For each question, answer the question completely using proper English and make sure to proofread! You must also respond to at least one other student post to receive full credit.
Sunday, July 5, 2009
Chapter Seven- Accounting: "Our Responsibility to the Dead"
What are some of the similarities and differences between the North and South's reburial efforts after the Civil War? Of the two sides, who do you believe honored their dead more successfully? Why?
"Only gradually in the years following the southern surrender did a general sense of obligation toward the dead yield firm policy."(217) The North worked hard to rebury their soldiers. They ended up with a huge postwar reburial program. The North developed a new system of national cemeteries to put all their soldier in. "Whitman proceeded with a sense of growing urgency."(222) The North worked quickly to identify and inter the bodies of their soldiers. Reburial was the most important thing to the North at this point in time. "The northern reburial movement was an official, even a professional effort."(241) In the south, the women responded the call to bury the Confederate dead. Even in death, the Yankees and Rebels were not buried together. "It is the least thing we can do for our soldiers."(242) The south worked hard to rebury all their soldiers. "The honoring of Confederate dead in the months after Appomattox quite naturally included decoration of graves with seasonal flowers."(240) Although the reburial effort in the south was not as strong as in the north, they still honored their dead successfully. "Neither northern nor southern participants in the commemoration and reburial movement were 'simply...mourners for the dead.'"(248) The north and south worked hard to honor their soldiers. I think they both honored their dead equally. They honored their dead just for caring so much. It made their sacrifice worth something. I do not think one effort was more successful at honoring the dead.
Both the North and the South attempted to rebury their fallen soldiers. However, the North had the help and finance of the government, while the South only had its women to do the reburying. The North’s Whitman and Moore were able to travel the country in search of the slain and potential sites for cemeteries. Carpenters, soldiers, and other men accompanied Whitman around the country. On their journey, many African Americans assisted them, “Individual black civilians also proved critical to Whitman’s effort to locate corpses and graves.” (p. 227) These men wanted the process to be as quick as possible in order to ensure that the bodies would be able to be identified and to not be vandalized by Southerners. More than 300,000 Union soldiers were reburied into 74 national cemeteries, costing the War Department more than $4,000,000. (p. 236) The South on the other hand, resorted to its women doing the reburial job. These women had no funding from the government and had to pay for their project themselves and through private contributions. The women formed various associations to accomplish this task. Both sides reburied hundreds of thousands of fallen soldiers, while leaving the opposing sides’ soldiers to rot. However, I believe that the North honored their dead more successfully because they were able to identify and rebury a larger number of soldiers than the South, although the effort put into the task was most likely equal. Both sides honored the dead they reburied equally, but for the total amount of dead soldiers, I believe the North was more successful.
Though the North and the South were both determined to give their fallen a decent burial. Both the North and the South fought to bring all of their dead into national cemeteries. “Urging that the bodies of all Union soldiers should be disinterred and ‘brought speedily together into great national cemeteries’”. [232] “The [Southern] ladies worried too about the bodies scattered through the countryside, which they believed should be gathered, like Union dead, into hallowed and protected ground”. [239] The difference between the two comes when the Government did not fund the burials of Confederates, and the only ones that were done were to “clean up the littered Virginia fields” [217] The South was left on its own to bury their dead. “Mrs. McFarland [president of the Hollywood Memorial Association of the Ladies of Richmond] believed that… [speaking to the southern women] in ‘dying’… Confederates ‘left us the guardianship of their graves’” [239] I believe that the North did a better job in caring for the dead because they had a more organized system, and were also better at keeping track of the dead during the war with the Sanitarians and the Christian Commission.
Though in Jamie’s answer to the question, she stated that both the North and the South were equally successful in honoring their dead, I believe that it depends on how honoring the dead is defined. If it is defined as federal subsidization and military effort to honor the fallen, then the North did a better job. “President Andrew Johnson agreed to subsidize the dissemination of her [Clara Barton] lists”. [213] “Soldiers of the U.S. Colored Troops, not yet mustered out of service, did the often repellant work”. [215] However, if honoring the dead is defined as the common citizen doing their best with their own blood, sweat, and tears to honor the men that died to protect the lifestyle that they led, then the South did the better job in honoring the dead. “… a group of Richmond women responding to the Examiner’s call gathered to found the Hollywood Memorial Association of the Ladies of Richmond… Every southerner, she insisted, held an obligation to the fallen out of gratitude for their ’noble deeds’ as much as in sorrow at their loss”. [239]
"After the war's work of killing was complete," "many soldiers lay unburied, their bones littering battlefields."(212) Both sides faced the task of reburial. People from both the North and South gave great efforts to achieve the task at hand.
