Our Views: Civil War dead changed culture

Given Louisiana’s strong role in the history of the Confederacy, one doesn’t have to look far here for solemn commemorations of the Civil War, including vivid re-enactments of historic battles.

What’s too easily lost in such remembrances is the reality of what was left after the battles were over. In the case of the Civil War, more than any other war in American history, what persisted after the last shot on the battlefield was an enormous number of dead soldiers — a staggering death toll even by today’s standards of modern warfare.

All of this is made terribly immediate in “Death and the Civil War,” a two-hour documentary debuting at 7 p.m. tonight as part of public television’s “The American Experience” series.

To see tonight’s show, based on a gracefully written book on the subject by Drew Gilpin Faust, is to be reminded how shattering the Civil War was for both sides of the conflict.

By war’s end, the death toll stood at some 750,000 soldiers, more than in all of America’s other wars combined.

Before the Civil War, the U.S. government assumed little responsibility for locating, identifying, transporting and burying war dead. But the massive losses of the Civil War proved such a deep psychological wound that citizens petitioned their government for closure.

From that movement grew the observance of Memorial Day — and a national commitment to revere and remember those who die in combat.

It’s a tradition that still resonates today, as members of the American military continue to die in combat operations in Afghanistan.

In that way, the past chronicled in “Death and the Civil War” seems, sadly, not very distant at all.

Comments

1) Comment by nimby? - 09/20/2012

for some it was . more facts to ignore , ugh ....

2) Comment by DMJ - 09/20/2012

Like I said...it was great. Ahh....the good 'ole days...

3) Comment by nimby? - 09/19/2012

DMJ , suppose union forces never cross the Potomac , never invade Virginia , there is no war , the south and north are left to sink or swim on their own ? by 1857 , between sentiment and cost slavery was on a decline . most will say the war was fought to end slavery , yet slavery in the north was legal under the term "indentured servitude" , little something left over from British colonial days . most involved were white immigrants , Irish , Italian , eastern european . in many cases they lived and worked under conditions far worse than slaves in the south . "where all men are created equal" . yep , a war was fought to free the black man . then he was hired , at half white mans pay , to go west to kill red men , go figure ....

4) Comment by DMJ - 09/19/2012

You're right, guys. The Civil War was a great idea. Let's hope we have another. I mean....what's the worst that could happen?

5) Comment by nimby? - 09/19/2012

under this same rationale the colonies had no right to leave the British empire , but they did . before Fort Sumter was fired upon they were given the option to abandon the fort peacefully , as were other union posts in the south . union casualties , one mule killed , no prisoners kept , all in the fort were allowed to go home ...

6) Comment by tradewinns - 09/19/2012

DMJ; "The Confederacy fired on a U.S. Ship at the Battle of Fort Sumter. This is an act of treason, which is illegal in the U.S". as you stated further on, the confederacy was no longer a part of the U.S. and the south fired on the union ship because they felt it violated their sovereignty due to their refusal to withdraw union forces from their nation's territory. truly what i am asking is because i can not find anything in the constitution (of that time) that states once you're in you're in forever. (texas did included in their joining the right to leave, not usually known). if there is no contract that was broken, the confederacy is a conquered nation and, like the nations of europe, may one day arise again.

7) Comment by DMJ - 09/19/2012

Still doesn't mean the South had the right to secede.

8) Comment by nimby? - 09/18/2012

the powers that be chose a stricter punishment after Mr. Lincolns assassination . 90 percent of the war fought below the Mason Dixon , fields burned , stores looted , factories destroyed , half of the male population either dead or disabled , no economy . kick a man when he's at rock bottom , he'll surely remember . for what it's worth ; the last confederate general to surrender was a Cherokee , Stand Watie (De ga te ga) , Watie surrendered on June 23, 1865 , two months after Appomattox ....

9) Comment by DMJ - 09/18/2012

Agreed. That doesn't mean he was wrong about the Civil War...which was my whole point.

10) Comment by nimby? - 09/18/2012

DMJ , one must be consistent in honoring their own words . by 1810 the Cherokee were well on their way to assimilating , in order to survive . they lived in houses, farmed . set up a form of government similar to that of the original colonies , a charter resembling the constitution . a printed language , schools . they were more prosperous , literate than they local white counterpart , which raised some ire . they fought with Jackson in the creek/seminole wars , saved him from massacre at horseshoe bend . this is how they were repaid . they did what they were supposed to . attempted genocide is more than just a "bad thing" ...

11) Comment by Being_Stupid - 09/18/2012

To truly understand what the Civil War was about, you either had to have lived back then between 1860 and 1865, or you had to have watched all 10 hours of the Ken Burns Civil War Documentary that first aired on PBS during the late summer of 1990 and can be watched now either by DVD or via You-Tube.

12) Comment by DMJ - 09/18/2012

Not everything a person does is good....sometimes they do bad things. Does it mean the good things they did weren't really good because they also did bad things? Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independance....he also owned slaves. Are the wise things people do and say negated by the bad things they do and say? Some Cherokee killed women and children. Does it excuse the Trail of Tears? See my point, nimby? Don't get me wrong, nimy. I think that if hell exists, Andy Jackson is roasting there, but the quote I used still makes sense, does it not?

13) Comment by nimby? - 09/18/2012

the same Andy Jackson who ignored a ruling by the supreme court in favor of the eastern Cherokee tribes , siding with the state of Georgia , using military intervention in the forced removal of people from their rightful homes . the sons of Louisiana lie buried beneath fields from Texas to Pennsylvania . many were barefoot boys leaving home for the first time , never to return ; a remembrance , a reminder ....

14) Comment by DMJ - 09/18/2012

The Confederacy fired on a U.S. Ship at the Battle of Fort Sumter. This is an act of treason, which is illegal in the U.S. Answer your question, Tradewinns? Also, that question is pointless anyway, because if they're seceding, they're not beholden to U.S. law anyway. That's the whole point of secession in the first place. To quote Andrew Jackson, "...each State, having expressly parted with so many powers as to constitute, jointly with the other States, a single nation, can not, from that period, possess any right to secede, because such secession does not break a league, but destroys the unity of a nation." There's a reason we're called the "United" States, after all.

15) Comment by Being_Stupid - 09/18/2012

A lot of white men died to free this country from slavery. The Institution of Slavery was the direct cause of the Civil War and almost caused this country to crumble during the early to mid 1800s. Those who insist on reparations for descendants of slavery, need to understand that those reparations were paid in full with the blood of white men between 1860 to 1865. The United States does not owe you anything, but freedom.

16) Comment by tradewinns - 09/18/2012

i would still like to know from an expert if the south's sucession from the union violated any law, legal permanant obligation, anything that made the union go to war with the south to reunite the nation. does anyone know?