to end fighting as soon as possible.
Walt Whitman and Louisa May Alcott’s volunteer nursing experiences were similar in that they both cared for the severely injured men in the war. They both saw first-hand the effects of war on the soldiers, and sympathized greatly. The differences in their experiences were that Whitman seems very interested in each soldier as an individual, while Alcott cares more about helping the cause as a whole. Whitman notices the look in patients’ eyes, and is even willing to die if it meant he could save them. Alcott focuses more on keeping patients comfortable, taking care to organize them into different sections where they will be cared for most appropriately. This being said, she does not seem to sympathize with each individual soldier, but rather the collective group.
Historians can say that the rebel yell has not been heard by any living human due to a few variables. First, the recording of the rebel yell is of a very poor quality and does little justice to what I imagine the full force of the yell would have been. Second, the men asked to recreate the yell were all elderly and many were obviously hard of hearing. Also, I feel that the true effect of the rebel yell was not solely the sound, but that only in combination with the sight of hundreds, if not thousands, of confederates charging towards your line would you really be able to say that you've heard the "Rebel Yell"
ReplyDelete2) The Wilderness campaign had many factors going for it that made it the worst one for the soldiers. A major factor is the fact that the battles were fought consecutively, so the fighting was almost non-stop. Mother Nature had also done its best to make this campaign a hellish one as the rain had uncovered many of the shallow graves from previous battles, leaving the terrain a sight out of nightmare. Another factor was the fire that broke out in the wilderness. The soldiers of both sides could do little but listen to the screams of their comrades as the fire engulf the wounded who had not been retrieved from the field. This campaign showed that the South's tactic was to kill the will to fight in the North. While Grant wanted to put an end to Lee's army and make it to Richmond.
3.) The most obvious difference that one can assume by reading the two excerpts is that Whitman was involved with the more freshly wounded and Alcott had to deal with those who had already undergone initial treatment. Alcott seemed like a mother hen watching over the entirety of the ward, while Whitman had a much more personal experience with each and every soldier he treated.
Historians say that no one alive has heard the rebel yell because a bunch of drunk old men probably don’t have the energy to yell like young men charging into battle.
ReplyDeleteThe campaign was the worst for soldiers because there were bones from soldiers who died there the year before, because brush fires would trap wounded men and bury them alive, and the fighting was nonstop for around 30 days. Grant wanted to destroy the souths ability to physically keep waging war, while Lee wanted to destroy the norths determination to keep waging war by making the cost of victory to high.
Whitman treated soldiers in the immediate aftermath of battles, while Alcott treated soldiers who had stabilized enough to be transported to Washington. I’m sure this meant that the nature of the wounds they treated was different, and the dangers their patients faced were different as well. Both Whitman and Alcott did a lot of comforting, but because Whitman was so close to the front he probably had to work quickly and urgently to stop the bleeding. Alcott probably didn’t have to worry about people bleeding out since they bleeding would have had to have been stopped in order to send them back to Washington. Both Alcott and Whitman felt helpless at times when there wasn’t anything they could do to save someone. They both cared greatly about the men who were dying in their care, Whitman even claimed that he would die in some boys place if only that would save him.
Historians can say with accuracy, that no living person has ever heard the rebel yell because even though there is an actual video of confederate soldiers re-enacting it, they man not have completely remembered the yell and possibly could not fully hear how they themselves were yelling. The rebel yell would also need to be yelled my a very large group of soldiers, not just a small amount of Civil War veterans; in order for someone to fully understand what it felt like to have that yell charging at you.
ReplyDeleteThis campaign was one of the worst for soldiers because of the conditions they fought in. They fought in the “wilderness” which was an area with heavy foliage, this meant that there were old and dry leaves covering the ground, which fueled fires that were unintentionally started and trapped the wounded soldiers. Along with the leaves were dead bodies of both Union and Confederate soldiers, this is also a place where Grant lost more troops than Hooker did at Chancellorsville, but in only two days.
