Fighting means killing : Civil War soldiers and the nature of combat /

"War means fighting, and fighting means killing," Confederate cavalry commander Nathan Bedford Forrest famously declared. At its core, the Civil War involved Americans killing Americans. Regardless of the moral lens through which one views the conflict, that truth remains. Relying heavily...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author:	Steplyk, Jonathan M. (Author)
Format:	Book
Language:	English
Published:	Lawrence : University Press of Kansas, [2018]
Subjects:	United States > History > Civil War, 1861-1865 > Moral and ethical aspects. United States > History > Civil War, 1861-1865 > Psychological aspects. Combat > Psychological aspects > History > 19th century. Soldiers > United States > Psychology > History > 19th century. HISTORY / United States / Civil War Period (1850-1877) HISTORY / United States / 19th Century. HISTORY / Military / General.

Table of Contents:

The things they carried: influences on Civil War soldiers and killing
Seeing the elephant: killing and the face of battle
Good execution: the language of killing
With bayonet and clubbed musket: killing in hand-to-hand combat
Hunters of men: sharpshooters and killing
Murder and mercy: the extremes of killing
Killing in black and white: race, combat, and hate.