This Republic of Suffering Death and the American Civil War Vintage Civil War Library
Battle is the dramatic centerpiece of Civil War history; this penetrating study looks instead at the somber aftermath. Historian Faust (Mothers of Invention) notes that the Civil War introduced America to death on an unprecedented scale and of an unnatural kind—grisly, random and often ending in an unmarked grave far from home. She surveys the many ways the Civil War generation coped with the trauma: the concept of the Good Death—conscious, composed and at peace with God; the rise of the embalming industry; the sad attempts of the bereaved to get confirmation of a soldier’s death, sometimes years after war’s end; the swelling national movement to recover soldiers’ remains and give them decent burials; the intellectual quest to find meaning—or its absence—in the war’s carnage. In the process, she contends, the nation invented the modern culture of reverence for military death and used the fallen to elaborate its new concern for individual rights. Faust exhumes a wealth of material—condolence letters, funeral sermons, ads for mourning dresses, poems and stories from Civil War–era writers—to flesh out her lucid account. The result is an insightful, often moving portrait of a people torn by grief. Photos. (Jan. 10)
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User Ratings and Reviews
5 Stars a unique and moving history of the Civil War
On the recommendation of other Amazon reviewers, I picked up _This Republic of Suffering_. Since others have done a much better job of summarizing the book (see Giordano Bruno’s review below as an example), I will be brief. The book’s premise: that the sheer volume of casualties and the personal devastation the loss of so many caused the nation helped bind it together, is a new interpretation and unique view on the war. Faust’s thesis is brilliantly tied together; her analysis of events and the conclusions she draws from them certainly warranting its nomination for the National Book Award. (_The Hemingses of Monticello_ won the award for non-fiction in 2008.)
As a born and bred westerner, I always puzzled at the seeming obsession Southerners have for the Civil War – the “Daughters of the Confederacy”, the ubiquitous memorials in towns of all sizes, the flying of the Confederate battle flag. After reading this book, I now understand on a much more visceral level the reason behind such memorials. As Faust put it, as the war progressed (and the Confederacy fared worse and worse) Confederate casualties became a part of the public domain, no longer the loss of individuals or families, but “The Honored Dead” of “The Cause.” When one pauses to consider that 3 of every 4 Southern men of military age served in the Civil War, and that the vast majority of the war was fought in the South, it becomes easy to understand why Southerners had (and have) refused to forget the war.
Faust paints with a broader brush than this, though, showing how a fundamental shift took place the result of the destruction and loss of life from the war. The attitude of American’s toward death (and what a “good death” was) changed, but perhaps more significantly, the role of the federal government in handling and providing for the dead also changed. The Civil War, you will remember, was fought by civilian soldiers; their deaths (by the hundreds of thousands) created a new expectation of government’s obligation towards those who die in its service. Ironically, the loss of so many from both sides provided a common experience that helped bind the nation together. This revelation suprised me, as it seems counter-intuitive, testament to the brilliant analysis of the author.
When reading history, particularly of this period, the losses in human terms are staggering; yet how often does one consider what comes after? Who tends to the identification, notification of kin and burial of the thousands of casualties? It is a wonder that this question has not been given much serious historical attention before, and is very much to Faust’s credit that this is explored, in addition to the larger social issues that are the effect of this.
While _This Republic of Suffering_ is at times difficult to read (perhaps this is the result of my over-developed sense of empathy), it is fascinating stuff. Highly recommended.
5 Stars The Re-united States of Mourning
Death — the incredible, unexpected, unprecedented death toll of the Civil War — had a far greater role in “healing” and binding together the nation than we of another century can easily imagine. While the strife over civil rights was nowhere near resolved by the victory of the Unionists, with Reconstruction losing its post-war struggle with Redemption, nonetheless the nation drew together in its elegiac patriotism and reverence for the courage and determination of soldiers on both sides. Never before had any nation in the world so revered its fallen, built so many monuments to them, striven to preserve their identities and memories. The most poignant of all such monuments were the “national cemeteries,” populated by the remains of common soldiers, many of them unknown. Walt Whitman knew his America. His post-war poems exactly express the mentality of the mourning nation.
Drew Gilpin Faust’s “This Republic of Suffering” is a somber and scholarly account of the death toll of the war, and of the impact that death toll had on society, both during and after the slaughter. Faust is writing in the tradition of historiography that the French call the “history of mentalities.” She is attempting to penetrate deep inside the collective worldview of the culture, to assess whether the basic human psychology and values of Americans were permanently changed by the experience of the first modern bloodbath of war. Her methodology is the examination of the most personal documents – letters, recollections, diaries, etc. – of people of all classes and levels of literacy. Her conclusions suggest that, yes, people were not the same ever again.
Christian ‘certainty’ of an afterlife plainly modulated the responses of everyone – the dying and the surviving – to battlefield deaths, but still there were cultural norms and notions that made 19th C Americans ill-prepared for the mounting carnage. Faust analyzes the widespread assumptions of “the Good Death” — that is, the expectation of death at a proper age, at home, surrounded by family, with ample opportunity to repent and depart amid consolation. From the first Battle of Bull Run onwards, none of those expectations could be satisfied, and a stunned society scrambled to adjust, both physically in terms of identifying, notifying, and burying, and psychologically in terms of disillusionment and permanent depression.
