The Civil War, On a Personal Level

Faces of the Civil War

Reviewed by Ben Wolinsky

There’s a photo in here of a man who “dreamed of becoming a fine art painter.” But his life after military service was depression and alcohol. There was another, of a bald, gruff-looking man, who returned to his pre-war career of running a general store, took up horticulture as a hobby, and became an early member of the ASPCA. The fine art painter, with his craggy face and large sideburns, would’ve fit right in as an artist today. The bald shopkeeper, however, would probably have a prescription for Rogaine, unless his wife preferred him bald.

This is why I love Faces of the Civil War. Most books about the Civil War only tell you about combat, but I want to know about the people. Where did the soldiers come from? What motivated them to leave their careers and families? How did they adjust to life after the war, in an age with no telephones, no internet, and no office jobs? Come to think of it, office jobs in those days were probably a lot more fun, with no cubicles or fluorescent lights, no white drop-ceilings, no phones ringing. College in those days was a rarity, and going to school up to age 14 meant you were well-educated. The soldiers in these photos came from all classes in the USA; rich and poor, craftsmen and farmers, they all volunteered, and many were leaving home for the first time.

Author Ronald Coddington researched piles of photos into (what I consider, in my biased opinion) the best primary source for any history buff. These photos weren’t meant to be portraits to hang on the wall; on the contrary, they were carte de visite, a small picture, the size of a playing card, and you sent them home to your family. With a war going on, there was greater demand for soldier’s photos, and I doubt any of the troops could afford one of Matthew Brady’s large portraits. Most of the information on these men came from records in the Veterans’ Affairs department, where many of them sent these photos as ID with their applications for their pensions. Needless to say, quite a lot of the men staring out of the photos had trouble making a living after the war.

These guys often returned home with (what we now know to be) PTSD. They didn’t know why they felt the way they did, and their families couldn’t understand them. A few of them went back to their old jobs, but too often it didn’t work out. They came back to towns that had changed since they were gone, and the stream of immigrants changed the labor market. I’ll bet that leaving home for the first time in their lives, only to march right into combat, was too much of a strain. Maybe things weren’t much different in 1865 than they are today?