Confederate Home Front Thesis

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The Confederate Home Front The Civil War was a difficult time in American History. The nation that was supposed to be the ideal self-governed society had fallen into pieces. While soldiers endured unthinkable atrocities on the battlefields we tend to forget about the people left at home. While the northern citizenry escaped the hardships others that lost loved ones in the south is a completely different story. The people of the south saw before their own eyes the death and destruction of war. They felt first hand the miseries of a total war that was waged upon them to suppress any loyalty to the Confederacy. On the outset of The American Civil War there was a great flood of patriotism in the south. Men and women alike wanted to support…show more content…
They felt they would whip the Yankees and come home none the worse for wear. But reality soon sat in. Mass carnage on battle fields begin to take husbands and brothers away from the women left at home. In all 620,000 men perished in the Civil War. This was about 2% of the population. We have recent memory of losing about 3500 people in the attacks on the world trade center. This attack sprang forth a great outpouring of civic pride and patriotism not seen in America since World War II. However think for a moment if instead of 3500 people died that September day that 6 million people or the entire population of New York City had been killed. That would be the equivalent of the toll the Civil War produced. Every person in America either lost someone or knew someone who died in the war. Unfortunately, the way regiments were put together from local communities, when that regiment suffered severe loss in battle the local community suffered tremendously…show more content…
Moving from Eastern Tennessee Sherman is to gut a swatch of pain and suffering through Georgia all the way to the Atlantic Ocean. From that point he has plans to move North through the Carolinas and join with the General Grant back in Virginia. Sherman well understood the impact his march would have. Sherman is known as the most hated man in the south for fair reason. His path, about thirty miles, was one of complete scorched earth devastation. He intended to “make Georgia howl” . Sherman, however, has been unfairly vilified in the south. General Sherman was not lover of war. He thoroughly despised it but was understanding of his situation. War is not a pretty thing and Sherman did what was necessary to win the war. He understood the power the home front had on the standing army. He was determined to break the peoples will to continue rebellion and bring the war to a close. He indeed did break their will. Sherman led a campaign out of Chattanooga and cut a thirty mile swatch through Georgia. After his capture of Atlanta the city burns nearly to complete destruction. From there his path of destruction leads all the way to Savannah where on Christmas Day he sends a telegraph to Lincoln offering him the city as a Christmas
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