In retrospect, we know now that it was important to end slavery in the South, but there were many other reasons for that war besides the stated ones, as well.

7. It did not make sense to Anne Wallace that she would be sitting in a comfortable home while he, after living a notable life and achieving great things, might languish and die alone. They had known one another for many years, and she felt it was only right that she should be there with him. I am sure this was not an unusual scenario. The country was under tremendous stress as one half fought against the other. The conditions were so challenging, and people were so involved in their loyalty to whatever side they were on, it would have been difficult to have a loved one out doing the hard, dangerous work while the other stayed at home in relative safety and comfort.

Black Soldier's Letter to Lincoln: A discriminatory salary policy would assure that black soldiers in the Union's army would not start thinking that they or their contribution was anywhere near equal to that of a white man, and it was probably also to appease the white soldiers. More than likely, it was pure racism, that was still prevalent in the north, even though the war was being fought, in part, to free the slaves. Perhaps the pay issue was more complicated than it seems, but the fact that it would be settled upon to pay black soldiers less is simply a sign of disregard, even then, of African-Americans' rights. Perhaps the Union army felt this was an easy way to keep costs down. Perhaps it was understood that black soldiers would be assigned more menial duties. But the fact that the situation was corrected is a sign that it was an ill-conceived decision.

Andersonville. Yes, Adolph Hitler chose conditions like these for his prisoners. Winder's plan to let prisoners die by natural causes - through stress, disease humiliation and torture - with

In fact, the nice Christian men who are currently in charge of overseeing the treatment of our government's prisoners of war are just about as compassionate and civilized as General Winder, as demonstrated at Abu Ghraib.
Recollections of War We continue to examine the Civil War and continue to be fascinated by it because it was a war of us, between us and among us. Most citizens in this country have some ancestor or other connection to those who fought in this gruesome war, which pitted relatives against each other and turned the country inside out upon itself. We were already a country when the war started, but we wanted to be a unified country. The way of life in the South was so entrenched that there was no diplomatic way, apparently, to make the union happen. In this one country, the values and ideals differed so vastly from one end to the other, that we needed to slaughter ourselves to get it settled. It is also an oddity that so many people died and the war was so bloody, and yet there was no outside enemy that invaded us - it was internal. This article makes the interesting point that this war will always be a real part of us, since the remains and blood of thousands of our own people have saturated the soil and water, and there are thousands of bodies that were never identified or recovered that have become part of the earth in our country.