In the North, Clara Barton worked to identify fallen soldiers so their remains could be returned to their families. She started an organization called the Office of Correspondence with the Friends of the Missing Men of the United States Army. The organization received approval from the U.S. government. It helped identify over 20,000 fallen soldiers.
Unlike in the North, the Southern government did not help to rebury the dead. The job was taken on by volunteer organization composed of women. The Ladies of Richmond was one of these organizations that worked to honor the fallen soldiers. The organization pleaded for government help to no avail.
Even though both sides worked hard to rebury the fallen soldiers, I have to say that the North was more productive. The North had government support which provided money for the reburial efforts. The South only relied on the volunteer organizations
The northern and southern reburial efforts were more different than similar because the north was better equipped to deal with the loss of their soldiers. With the south having lost the war, they were left with a government too busy with their Union soldiers to help rebury the Confederate. As well as the government helping the north,” black southerners cared for the Union dead ... as a demonstration of gratitude and respect.” (227). With the help of the newly freed slaves the north found it easier to start the reburial process because the graves of their soldiers were well marked. The south on the other hand, had no help from the government or freed people and was left to fend for themselves. To raise money for the dead, “the Hollywood association sponsored a two-week-long bazaar”(240). The south had to rely on themselves where the north had help.
I believe that they were equal in honoring their dead because they both did the best with what they had. The north should have helped the south with their reburial process, because after the war there was no more north and south, it was all one United States of America, and one side shouldn’t have been favored over the other.
The North had people like Clara Barton Edmund B. Whitman who "sought surviving witnesses who alone had the information to necessary to enable" them "to locate and identify the dead." [pg. 221] They alsohad soldiers go looking for the dead so they could bury them properly. The South had the dead buried but didn't take care of the Unions graves. They only took care of the fallen Rebels. I believe that the North took better care of their dead than the South. I believe this because they didn't mutalate the dead of the South as the South did to the Northern deceased.
Even though the war had ended both Union and Confederate citizens weren’t ready to regroup as one, and as an effect both sides created their own reburial efforts. Both sides believed that letting the dead lie in battlefields unburied was extremely dishonorable, and shouldn’t be allowed. In addition (though there were some exceptions) both sides commonly avoided burying each other’s dead, and only wanted to bury their own, but not the other’s. The two sides shared almost everything from motives to burial techniques, but they had one big difference- size. The Union’s effort was much larger than the Confederate’s in money, resources, and people due to the support it received from the government, whereas the Confederate effort, which received no support from the government, was composed of smaller private groups made up of mainly civilian women. Although the Union effort had more success largely due to its size, I believe that the Confederate’s effort honored the dead more than the Union’s effort. By still putting together organizations committed to reburying the dead, even without the help of the national government, the southern people showed how strongly they felt about honoring their dead with a proper burial. In addition without the size the Union’s effort had, each member of the Confederate effort had to work a lot harder, showing how deeply committed they were to honoring their dead. The Confederate effort took a lot of strength from the people who participated, and that, in my opinion, makes it more impressive than the Union’s effort, and shows they honored their dead more.
Response to Ben, Good point about the size differential between the Northern and Southern burial efforts. The South relied solely on volunteer groups while the Union had both volunteers and goverment support. However, the South had no government support. This is the reason why the Union reburial force was much larger and productive than the Southern reburial force.
Response to Orion Tallmadge I have to disagree with Orion. I do not think the North honored their dead more. I think both sides were equal. The North may have identified more soldiers but both sides put the same amount of effort into the project. I think both sides should have worked together to bury all the dead, however both sides cared about their soldiers. Identifying them does not necessarily mean they are honored. Those soldiers were honored by the people that cared enough to go and look for them. I think both sides did a great job considering the number of deaths.
Response to Jamie, I didn't even say that the North honored their dead more. I said they were more productive. Maybe you should read the post before you reply to it.
In response to Ben: "The Confederate effort took a lot of strength from the people who participated, and that, in my opinion, makes it more impressive than the Union’s effort" I totally agree with you. The South had to work harder than the North, and even though they ended up burying less than the Union their efforts were significant. I understand the North was busy with their dead soldiers, and helping the enemy wasn't necessarily ideal, but you would think the government could have spared a little money or timeto help the South's reburial process.
