[Bldr_DH]

Ok, so this is basically a last-ditch attempt to find something before I go to bed.

During the time of the Civil War, communication sucked and all that, so naturally *some* (<--- edit) of those who enlisted were pretty oblivious to the horrors of war -- in fact, war was a glorifying thing to them.

Here's my problem: I need a primary source saying something along the lines of, "I enlisted because I thought I would be a hero... yadda yadda"

I have absolutely no idea where to look -- my keywords in google seem to suck and I'm just out of ideas, so:

Would anyone happen to know a good site that would have that sort of primary-source document?

If you happen to know of a specific person, specific article, great, but I don't expect you to spend your time searching for that particular type of article... just something that will get me going in the right direction will be more than enough help.

I think that's about it -- thanks in advance.

 

[DirtyDog]

What you ask is a long-long-long shot at best. Your best bet would be to search for a university professor that specializes in civil war history and ask him where to start.

Your insights are interesting though - for DH goon.

 

[HarryCallahan]

uh, it sounds like you are looking for some citations to support your premise that folks signed up because they didn't know any better. I'm sure it happened and you'll find some, but that seems overbroad. And once the war started, news accounts would have been pretty graphic. Ever see some of Matthew Brady's photos?

That said, try working with a research librarian. Even the librarian at your high school should be able to give you a few tips...

 

[Bldr_DH]

What you ask is a long-long-long shot at best. Your best bet would be to search for a university professor that specializes in civil war history and ask him where to start.

Your insights are interesting though - for DH goon.

Haha, I figured as much. At least the effort was there, right? . For a junior-level lanugage arts class (in high school), it won't be the end of the world if I don't find anything (nor will it be worth finding a Civil War expert).

Oh well, it was worth a shot. If anyone happens to know a place to start though, please do tell.

 

[DirtyDog]

uh, it sounds like you are looking for some citations to support your premise that folks signed up because they didn't know any better. I'm sure it happened and you'll find some, but that seems overbroad. And once the war started, news accounts would have been pretty graphic. Ever see some of Matthew Brady's photos?

I think you are wrong about that. Just because photos exist doesn't mean they were widely available back then. I would guess that almost none of the Civil War soldiers ever saw battlefield photos before or during the war.

 

[JohnE]

Are you looking for a quote? A photo? Have you read "The Red Badge of Courage"? For photos, Matthew Brady was the biggest Civil War photog, he had many famous shots of post battle carnage.
Hope this helps, good luck!

 

[Mizzle]

Stuff like that is all over your local university special collections department. But, seeing as your still in high school it's honestly not worth all of the effort to try and find it at a university.

Go to barnes and noble or local book store and simply thumb quickly through any of the books and look for a good letter that embodied the thought of going to war as heroic.

Seriously quotes like that are everywhere.

On the other hand if a student of mine went that above and beyond I would do a backflip.

here is a great site although not exactly what your looking for bookmark it and refer to this link in the future, can write tons of things papers off of these topics, and even cut and paste if you are creative enough
http://www.dartmouth.edu/~hist12/s_links.html
http://www.boondocksnet.com/ai/dbs/index.html
http://www.sec.state.ma.us/mus/muspdf/cwcurriculum.pdf
http://muse.jhu.edu/cgi-bin/access.cgi?uri=/journals/civil_war_history/v050/50.2frisby.html
http://college.holycross.edu/projects/worcester/afrcamerican/civilwar.htm
Primary source is a tough one becuase you need something directly written or photographed about the war and the internet really insn't a great place to get items like this. Part of why it was assigned. It was meant to make you do actuall research not simply retell something from the internet. Notes, letters to home, letters to girlfirends, Pics may not work so well for your selective goal of "validating war in terms of glory" But if you argue your point effectively almost any photo will do. Look deeply into and see what you can pull out of it.
Describe the scenery, clothing, posture, expressions, background, foregound. Does he look like a happy man? Does he look as if he's ready to run off to war and validate himself?

Find something simple, pick and angle and above all describe and justify it to death.

As a kid doing his student teaching right now I think your teacher should be biatch slapped for making you find primary sources as a junior in High School. It's by far one of the most challenging things to do.

Props and good luck,

If you want me to look over your paper PM it to me and i'll let you know what i think. I'm a History Major and English Minor so, shoot me aline.



these are great
http://www.homepages.dsu.edu/jankej/civilwar/diaries.htm
http://dlg.galileo.usg.edu/hargrett/platter/
Diaries are key

Put in some work man it's not that hard.


Good Luck,
John

 

[kinghami3]

As a kid doing his student teaching right now I think your teacher should be biatch slapped for making you find primary sources as a junior in High School. It's by far one of the most challenging things to do.

but I'm really beginning to hate secondary sources. They are already summarized, with way too much of the author's opinions imbedded in the text; making them hard to work out of unless you're just looking for a general outline. There are a lot of good primary sources available. I find them interesting to read and piece together, and having most of them provided by my profs is handy too .

 

[valve bouncer]

I typed "civil war letters" into Google and seemed to get a lot of stuff that might be worth wading through.
http://valley.vcdh.virginia.edu/ This one looks interesting.

 

[N8 v2.0]

Watch Ken Burn's Civil War series... it was on PBS a few years ago and should be available at your libary.

 

[BurlyShirley]

I think you are wrong about that. Just because photos exist doesn't mean they were widely available back then. I would guess that almost none of the Civil War soldiers ever saw battlefield photos before or during the war.

I would bet that they werent completely oblivious to what a battle was tho. There were wars against Mexico and constant wars against the native americans in relative proximity to the civil war.

 

[-dustin]

try google scholar. might not work since you're not at a University, though.

edit -

the more i think about it, the more i think this won't help you. perhaps ask your teacher if she can help you with it (G. Scholar), though. it's pretty damn nice. i've used it to get a bunch of sources for papers i've done. i had full access for free, though, because of school, and that included full pieces.

another handy tool, when you get to college, will be NoodleBib - www.noodletools.com.

 

[Brian HCM#1]

Just PM johnbryanpeters, he was there in battle. He drove the horse & buggy tank

 

[JRB]

Just PM johnbryanpeters, he was there in battle. He drove the horse & buggy tank

hahahahaha - poor JBP. I wonder if he got all of this crap when he had to post on stone tablets.

*I thought the thread was about that Ozzy song and the guy was just confused as to how old it was.

 

[Brian HCM#1]

hahahahaha - poor JBP. I wonder if he got all of this crap when he had to post on stone tablets.

*I thought the thread was about that Ozzy song and the guy was just confused as to how old it was.

Probably