A review of the poetry and prose of Walt Whitman and James M. McPherson in Civil War Poetry and Prose and For Cause and Comrades respectively, demonstrates that both individuals have one main theme about war: War is hell!
In his book For Cause and Comrades, McPherson (1998) undertakes an investigation as to what motivated the soldiers in the Civil War to risk their lives in situations as fearsome and life-threatening as ever faced by soldiers in combat. In making this investigation, McPherson uncovers a great deal of information about the horrific reality of combat. War is dirty, grueling, life-risking and filled with mayhem and carnage. Out the outset of the book, McPherson (1998) shares a first-hand account of a Union officerÆs recollection of his time spent in combat, ôI never expect to be fully believed when I tell what I saw of the horrors of Spotsylvania, because I should be loath to believe it myself had [I] not been there.ö
The men who fought in the Civil War often suffered the harshest conditions and severe depredations. Lacking food, clothes and ammunition, many suffered torturous marches without proper nourishment, attire, or the means of adequately protecting themselves. When combat did erupt, the atrocities and carnage were both physically and psychologically damaging. Many soldiers suffered such trauma in battle that by the time the next battle ensued their nerves were shredded. One soldierÆs recount in McPherson (1998) demonstrates the trauma inflicted on so many men from the constant carnage and fear of death, ôI believe soldiers generally do not fear death less because of their repeated escape from its jaws. In every battle they see so many new forms of death, see so many frightful and novel kinds of mutilationàand appreciate so highly their deliverance from destruction, that their dread of incurring the like fearful perils unnerves them for each succeeding conflict.ö
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