The Life Of Soldiers During The Civil War

During the Civil War, roughly 500 thousand soldiers died, with the Confederate losing almost twenty times more soldiers than the Union, not counting the countless number of soldiers that died from disease and other non-war related topics (LaFantaSie). Both sides lost gut-wrenching numbers of soldiers during the Civil War, all because of there different beliefs. While death took a large toll, there were other tasks that soldiers had to worry about such as hunger and disease. Even Though soldiers may be more equipped today, soldiers during the Civil War were administered minimal equipment, and more often than not were forced to fend for themselves. The life of a soldier was a hard and chaotic life with constant drills and training, hardships
Chaos always insured when soldiers were fighting at battlefields, mostly from the suicidal tasks they were told to perform. Once a fight began, soldiers lined up in ranks and then charged the enemy trenches (“Soldier Life” 4). This meant soldiers on horseback, and on foot, charged straight into enemy gunfire, and artillery fire (“Soldier Life” 5; Roche 14, 15). This lead to an astonishing amount of casualties, a whopping 620,000 soldiers, all of which died following their leaders command (LaFantaSie). Other duties soldiers were tasked with was to protect their commanders (The people who sent out commands) and once there commanders died, even more chaos ensued, with no orders of what to do or where to go (Heiser). Another reason chaos ensued so frequently was because of the gear evolutions at the time. Soldiers in the Civil War were equipped with a musket rifle, bayonet, and revolutionary bullets known as the Minié ball, a round that was curved so that it shattered bone, and made untreatable wounds which often led soldiers to medical tents (LaFantasie; “Soldier Life” 1). While it seems ridiculous, most soldiers fought so hard because they saw winning as a gift from God, and at the same time, God was allowing soldiers to put their faith in something, and avoid the horrors all around them (“Soldier Life” 5). While some soldiers could escape the horrors around them, some soldiers were not so lucky. Many soldiers were so horrified by the death around them that they went into a sort of “Berserk Mode” firing their weapons as fast as possible, screaming, and trying not to look afraid in front of there close friends, almost viewing war as a game and not a serious and dangerous task. (“Soldier Life” 4). Sadly, from soldiers going berserk, and the chaos of the battles made soldiers kill friends that they had previously