The soldiers who fought for the United States and the Confederacy would always bear the marks of their experience. Some had demonstrated qualities of leadership or bravery or endurance that would ennoble them the rest of their lives. Others bore the mark of weakness and failure that would follow them wherever people knew their wartime histories. Deserters and traitors would forever be branded as such.
The wounds of many men would be obvious to anyone who saw their devastated faces, their empty sleeves, their hobbled gait. The wounds of other men were hidden in their hearts and minds, evidently only to themselves and those who lived with them.
By the time it ended, the American Civil War had taken the lives of more people than any other struggle over slavery in the history of the hemisphere. The cost of the American war- three times the economic value of the enslaved population in 1860- outstripped any compensation offered to any other slave owners.
The wounds of many men would be obvious to anyone who saw their devastated faces, their empty sleeves, their hobbled gait. The wounds of other men were hidden in their hearts and minds, evidently only to themselves and those who lived with them.
By the time it ended, the American Civil War had taken the lives of more people than any other struggle over slavery in the history of the hemisphere. The cost of the American war- three times the economic value of the enslaved population in 1860- outstripped any compensation offered to any other slave owners.
- from page 340, The Thin Light of Freedom