Monday, May 10, 2010
Where's the humanity?
One thing that has bothered me throughout the book BCOF is the careless way in which casualties are mentioned. Then again on page 745 it states that "...Sherman had advanced halfway to Atlanta at a cost of only four or five thousand casualties on each side." ONLY! I know that compared to other battles in the Civil War, 4-5 thousand casualties is like a "drop in the bucket," but these are human lives they're talking about. Where is the humanity when expressing the number of people killed!?
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It makes me initially think of the leaders in the Taliban who willingly give the lives of others and care only about their own lives. Though this is not the same type of case, even Robert E. Lee agonized over the loss of his men but realized it was a necessity. Longstreet had a real moral issue because of the loss of life which endeared him to me.
ReplyDeleteSharon,
ReplyDeleteI agree with you completely, but I can't help wondering if the soldiers, especially the leaders, were becoming more and more numb to the amount of losses because of what they had gone through. Losing only four or five thousand soldiers is horrible, and certainly nothing to be proud of, but it is relatively minor when compared to the ten of thousands lost at Gettysburg, Antietam, or Cold Harbor.
I have been constantly overwhelmed by the casualties. I think in Battle Cry the numbers are given every possible chance and by doing so he does point out the horror. So perhaps it's in the reading...I don't know but I felt differently.
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