The Dresser and Hospital Sketches by Walt Whitman and Louisa May Alcott respectively were both about volunteer nurses. In The Dresser, Whitman was seemed to care more for each individual soldier while in Hospital Sketches, Alcott tries to comfort the soldiers, but as a group not necessarily as individuals.
1. Historians are able to say, with accuracy, that no living person has ever heard the Rebel Yell, despite there being a video reenactment, because of a number of reasons. One main reason being that the video was of elderly Confederate veterans who were hard of hearing and more than likely could not produce the same yell as they were able to when they were much younger. Second of all one could not say they fully experienced the Rebel Yell unless they had been on the Union side of the battlefield as hundreds of Confederate soldiers charged while yelling at the top of their lungs.
ReplyDelete2. The Wilderness campaign of 1864 may not have been the bloodiest of the war, but because of the conditions in which this 2 month long campaign was fought in. Rain and shallow graves meant that the continuous battles were fought on the decomposing bodies of fallen Union and Confederate soldiers. This would have been a gruesome sight for any human being. As the fighting continued fires also broke out in the wilderness, wounded soldiers from both sides would become trapped by the fires and would suffer horrible deaths. Grant, trying to end the war at all costs, continued to push on in an attempt to totally destroy Lee's army. He knew that although the Union was suffering great casualties they still remained to have a larger army than Lee had. In response Lee attempted to hinder the North's determination to continue fighting.
3. Walt Whitman and Louisa May Alcott had similar experiences as volunteer nurses as they had both witnessed the aftermath of war on a soldier. However, they both had seemed to care for the soldiers in different ways. Whitman had a more one on one experience with the freshly hospitalized soldiers. From his poem "The Dresser" it appears that he tends to each soldier, dressing their wounds and witnessing individual deaths. On the other end Alcott would comfort groups of soldiers who were already on the road to recovery from injuries sustained in battle. Dealing with the psychological damage caused by PTSD would have been a much different experience then Whitman's. Despite these differences it is obvious that they both cared greatly for the wounded men.
It is accurate to say that no living person has heard the rebel yell due to the fact that the ‘rebel yell’ in the video is likely far from how it actually sounded. One reason for this is the obvious fact that a few old men could hardly compare to the sound of hundreds or thousands of men shouting with all their might. Add to this the fact that the cries were likely far more intense under the emotional state involved in being in the heat of battle, and one could imagine the spectacle would be far more intense.
ReplyDeleteThe campaign described in “The civil war: episode 6,” while not being the bloodiest was among the worst for soldiers for many reasons. Many of these reasons stem from the location known as ‘the wilderness.’ This location was the site of the battle of Chancellorsville about a year prior, and due to weather conditions, the shallow graves of that battle’s killed in action were unearthed. This left soldiers fighting on and making camp around the decomposed corpses of fallen comrades. Another one of the reasons this area made the campaign so horrible was the climate at the time. The area in which combat was taking place was covered in extremely dry foliage, which in combination with burning debris and embers from weapons fire led to larger fires that trapped wounded soldiers, burning them alive as their comrades stood helplessly by. One final example of the carnage related to the fighting in the wilderness pertains to the confusion caused by combat within thick forestry. This results in soldiers losing track of who’s who during the fighting, possibly resulting in friendly fire. As for the tactics involved in the campaign, Grant was intent on destroying the capability of the southern army at all costs, primarily by pushing forward relentlessly, and using siege tactics where necessary. On the other hand, Lee’s tactics focused more on dealing crippling blows to the morale and determination of northern fighters and supporters.
Walt Whitman and Louisa May Alcott were both volunteer nurses during the war. While both dealt heavily with large numbers of wounded soldiers, their experiences differ in a few key ways. Whitman dealt primarily with recently wounded soldiers, dressing, cleaning, and tending to many kinds of gnarly wounds. Alcott, on the other hand, worked with post-surgery soldiers, focusing mostly on maintaining their comfort and helping their recovery.
