Daily Life During Civil War Times

Paper Summary:

This paper discusses how, although much attention is given to the soldiers that fought during the Civil War, there were millions of people who were neither soldier nor slave who were forced to continue with their day-to-day living while the horrors that nearly ripped apart a young country raged about them. It looks at how the experiences of these "ordinary people" were remarkably similar in some areas and yet sharply different in others. It looks at how theirs was the burden of immediate: what would they eat and feed to their families and how could they protect themselves and their loved ones from the savagery of the on-going war.

Outline
Daily Life within the Home
Daily Life outside the Home
Children
The Broad View

From the Paper:

"During the War years, there was a widespread expectation of both sides of the Mason-Dixon Line that any reasonably healthy man would gladly set aside his family responsibilities to place his life on the line for the honor and preservation of his nation, either to stem "Northern aggression" in the South or hold the Union together in the North. While it is only logical that wartime would greatly increase the manpower needed in food production and related "rural" work, the common perception was that unless a man was engaged in specifically war-related industries (such as the production of munitions) he should be in uniform. This suspicion didn't extend to the sons of the wealthy, of course, who were able to buy their way out of service for as little as $300 or through the providing of substitutes (Wallechinsky & Wallace 1978)."

More papers on Daily Life During Civil War Times:

• Article Review # 36963 : "Women During the Civil War"
• Comparison Essay # 67090 : "Generals of the Civil War"
• Essay # 43498 : "Spies in American Civil War"

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