Mary Walker: Civil War Surgeon and Feminist Book

Faust examines all aspects of death in the American Civil War in this unique, insightful topical history. Foregoing the usual discussions of battles and tactics she focuses on personal values and culture taking us into the minds of 1860s Americans. This book is replete with personal experiences and observations of soldiers and their families. The war's impact ends quickly for soldiers killed in action but lingers for lifetimes for surviving loved ones. Their faith in religion and country is challenged and for many reinforced. Slavery as an institution is not explored but the treatment of black soldiers in life and death is. About 620,000 soldiers died in the conflict, equivalent to 6 million deaths given today's population, but this is not a book of statistics. This is a book about death and grief on a massive scale that had a deep and broad impact on society.

Mid nineteenth century people were much closer to dying and death than we are today. People usually died at home surrounded by family. Children often succumbed to disease, but not young adults. In the war mostly young men died and they died away from home adding greatly to the emotional distress of their families. Americans were predominantly Protestant and deeply religious. Forty per cent were evangelical Christians. They believed in the resurrection of the body. Families expected to meet after death in their perfect bodies in heaven. One way they could tell who was going to heaven was the way a person died. They looked to see if a dying person was confident and resolute in their faith as the end approached. Letters written to families about the deceased took great care to address the dying person's composure and faith often evidenced by last words. If death was sudden or not witnessed the writer would seek and include any indication of virtue. It was very important to assure a family that their loved one died in God's grace. Death was not the end of life but the beginning of eternity.

Many soldiers found it difficult to kill another man. The attitude of Lincoln's general in chief, Winfield Scott would serve us well today, "No Christian nation can be justified in waging war in such a way as shall destroy five hundred and one lives, when the object of the war can be attained at a cost of five hundred. Every man killed beyond the number absolutely required is murdered." But as the war progressed many consciences gave way to retribution. African American soldiers and their white officers served at great risk, rarely taken prisoner. Massacred by Confederate troops after they surrendered at Fort Pillow, black soldiers fought with a vengeance. In battle soldiers witnessed carnage unimaginable when the war started. Many attested to scenes similar to Grant's after Shiloh, "I saw an open field….so covered with the dead that it would have been possible to walk across the clearing, in any direction, stepping only on dead bodies without a foot touching the ground." Such experiences were common; dehumanizing, disorienting, and devaluing human life. What we call PTSD today afflicted many.

What to do with the dead became a huge problem. Fighting could continue for days with the dead accumulating on the ground. A description of the Gettysburg battlefield provides a good illustration. After three days of fighting, "By July 4 an estimated six million pounds of human and animal carcasses lay strewn across the field in the summer heat, and a town of 2,400 grappled with 22,000 wounded who remained alive but in desperate condition." "Residents of the surrounding area complained of a 'stench' that persisted from the time of the battle in July to the coming of frost in October." A society used to honoring each individual death soon turned to mass graves often with no identification. Officers were given individual graves whenever possible while common soldiers were frequently laid end to end in shallow trenches. Dehumanizing burial practices appalled those assigned the task of burying their comrades. Enemy dead, usually left behind when an army retreated, would be piled into pits one atop the other. Those with means could employ independent agents to find and even disinter loved ones. But very few could afford the costs of transporting bodies home including metal coffins and embalming.

Neither government considered identifying the dead its responsibility and neither had a system of individual identification. Dog tags were instituted in WWI. Those desperate to know if their loved one was alive or to locate his remains were often unable to do so. Volunteer and state sponsored organizations tried to help with limited success. Over 40% of Union soldiers and even a higher percentage of Confederate soldiers died "unknown." Various lists of the dead would be compiled by independent sources after battles and published in newspapers. These were typically unreliable. Claims for death benefits and back pay required proof of death, often not available. Desperate families crowded battlefields in search of their missing loved ones. Some lucky families received personal letters from friends of the deceased, which invariably assured them that the soldier died a "Good Death."

About 50,000 civilian deaths were attributed to the war. Civilians near army camps or hospitals often came down with diseases such as measles and mumps that were endemic wherever soldiers congregated. Children were particularly vulnerable. In parts of the South food and basic supplies became scarce. The massive death rate from the war (18% of all men of military age in the South) and the increased civilian death rate meant women in mourning were ever present, particularly in the Confederacy. Widows were supposed to stay in mourning two and one-half years, widowers six months. Mourning had set stages, heavy followed by full followed by half, with special clothes for each stage. The prescribed clothing was beyond the means of many.

Four times as many Americans attended church every Sunday as voted in the contentious and consequential presidential election in 1860 (An interesting fact, lest we think that Americans not voting is something new). But even in this nation of devout believers, the staggering death toll caused people to question their faith and conceptions of God. Science, such as Lyell's work on the age of the earth and discussions of Darwinism which preceded publication of his theory, were already challenging established beliefs. How could God allow such carnage? How could Southerners use the Bible to support slavery and Northerners the same book to condemn it? Many answered doubts by simply doubling down on their religious fervor. Immortality was needed more than ever. New ideas of heaven as a continuation of one's earthly identity and relationships gained steam. Spiritualists held their first convention in 1864 as their movement emerged and grew. Both sides adjusted religion to their needs, particularly difficult for the South in its defeat, but Southerners responded by filling their churches laying the foundation for the Bible Belt.

Following the war, independent groups began accounting for the dead, identifying them and getting them into proper cemeteries. Congress responded establishing national cemeteries, which had separate sections for African Americans and excluded Confederates. Southern volunteer groups created their own. It waited for President McKinley trying to unite the country in 1896 to call for honoring all Civil War dead. But this effort to let bygones be bygones could not convince everyone. As Frederick Douglas said on Decoration (Memorial) Day in 1883, "Whatever else I may forget, I shall never forget the difference between those who fought for liberty and those who fought for slavery."