Historians can accurately say that no living person has ever heard the rebel yell because the only people to here the actual yell were on the battlefield. This fact means that all the witnesses of the yell either passed away during or after the war leaving no living witnesses.
ReplyDeleteEven though the campaign documented in Ken Burns’ The Civil War was not the bloodiest it was one of the most terrible due to the conditions and circumstances that surrounded the campaign. The early part of the campaign in the wilderness saw wounded men being burnt alive by brush fires started during the battle. This campaign also saw the demoralization of the combatants through hard fought battles that stretched for days with neither side gaining ground despite the losses. The end of the campaign also so the atrocious conditions of trench warfare where both sides were also fighting a losing battle against the disease carrying bugs and illness inflicting weather. This campaign also should that neither Lee nor Grant would give up. Lee would dig his men in and fight the flanking attacks of Grant.
Alcott’s experiences as a nurse seemed to be lighter than Whitman’s. She speaks of having a pleasure room where her main duties are to keep the wounded joyful and to transcribe letters for them. Whitman’s account seems to only show the darker side of being a field nurse. Whitman seems to recount only the pain and suffering of the wounded as he went about his duties. This is not to say Alcott did not also experience the hardships of death and despair amongst the soldiers, she specifically speaks of this with here mention of the pathetic room. Both Whitman and Alcott saw the bad side of the wounded soldiers but Alcott also had a perspective on the optimistic side of men who were getting better.
The Rebel Yell, the sound of countless young Confederate men screaming as they charge into battle, requires the harsh conditions of the Civil War to be heard. A handful of elderly former Confederate soldiers re-enacting their best yell one at a time to please a crowd many years after the Civil War had ended does not truly present what the Rebel Yell sounded like for that reason. Since all those who could have participated in the Civil War have since died, no living person has heard the Rebel Yell.
ReplyDeleteOne of the reasons this was the worst campaign for soldiers was the extremely demoralizing rapid death rate of the Union soldiers. Another reason was that the Wilderness had a great risk of fire, so combat with explosives and firearms in the Wilderness caused numerous forest fires throughout the campaign. Related to the previous reason, a third reason was that those who were wounded were unable to escape the forest fires, so they burned alive as uninjured soldiers had to abandon them. This demonstrates Lee's strategy of demoralizing the Union by making the war seem as unappealing to fight in as possible, ultimately attempting to make the Union withdrawal their troops and call off the war. Grant, however, continued to push on despite this terrible campaign, demonstrating his strategy of never backing down on his campaigns, knowing that the Union could eventually simply overpower the Confederacy.
Both Alcott and Whitman describe the horrible condition of the soldiers they personally witnessed as they served as nurses in the war. Whitman seemed to take care of those who had just been injured one at a time, focusing on the emotional bonds he made with the wounded in his work. Alcott, however, took care of those who were recovering from surgery as a group more than individually, and she focused on the practical concerns with taking care of these soldiers rather than the emotional concerns.
ReplyDeleteHistorians say that no living person today has heard to rebel yell because no living person actually experienced it in the war. The video, for what it is, is just a bunch of people yelling at a social event. It was not like it was in the actual war when they were doing it charging into battle massed together with their lives on the line. Though people may try to reenactment there was no perservance to the actual rebel yell
This campaign was the worst for solders for many reasons. Dead bodies from previous battles already littered the land, heavy rain came and washed out the bodies from their shallow graves. The fighting took place in this and partway through the battle a fire became lit that set the wilderness ablaze. It burned everything including the wounded men who were stuck out in the battlefield. It was said that the horrid screams can be heard for miles with little can be done to save them. This battle however showed just how far Grant was willing to go, he was slowly dwindling down the numbers of the confederate army, numbers which could not be replaced unlike that of the north.
