War

[MaddieM]

(10-09-2012 07:37 AM)BettyO Wrote:  Fantastic post, Bill -- as always!

I for one, think that at the beginning of the war that Lew Powell enlisted (underage at that - 17 years for which he had to acquire parental permission) along with his best friend Sam Mitchell, simply for the sheer adventure of it. Patriotism? Perhaps - but I think most young boys enlisted early in the war, seeing it as a "grand lark" with the impression that it'll be over in a few weeks, or a few months.... then back home crowned with the glory of having seen a bit of "the world"....

Yeah, agreed. You don't have any sense of mortality at that age.

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(10-09-2012 10:28 AM)Laurie Verge Wrote:  I think both Bill and Betty are absolutely right. What makes our Civil War even more tragic is the fact that it was fought by our citizens on our turf. It has always been easier to justify a war when we were fighting the "bad guys." In this case, both sides were the bad guys and they were Americans.

My father was career military through WWII and Korea. He abhored war; never wanted a son because a boy would be called to fight (he died before women became an integral part of the services); and could not understand reenactors who wanted to "play soldier," as he termed it. That applied to reenactors from the French & Indian War through WWII. He was really perturbed with those who portrayed Nazi forces...

I can totally understand that viewpoint. I guess reenactment is only for those who've never experienced the true horror of it all. I shouldn't imagine anyone who'd been through war, would wish to go over it again and again in some pretendy situation.