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The Human Face of War
EQ:
What was life like for soldiers
and on the home front?
The Soldier’s Life
Men from all over fought in the Civil War
 Many hoped for excitement and glory;
instead they found terror in battle and
boredom in camp


a camp is a group of temporary shelters, such
as tents
Entertainment
Soldiers read, sang, or wrote letters to pass
the time in camp
 Some put on shows or printed newspapers
 They loved to get letters

Necessities

Food in the army was usually poor
 Union
soldiers grew tired of eating the same
food almost every day.
 Confederate soldiers suffered more because
they often did not have enough to eat.
Who were the Soldiers?
Soldiers came from a variety of
backgrounds – at first, almost all were
white and born in the USA.
 As the war went on, the Union allowed
African Americans to join.
 About 180,000 African Americans served in
the Union army

Immigrants also joined the Union army
(Germany, Ireland, Italy, American Indians)
 Thousands of boys went into the battle
even though they were too young

 Some
were drummers who sent signals to
soldiers in battle
 Hundreds of women on both sides disguised
themselves as men and joined the army
 Women also served as spies for one side or the
other
Casualties of War
This was the deadliest war in American
history
 Not only were the casualties of war high,
but disease killed twice as many soldiers as
the fighting did

Nurses
Women helped take care of the sick and
wounded
 Women in both the north and south
served as nurses – some in hospitals, others
in their own home

 Clara
Barton – later founded the American
Red Cross
On the Home Front

Soldiers left their families behind when
they went to war – those families are part
of the home front (all the people who
aren’t in the military)
Women’s role

With men gone, women took on new
tasks
 They

ran farms and businesses
Thousands of women sewed uniforms, knitted
socks, made bandages, and raised money for
their armies
A new invention

Most of the battles took place in the South
… few people in the North could see the
war happening
 The
new technology of photography let
civilians see what the war looked like.
 Civilian = person who is not in the military
 Matthew Brady took pictures & showed them
to the North. Civilians saw that war was much
worse than they realized
The Southern Home Front

Life on the home front was especially hard
in the South.
 Their
farms became battlefields
 Their cities, homes, and barns were destroyed
 Soldiers and citizens often didn’t have enough
to eat – prices of food increased which made it
harder to afford
Tough times for both sides
Davis & Lincoln each needed to start a
draft to find more soldiers
 Draft = government selects people to
serve in the military
 People rioted against the draft and
thousands of soldiers had to be sent to
stop the riots (a violent protest)

Effects of War
Because the majority of the battles had been
fought in the South, they experienced the most
hardships. By the end of the war, the South was
devastated: Railroads, farms, industries, and
homes were all destroyed.
Many soldiers on both sides died from diseases.
The Confederacy lost so many men that teenage
boys began to join the Army later in the war. The
Union economy prospered during the war.
Farmers produced more crops to feed the
soldiers, and industries grew to provide military
supplies.