They were both simmilair in the sense of their direct nursley duties, to tend and care to the solders despite their gruesome state. Though Alcott went on about how once things were calmer with their patients, either calm, happy to see the nurse, or depressed and with death likely to come and mentions how they would go off to the pleasure, the pathetic and the duty rooms
Nobody who is currently alive has actually heard the rebel yell. The rebel yell was a very primal yell done in the heat of battle right before they attack. While the reenactment was done with actual civil war veterans, they were quite elderly and did not still have the heat of battle to drive their yell.
ReplyDeleteThe wilderness campaign was not the bloodiest, but it was the most physiologically intense battle of the war. This was the site of the battle of Chancellorsville, which had been fought a year beforehand. Due to the shallow graves from Chancellorsville and the rain and running the old graves were unearthed. This caused the battle to be done on top of dead soldiers from the previous battle. The area was heavily forested with a large amounts of leaves on the ground. This meant that fires were very easy to start and therefore many injured people were burned alive after becoming surrounded by flames. The battle was fought non-stop for 30 days with Grant being ruthless and refusing to let Lee retreat. This people were pushed to their edge. This showed Grant's “unconditional surrender” and his willingness to win at all costs. Lee attempted to use his strategy of splitting forces, but it failed against Grant's ruthlessness.
Both showed the horrors of war and what they had to deal with from the aftermath of battle. Whitman dealt with those who had just been injured and formed a more personal relationship with each patient. This allowed him to help those who were on the edge of life. However Alcott would watch over them after they were moderately stable and she would ensure that large groups on men were as comfortable as possible.
1. Historians can say that no one alive has heard the rebel yell accurately, because the video recording of it that the Smithsonian has is only a handful of survivors from the war that were in their 70s. An actual rebel yell would consist of several hundred men running across a battlefield screaming their heads off trying to scare the enemy not several old men giving it their best, while, people gathered around then were buying them and applauded.
ReplyDelete2. Lee’s and grants strategies for victory were very different. Lee wanted to prolong the war as much as possible to break the North's will to fight. Grant on the other hand wanted to swiftly crush the South will and ability to fight a war through total war. The conditions that made this campaign absolutely brutal for soldiers was that to begin with their fighting was on an old battlefield near Chancellorsville. The year before Lee had crushed hooker eventually causing hookers dismissal however the soldiers that died there had been buried in shallow graves. Heavy rains followed this during the spring that wash the dirt away from the bodies leaving them exposed to the elements. After the almost constant spring rains this summer was completely dry. The Chancellorsville battlefield wounds next to a heavily forced an area known as the wilderness as this area dried out and a new battle ensued the woods caught fire and any man wounded burned to death in the flames before it could arrived to retrieve them. Finally in grants bid to quickly defeat the South. He will lose over half of the men he originally start started out with for his spring campaign nearly 60,000 men died in less than a month.
3. Both Walt Whitman's and Louisa May Alcott writings detail their endless routine of how they care for their charges however Ms. Alcott's memoir seems far more humanized than the poem Whitman offered. This probably has to do with the different styles of writing.
The reason that no living person has ever heard the rebel yell is for a few reasons. The first reason is due to the fact that it was rally cry. Serving to shift momentum during the war to the confederates. Thus, if it was heard on the battle you generally didn't survive it on the front lines. Secondly, it was performed hundreds of twenty something year old confederate soldiers at one time during the heat of battle. Which meant that it sounded vastly different today as compared to the re-enactment. What made this campaign so horrible for soldiers where the conditions of the battle field. This battle site was home to a previous battle and haste and assuming exhaustion shallow graves where dug. Meaning that the bodies of dead soldiers where close to the surface and when it rained and got muddy these corpses where unearth causing soldiers to fight amongst decaying corpses. Another condition was a severe drought. With all of the gun fire that happens during a war the area was on fire. Thus killing wounded soldiers by burning them alive or smoke inhalation. The final reason is the location, which was the Wilderness a giant forest that the South knew like the back of their hand, while the North did not. Furthermore, the difference between strategies of Lee and Grant is that Grant would wait you out through siege, thus demoralizing and starving out the enemy ( ie. the anaconda plan). Whilst Lee would split up his forces and try to overwhelm the a pincer like movement and hit them hard and fast (even though he had less men and resources), this was done in an attempt to prove to the North that South was a force to contend with. Finally, Whitman and Alcott's nursing experiences are different because Whitman would deal with them as they came in from the battlefield while Alcott dealt with them after they have been treated and made comfortable. The similar thing about them was that they both cared for their charges and did the best they could to heal them or at least make them comfortable.
