The accounts of the Civil War are told in numerous ways throughout the times of history from many viewpoints. We see diaries of soldiers, elite white women, and some slaves. However, there are few accounts from the civilian point of view or the comparisons between how average groups in each section felt and acted. Even though civilians were affected by the Civil War the most, their accounts are not put at the forefront of historical documents of this time. Southerners had to go through the crumbling of not only the institution of slavery, but the downfall of their economical and social aspects as well. Northerners had to deal with their society ever changing and the holding to their values. The civilians who lived along the border states were …show more content…
This is shown in "Race, Memory, and Masculinity: Black Veterans Recall the Civil War," by W. Fitzhugh Brundage. He tells how African Americans veterans of the civil war fought hard to keep their involvement in the civil war a part of National memory to keep their sense of pride. Brundage tells that sometimes the real truth of events were silenced by those who held more power than those involved in the story. We see this exemplified in today’s society with our government not telling the whole story due to their immense ways to silence individuals. Martha Creighton details an important new viewpoint of the Battle of Gettysburg that is rarely talked about. She details the emotional map of the battle detailing how even though slaves were free, soldiers would go into the territory in the border region and take free slaves and reprimand them, turning them back to slavery. This is a tough spot for african american civilians as far North, their freedom was safe, and far south, they were enslaved. Right in the border region where newly freed African Americans were trying to live out their lives, they had to worry about being taken back to slavery (209-213). African Americans also fled and hid in attics and churches so as not to be taken back. This is an account rarely told not only because of the …show more content…
Usually, historians highlight the ways in which families or wives would cry over their sons leaving to fight but that they were still supporting their country. But this is a new account of how families were going against the government for their own personal wants. This Civil War era is just a short time after the American Revolution so the thought of Patriotism for one’s country is still strong in the mind’s of civilians. This is a new take on this aspect. Also, I did not think about how many first account stories from this era could be altered and changed and that the real stories we know may not be exactly