THE WAR BETWEEN THE STATES

It was the greatest war in American history.
3 million fought - 600,000 died.
It was the only war fought on American soil by Americans, and for that reason we have always been fascinated with The Civil War.
Hundreds of books, movies and documentaries have (and are) being created about this war. With the advent of the internet, we now have yet another tool to study every single event in this great period of American history.  (From http://www.civilwar.com/)

The War through Tom's Eyes

"Time passed on and we only had our picket duty to do, and to show you how unrighteous this and every war is:  We were on the south bank and the Federals on the north bank of the river, and we could talk to each other, and sometimes some of us would swim across the river and talk to the man on post duty over there, and exchange newspapers and tobacco for coffee, and were as friendly as men could be.  Then we would be hurled into battle and would take all the pains necessary to kill what was termed our enemy.  Oh!  The cruelties of war!" (page 34)

"I want to tell you how brutish, cruel, barbarous, and, if there is any other word in the English language that will express a devilish disposition, as you read this just add it and read on.  As we were making this flanking movement we crossed an old field, where there had been a bloody fight nine days before.  The great General Grant had been in possession of this ground all of this time, and yet the men who happened to fall in the road were literally worn out, except  their clothes.  I stopped and counted fifty-seven men lying there, whom I don’t suppose were ever buried.  Oh!   The cruelties of war!  Who can ferret out the sins of these great Generals?  The poor old wool-hat fellow has all of the blunt to bear and only gets shot, rations and kicked and cursed around, and the big, fat man up at the General’s big, white tent gets all of the pay and the glory."  (Page 76-77)

"Well, about daylight we saw the Yankees coming, and they came in seventeen lines, one line just behind the other, and we counted them, and some fellow said: “Look out!  Boys!  We will have blood for supper.”   Well, before supper time we had lots of blood, for we fought right there all day long.  and part of the time it was a hand-to-hand fight, and there were Federal and Confederate soldiers, all good men, lying weltering in their blood, one on top of another until they were three and four deep."