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... 16 th Maine. Smalls complete prison diary is attached to the book. The facts and opinions recorded by the author have been edited by his son. Amber R.
Small joined the 3 rd Maine as a corporal at the beginning of the war and saw action at First Bull Run. After being sent back to Maine on recruiting duty, Small was appointed lieutenant and adjutant of the new Sixteenth Maine Volunteers. He served in this unit till the end of the war. Even though Small missed the battles of Second Bull Run and Antietam, he received his baptism of fire at Fredericksburg. In reserve at Chancellorsville, the 16 th saw its greatest moment at Gettysburg. The 16 th Maine held the extreme right of the First Corps line long enough to permit the withdrawal of most of the rest of the corps on its first day of battles.
After this battle, only 4 officers, including Small, and 40 soldiers survived, almost all of them wounded, or captured. The 16 th Maine continued into the Overland Campaign fighting with the Fifth Corps in The Wilderness and Spotsylvania, on to the outskirts of Richmond and then into the Petersburg trenches. During the Fourth Offensive at Petersburg, Small has been captured and sent first to Libby Prison, then to Salisbury and, finally, to Danville. Held until practically the end of the war, Small finally rejoins his regiment after Appomattox and was promoted to major.
Smalls descriptions of combat and battles are very clear and objective. Even better he writes about his observations of camp life, the march, and personal dealings with other soldiers. He came into contact with a number of higher-ranking officers as well. The description of prison life shows that officers were not really more cared for than the enlisted men.
As Editor Small points out in his preface, Union prisoners were no more resentful of short rations and hard prison floors than of selfishness in their own ranks. The prisoners diary also reveals that only those who had money had good, all others have been forced to starve. One of the memorable moments in the book is about the spring of 1864, when Small and a captain of the 16 th signal a station overlooking the Confederate camps. They can observe the Rebels through a telescope.
Watching them lounge and play ball the captain says to Small, My God Adjutant, theyre human beings just like us. The books conclusion deserves a special notion. Instead of being overly patriotic or sentimental, Small explains what the war meant to him and his comrades. He admits that many times he only saw what was directly in front of him. For example: in a battle - smoke, noise and confusion. Small writes that during combat there was no time to analyze the situation, and people often did not remember much of what happened.
He also states that battles were going so fast that no courage was needed during them, people needed courage awaiting those battles. Many people think that soldiers at war are prepared for the possibility of death, and they are ready to sacrifice themselves for the cause. Small, however, claims that everyone thinks they are immune and someone else would make that sacrifice, not them. The author sums up his story with a saying: Sometimes I wish I could forget it all, and again I rejoice that it is indelibly stamped into my head. This quotation proves that a normal person who has gone through the war will always have its print in his / her mind, an ugly print of war.
Joseph Plumb Martin, the author of the autobiography Ordinary Courage: The Revolutionary War Adventures of Joseph Plumb Martin, presents a story of a young boy, who shares what his vision of War for Independence was. Martin, being a sixteen year-old young man was recruited to the army. It is interesting how Martins personality development parallels the development of the American nation - both of them have been formed and toughened in the process of the war. There are no romantic or idealistic descriptions of the war and the founding of the nation in the book. The book is the reflection of what an average citizen thought and felt during the war. The American Revolutionary War has been provoked desire of the American people to be independent from the Great Britain.
The British government decided to make the American colonies pay a significant share of the war debt from the French and Indian War. Through the Sugar Act, Stamp Act, and other taxes, the British attempted to collect taxes that the Americans considered too harsh. They also wanted to send their representatives to the British Parliament and vote for the parliamentarians. The combination of the severe taxation and the lack representation gave rise to the famous phrase taxation without representation. Americans started stockpiling guns and armor despite the British prohibition to do so. This defense of such a stock led to the shots fired at Lexington and Concord and the beginning of the Revolutionary War.
Being a soldier in the Continental army, Plumb Martin wrote down about his experiences in a diary, which he kept for 7 years. This memoir is a first-person report of the Revolutionary War that perfectly demonstrates the life of a continental soldier. In his book, Joseph Plumb attempts to point out the differences between the colonists from the North and the South. He describes the time when he was put in prison by half New Englanders and half Pennsylvanians.
He also states that he would rather be combating with a tribe of Indians than with the Southerners, who in turn call him a damn Yankee, as the author notes. He had many reasons not to like them, besides they were foreigners who did not know language well enough and who spoke English very bad. Martin portraits the war itself, as well as the birth of the American nation in a very a realistic and detailed way. He shows all the hardships of the war and gives his own subjective opinions of the officers, their ethnicity, geographical location and gender. The author describes in great detail the war events, the officers courage and bravery. Martin shows the acts of ordinary men who fought for freedom of their motherland and did everything they could to protect their families from the enemy.
During the War for Independence, just like during any other war, the life of a common soldier was a tough one. Soldiers served relatively short periods in state militias or longer periods in the Continental Army, raised by Congress around 200, 000 men in total enlisted for one period or another. Militias supplied the greatest number of soldiers, who were farmers, artisans, and some professionals. The Continental Congress recruited young men and those with fewer resources, such as apprentices or laborers. Some men enlisted voluntarily, but most have been drafted. The wealthier ones hired paid substitutes to go to the army instead of them.
All were equal, however, in facing war hardships, such as horrible food shortages, diseases, low morale, and danger. The war is the most disgusting form of human collective behavior. This aggression aimed at the individuals does not have any prohibitions. People always swear that this war will be the last one. However, the war is a natural feature of the mankind. We draw such pessimistic conclusion due to different reasons.
Such point of view became unpopular during the Age of Enlightenment and humanism. Wars can be considered as the total triumph of destructive instincts. The wounds that the all wars US participate in had inflicted on American soldiers have been as painful as the wounds that the war had inflicted on American society. All four books discussed above really open the eyes of their readers.
Even though the American War for Independence, American Civil, WWII and the Vietnam War used different types of armor, were different in casualties and results they all were about killing and destruction. A Rumor Of War probably can be most associated to the current war in Iraq that the US is engaged in. Many people consider both wars to be mistakes, which could have been avoided. The US have been forced to participate in WWII after the Pearl Harbor, the US had to fight for its independence from the Great Britain and for the unity of the North and South during the Civil War. There was no reason, except the political will of the US government to take its troops half way across the world to fight in Vietnam, and now in Iraq. Officially, the War in Iraq is and was justified by the humanitarian intervention.
The United States have already humanitarian intervened into Vietnam in 1961 and did not win anything in that conflict except thousands of lives of American soldiers. The same has happened in Iraq: no declaration of war, the enemy that is in a far away country, the enemy that did not in fact pose an imminent threat to the US, justifications given for fighting a war, thousands are dead and injured. Word count: 3, 010 Bibliography: Caputo, Philip: A Rumor of War, Holt, Rinehart & Winston (1976) Manchester, William: Goodbye, Darkness: A Memoir of the Pacific War, Reprint edition (April 12, 2002) Martin, James K. : Ordinary Courage: The Life of Joseph Plumb Martin, Brandywine Press (July 1993) Small, Harold A. : The Road to Richmond: The Civil War Letters of Major Abner R. Small of the 16 th Maine Volunteers (The North's Civil War, 13), Fordham University Press - 2000 - 01 - 01
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Research essay sample on War For Independence War In Iraq
