Thoughts on the Reason "Why."

One of the hardest things to do is not to interpret the past through our contemporary lenses. I do not know how many times visitors at Antietam marvel how those men, in their linear formations, at the Sunken Road (Bloody Lane) and the Cornfield, at the Sunken Road (Bloody Lane) and the Cornfield. Many of them, whether veterans or “green” troops had experienced death at home. They were accustomed to holding wakes for the dead in their homes. They had seen family members die and knew the chilling sound of the “death rattle.” For the city dwellers, it was just as common. All one has to do is read Jacob A. Riis, The Making of an American or How the Other Half Lives to understand how hard life really was for the working class. Being exposed to tragedy at an early age shapes how an individual deals with dying. In a way, it almost has to be experienced to understand it.

 In a great many battles, atmospheric conditions like wind, rain, fog, lightning and geographic features like tall grass, ridges, swales, wood lots, crop fields, fence rows, and stone walls affected the line of sight. At Antietam, for instance, the ground fog and the high humidity kept the smoke of the battle during the morning low to the ground. The soldiers, very often were firing at shadows and muzzle flashes, often unsure if whether they were hitting friend or foe.

Lack of frequent and/or proper musketry or rifle practice affected the ability of many soldiers to hit what they were pointing at. In the chaos and total bedlam of battle all incoming rounds were considered hostile and needed to be suppressed. That has never changed in warfare.

They marched in tight formations because the needed to gain fire superiority over their opponents to drive them from the field. That principle is still followed today. With muzzle loading weapons they had to stay in formations to accomplish that.

The evidence indicates that the men, given the opportunity to take cover, would and did unless it was physically impossible to do so. At the Cornfield the 2^nd and 6^th Wisconsin laid down behind the fence on the southern edge of the Cornfield. Lawton’s Brigade, which they attacked, had laid in the tall grass south of the Cornfield to avoid being seen and rose up to fire when the Westerners came into close range. The Confederates in the Bloody Lane laid on the northern bank behind the fence which they had torn down to make cover as did the third Union line to assault their position.

Another thing to consider is that men did desert, did “show the white feather,” while others did what they had to do, knowing they might not live through the fight. The problem with the Civil War is that over the decades which followed it has, as far as the general public is concerned, been sanitized and romanticized much like we seem to be doing with the “Greatest Generation.”  I often think we say “Thank you,” too much, to the point that it loses its meaning. I think we use the word “Hero” too much. In the eyes of so many of the veterans – at least the ones I have known – the heroes did not come home. I am trying to say that we need to understand that horrible, stupid things happen in the cauldron of battle which cannot not be logically explained. They happened because they happened and the reason “why” never entered the equation.