My exploratory research essay was a
paper that I found great interest in writing. Considering the Civil War had
more deaths than World War II, World War I, the Vietnam War, and the Korean War
combined, I wrote my essay to find the wide range of mental effects that
fighting your family and fellow Americans had on your mental state, as well as
its effects on the structure of our educational system in our country. This
provided me with some very interesting facts about the Civil War’s aftermath that
not many generations have had to deal with while fighting wars such to this
extent. The Civil War could have been one of the most detrimental wars to the
mental state of its soldiers and to America as a whole. Being in the military,
this topic really intrigued me because I too deal with people who have had PTSD
as well as see the effects that war has on certain individuals in today’s
society. Taking a look into one of the toughest wars in American society was
one of the most interesting studies I have done thus far.
What I found while researching was
that soldiers that fought in the Civil War were of all ages. From kids at age 9
to adults at age 60, soldiers were soldiers and they all saw and dealt with the
same turmoil as the brother (or occasional sister) next to them. While looking
into the current minimum ages to join militaries around the world, the age 18 seemed
to be a common number in regards to society’s eyes viewing an adult. Although we
have the minimum age set at 18, back in the Civil War era, there really was no
minimum age. People were literally fighting their brothers from the other side
of the country. With no age limit and people actually seeing their family members
on the other side of the battlefield, this made for a detrimental loss in the
minds of individuals and made way for emotional problems to follow.
While digging into the Civil War aftermath,
I was interested to find out the effects on America’s structure as well as the
people’s state of mind. While uncovering interesting facts about pre and
post-Civil War, I saw a revolution in the structure of America. Before the
Civil War, education seemed to be up to par. People did not complain about the
lack of education or really complain about anything. These people during this time
period were tough and knew they lived a hard life and dealt with it. It kind of
made me wonder where all these whiners came from in today’s society…With
education not really being persued in pre-Civil War era, no one was really
worried about forward progress. It kind of seemed like everyone was stuck in
the way they accomplished tasks around the nation. For this reason, I believe
the Civil War was a jumpstart or rejuvenation to society as a whole and it
really revamped the way Americans thought about life. With African Americans
starting to be integrated after the North victory, progress for basic human
rights became apparent and America could officially move forward, which was
very interesting to read and study about.
In the end, I think we can all
agree the Civil War was one of the most detrimental wars to the mental state of
being between Americans.
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