ReplyDeleteThe Rebel yell was used during the civil war when the solders were headed into battle and their adrenaline was rushing. People can reenact it and pretend to know what it sounded like but no one will ever know exactly what it sounded like. In order to get a more accurate idea of the Rebel yell you would need thousands of men with their adrenaline rushing as they charge into battle.
ReplyDeleteThis wilderness may not have been the bloodiest but there are many ways that it was the worst location. Due to heavy rains remains of people who previously fought in battles and were buried there were dug up. It was a horrible sight to be walking over remains of dead soldiers. The fire that broke out left many wounded men to burn alive and there was nothing their buddies could do other than listen to their screams. There was constant fighting in the wilderness and this caused many deaths.
Whitman and Alcott’s volunteering experiences were similar because they cared for solders and saw the effects of the war first hand. The difference between them was that Whitman seemed to have a heart and actually cared about their feelings and thoughts. He was concerned about each and every individual. On the other hand Alcott cared about the solders but he was not interested in their stories or feelings he just cared about getting as many people back to health as possible.
The rebel yell was first used in the battle of Manassas when Jackson told his Confederate soldiers, “When you charge, yell like furies.” This battle cry was used throughout the war to primarily intimidate the enemy and boost morale of Confederate soldiers. It is impossible to know what this yell might have sounded like back in the Civil War for a few reasons. There was no audio or video recording equipment in the 1860’s. Civil War Veterans in their 90’s trying to re-enact the rebel yell is not the same as 1000’s of young men yelling in the heat of battle.
ReplyDeleteAs Shelby Foote pointed out in “The Civil War: Valley of the Shadow of Death”, a great General had to be superb in the offensive and defensive. Victory in this war also required a General that was willing to take chances when the situation required it, which General Lee was superb at. Grant’s campaign required four simultaneous blows; while Lee’s plan was to destroy the Unions resolve and force them into battles that did not allow them to take advantage of their superior troop numbers. The Wilderness was a terrible battle. Many soldiers were killed, old graves were uncovered, and many wounded soldiers would die in fires started by rifles. Surgeons would work for 100 hours straight, working on as many as 2000 wounded soldiers per day. Despite this terrible battle, Grant ordered his solders to march the next morning, which is something no other General would have done in the same situation. After the Wilderness, there would be 30 days of constant fighting, which took its toll on soldiers. One soldier wrote “It was living night and day within the valley of shadow of death.”
Both Whitman’s and Alcott’s volunteer nurse experience in the Civil War were quite similar. They both talked about the same type of injuries, as well as how they had to bottle up their feeling to properly perform their duties.
Nobody alive today knows the true sound of the Rebel Yell, even though the video has actual veteran confederate soldiers re-enacting it. The veterans did their best to re-enact the yell but they were much older and were not in the midst of a fierce battle. There are also only a small group of men re-enacting the yell, not an entire army. The video provides a basic idea of the three high pitch screams of the Rebel Yell, but not the true roaring cry.
