Title: The Union soldier in battle enduring the ordeal of combat
Description: With its relentless bloodshed, devastating firepower, and large-scale battles often fought on impossible terrain, the Civil War was a terrifying experience for a volunteer army. Yet, as Earl Hess shows, Union soldiers found the wherewithal to endure such terrors for four long years and emerge victorious.

A vivid reminder that the business of war is killing, Hess's study plunges us into the hellish realms of Civil War combat - a horrific experience crowded with brutalizing sights, sounds, smells, and textures.

Drawing extensively upon the letters, diaries, and memoirs of Northern soldiers, Hess reveals their deepest fears and shocks, and also their sources of inner strength. By identifying recurrent themes found in these accounts, Hess constructs a multilayered view of the many ways in which these men coped with the challenges of battle.

He shows how they were bolstered by belief in God and country, or simply by their sense of duty; and how they came to rely on the support of their comrades; and how they learned to muster self-control in order to persevere from one battle to the next.
Subjects: Combat, History, Military life, Psychological aspects, Psychological aspects of Combat, Psychology, Soldiers, United States, United States Civil War, 1861-1865, United States. Army, United states, history, civil war, 1861-1865, United states, army, history, United states, army, military life
Places: United States
Time periods: 19th century, Civil War, 1861-1865