Christian certainties also underlay the killing, made the killing bearable to the consciences of those who killed. Both the clergy and the soldiery expounded ideas of the “just war.” Unionists, particularly as the war continued past 1862 and became increasingly bloody, could turn to the image of divine sanction and retribution expressed in the “Battle Hymn of the Republic.” Secessionists already had a well-worn rhetoric of Biblical sanctions for slavery, with which they could comfortably justify violence of any sort against Africans – slaves, runaway slaves, free Negroes, and especially in the end game of the war against colored Union soldiers and their officers. “God’s plan” was threatened by any suggestion of equal humanity for the inferior races, according to the religious logic of Southerners like Nathan Bedford Forrest, who presided over the execution massacre of black captives at Fort Pillow.
Well over 650,000 Americans, northern and southern, died on the fields of the Civil War — more than in all the other wars of America from Independence to Korea combined. An unknown number, surely several times as large, died far younger than they might otherwise have, of lingering wounds and disabilities. The number of soldiers and civilians that died of diseases, spread by wartime activities and conditions, hasn’t even been estimated, nor has there ever been a plausible tally of civilian casualties of battles. In the South, starvation also claimed a substantial corps of ‘innocents’ to feed the grave. A total mortality of two to three million people, during the four years of fighting and the decade that followed, would not be implausible. And it’s worth noting that almost 3,000,000 armed soldiers were on hand to observe the carnage; 2.1 million northerners and 880,000 southerners bore arms at one time or another.
But Faust’s study is not another account of the War per se. Its concern is consistently and cogently with the aftermath of the War, with the rethinking of fundamental values and perceptions that the War necessitated. This is not a book for casual reading. If the reader is not motivated to rethink her/his assumptions about the meaning of the American Civil War – the central event in American history – then that reader has failed to see past the words on the page.
5 Stars Outstanding!
Any fan of Civil War history…should definitely put this book at the top of his/her list.
It is a fascinating glimpse into the Civil War American psyche, from the ground up (or down if you prefer).
From the logistical problems of dealing with the dead, to the statistics, to the re-interpretation of what a “Good Death” meant in mid 19th century society…this book covers it all.
Highly Recommended.
2 Stars Yet another Civil war gatekeeper Propaganda
As Civil War Gatekeeper Faust has the obligatory peon to the USCT and an indictment of Rebels as racist killers. Drew accepts at face value the long discredited story of Ft Pillow,with embelishment by Gen Kilpatrick. Colored troops being killed after they surrendered though archeological proof shows other wisethey were still armed and firing.
A 2002 study by Albert Castel concluded that the Union forces were indiscriminately massacred after Fort Pillow “had ceased resisting or was incapable of resistance.
Likewsie their is no mention of the Massacre of Confederate at Fort Blakely.
After the unarmed Confederate soldiers surrendered, the U.S.C.T. lost control and began bayoneting and shooting their captives. Private Ben H. Bounds of the 4th Mississippi raised his hands in surrender with 50 of his comrades, only to be fired upon by the U.S.C.T. “It looked as though we were to be butchered in cold blood”, said Lt. Ed Tarrant. Lt. Walter Chapman of the 51st U.S.C.T. said, “the [colored troops] did not take a prisoner, they killed all they took to a man.” Trying to stop the slaughter, 2 Union officers of the 68th were shot as well.
U.S.C.T. were fired on by their own men. Captain Fred W. Norwood was wounded in the knee and Lt. Clark Gleason died several days later from his wounds. It was stated that more Confederates were killed after the surrender of Redoubt 1 than died during the entire battle. The slaughter stopped only as additional Union officers were able to halt the carnage.
AS for Fort Pillow
This was disputed by Lt Daniel Van Horn of the 6th U. S. Heavy Artillery (Colored) who stated in his official report “There never was a surrender of the fort, both officers and men declaring they never would surrender or ask for quarter.”
On the other hand, Forrest’s men insisted that the Federals, although fleeing, kept their weapons and frequently turned to shoot, forcing the Confederates to keep firing in self defense.[7] Their claim was substantiated by the large number of Federal rifles that were found on the bluffs near the river (see Jordan, THQ). The Union flag was still flying over the fort, which indicated that the force had not formally surrendered. A contemporary newspaper account from Jackson, Tennessee, states that “General Forrest begged them to surrender,” but “not the first sign of surrender was ever given.” Similar accounts were reported in both Southern and Northern newspapers at the time
Drew quotes some letters of a Black minister calling for Christian compassion and a few ugly quotes form Confederate to complete the stew.
No Quotes of Black vows of veangance and murder that were found in Mac Pherson’s tome The Negroe Civil War..Her praise of the USCT also does not mention though nine percent of the Army they committed 56 percent of the rapes.
5 Stars Poignant, insightful study of the impact of death during the Civil War
Histories of the American Civil War have always acknowledged the unprecedented scale of death and dying that it brought about. This book is novel in that it looks at how that scale of death impacted society as a whole, and how it affected the experience of living during and after the War. Written with commanding scholarship and compelling language, the book effectively conveys both the multi-dimensional social challenges that death at this scale created and the piercing individual tragedies that were its component parts. I recommend this book not only to devotees of the Civil War, but to anyone interested in the social response to death and grief.
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