ReplyDeleteThis portion of the campaign primarily took place in and around Virginia. It may not have been the bloodiest, but it was the worst for soldiers in several ways. The battle of Wilderness was chaotic and non-stop heavy fighting so the soldiers had little time to rest. Harsh living conditions and disease led to a large number of deaths. Due to the dense brush, units got lost and were often shot by their own comrades. Also, many dried leaves and dead plants covered the ground and ended up on fire leading to large numbers of wounded men dying in the flames. Surgeons were brought thousands of wounded men a day and usually resorted to amputations to deal with wounds. These battles show that Grant was willing to use his larger number of men to take down Lee’s smaller army. Leading up to Richmond, Grant continued to order his men to march to the left flank. Lee often knew where Grant would move as seen in the battle of Cold Harbor. This did not stop Grant and eventually he made the move to Petersburg which Lee did not predict. This shows that Grant’s persistence is what helped pave the road to victory.
Walt Whitman and Louisa May Alcott both experienced the effects of the civil war first hand. Whitman dealt with the wounds more directly than Alcott and felt very empathetic for the individuals and tried to befriend them whereas Alcott focused on helping the wounded recover after their initial treatment. At one point, Alcott states that she wanted to cry but learned how to bottle up her tears inside of her.
Well a small group of old men does not an authentic rebel yell make. The real rebel yell was done by tens of thousand of soldiers running across a field, fueled by adrenaline, and being shot at. A few old men yelling, does not accurately represent that premise, and one could also argue that these old men don't sound as they did when they were younger, so that also disproves the authenticity of the reenactment.
ReplyDeleteThe second campaign in the wilderness was brutal for the soldiers as they had limited visibility. They also had to camp onto of the washed away shallow graves of fallen soldiers of the first campaign of the wilderness. Soldiers got lost, and their were bouts of friendly fire, but ultimately the worst part was at the end of the battles, there was an accidental forest fire, and the wounded couldn't get away and their allies had to listen to their screams as the burned alive. When the battle ends and Lee retreats, for the first time ever, the union army under Grant, pursued Lee and his army resolved in ending the war.
Both Witman and Alcott saw many soldiers throughout their career and both did their jobs as if it were their duty. But these two were different from each other. While both attended to soldier, Witman was a triage nurse, and dealt with the wounded along side a surgeon. Alcott took care of recovering patients, cleaning wounds, changing bandages, and comforting the soldiers to put their misery at ease.
Historians can say with certainty that no living person has heard the rebel yell, despite civil war soldiers reenacting it because a small group of old men being interviewed yelling is not the same as a group of thousands of charging young men, ready to fight for their lives, yelling as they rush into battle.
ReplyDeleteThis campaign was the worst for the soldiers because of the non-stop fighting, presence of thousands of already dead and decomposing bodies, and the fire that prevented men from getting help and that killed many. This battle shows us that Grant was willing to fight a war of attrition, and would win as long as he killed as many troops as he lost, since he had more men than Lee. It also shows that Lee was a brilliant tactician that would find ways to outmaneuver and outsmart his enemy, and even the odds despite his disadvantage in numbers.
Whitman and Alcott’s experiences were the same in that they worked with men wounded during the civil war, and likely saw many of the same types of injuries and diseases. They both also showed significant compassion for those they cared for. Whitman tended to perform the actual treatment of disease and illness however, while Alcott cared for those who had been treated by someone like Whitman.
No one knows what the rebel yell sounds like in my opinion because of three main reasons in my opinion. One it wasn't video taped until the vets we're in their 80's or older. at that age did then even remember exactly what it was. Two the audio quality on the film is not good. What we here now on the film might not have been what the people heard that were there. lastly from what I can find it was never standardized how do we even know if it was then same for every unit.
ReplyDeleteThe wilderness campaign was a violent and blood battle of attrition. constantly in fire fights and watching you friends die one by one.you know I don't need to explain this. Unlike most I've lived it every single day seeing action and that's all I'm going to say on it. as far a grant vs. lee it shows that grant knows the one strategy to beat lee and he's will to go though with it.
Whitmans experience was a lot different then Alcott's. Whitman was at a front line hospital there is where the dieing are taken and not everyone is going to walk away from it. Alcott was at a secondary Hospital where most people there were expected to make a full recovery. Untimely Whitmans experiences were far more gruesome and traumatic then Alcott's.