After the end of the Civil War, both the North and South began the reburial process of their fallen soldiers. The North was given the support of government finance and was lead by the military in contrast to the South whose reburial efforts were left to the women. Quartermasters of the Union army gathered fallen Union soldiers across the country in attempt to properly rebury them. This was an urgent task that needed to be completed quickly to ensure that their identities and bodies remained in spite of vandalism and decomposition. This searching largely relied on data gathered by former soldiers and records keepers who during the war recorded burial sites and battlefields. With a combined effort from the leading search groups, Moore and Whitman successfully reburied 303,536 Union soldiers into national cemeteries with the help of craftsmen and work groups. Seventy four national cemeteries were used to bury the dead for a total expense of $4,000,306.26. In the South women were responsible for the reburial efforts of the Confederate soldiers. They received no government finance or assistance and were left to raise their own money and support. Many women organizations were formed all across the South dedicated to reburial. These women also only focused on their Confederate dead neglecting any Union soldiers they came across. Of the two opposing sides both honored their dead successfully. The Union spent great amounts of time, effort and money to properly bury their dead. They identified and buried mass amounts of soldiers converting them to national cemeteries. Moore and Whitman showed great dedicated to their fallen comrades. The South relied on its own means of reburial without any Union help or finance. They were greatly committed to honoring and respecting the dead through any means possible and successfully completed this process.
In response to Ben G: “Although the Union effort had more success largely due to its size, I believe that the Confederate’s effort honored the dead more than the Union’s effort.” I believe Ben G. makes a good point that the even thought the South had fewer resources to bury the dead they showed dedication and effort in honoring the fallen soldiers. However, although the Union had more resources and support it does not mean they showed less honor and dedication. They took great care in respecting and reburying the dead in national cemeteries. They were more productive in this process but each side successfully honored their soldiers.
Both the North and the South tried their best to bury and honor the soldiers that had passed and yet to be buried when the war was over. "The war's work of killing was complete, but the claims of the dead endured." There were many unburied dead and this was a challenge for both sides, the North and South. Even with all their efforts the North was only able to identify a third of the fallen soldiers. Then North had more resources and help from the government. For example James Moore was ordered to the wilderness and Spotsylvania for the simple fact of finding the unburied dead. Also during Moore's mission he was ordered to attend to the Union dead but Moore also interred many Confederates in order to clean up the littered Virginia fields. Moore was very successful in his job that he said, "not more than 50 union soldiers still sleep outside our beautiful cemetery." Although the South's resources were not close to the North's they tried very hard to bury their dead. Volunteer organizations like the ladies of Richmond took the burden of the burial of the dead. The burial of the fallen rebel soldiers was truely a community effort. "In the south care for the Confederate dead was of necessity the work of the people, at least the white people; it became a grassroots undertaking that mobilized the white South in ways that extended well beyond the immediate purposes of bereavement and commemortion."(241) I believe that the South honored their dead more successfully than the North because even without the resources they were able to do just as good of a job as the North did.
You said, "Even though both sides worked hard to rebury the fallen soldiers, I have to say that the North was more productive. The North had government support which provided money for the reburial efforts. The South only relied on the volunteer organizations." This is a true statement, but the question wasn't, Which was more productive? The question was, which honored the dead more successfully." Although you are right that the North had more resources therefore they were more productive, the South honored them more by being volunteer groups and personally knew many of the dead soldiers.
Response to Blake: I don’t agree with your ideas that both sides honored their dead equally, and both sides put an equal amount of effort into burying their dead, I think the Confederate’s effort honored their dead more than the Union’s effort, and they also put more effort into it. Because the Confederate effort lacked the money and people the Union’s had I think they had to work harder to make up for it. Even though the Confederate effort had little resources, they still worked hard, which shows me they honored their dead more. I’m not saying the Union effort failed to honor their dead or put effort into reburying them, but rather the Confederate effort did both better.
The North and the South differed greatly in the ways they honored their dead. "The northern reburial effort was an official, even a professional effort," whereas the southern effort was "a work of the people." For this reason, the north was more productive than the south. Both sides had very different ways of honoring their dead as well. The North honored their dead through government support, creating national holidays and issuing orders "forbiddng the desecration of Union graves." "The absence of official concern for the Confederate dead stood in stark contrast." Their reburial effort depended on the people's dedication to their dead. In my opinion, the South honored their dead more. While the North was more productive, their efforts were mandatory and industrialized. In the South, the effort was voluntary and personal. It relied on the people to care and their willingness to do something about it. For this reason, I believe that the South honored their dead more because they did so out of generosity rather than obligation.
Response to Amber: Although the north did not mutilate the dead, they did not do their part in taking care of them. The south did not have the means remove all the dead from the battlefield, and many bodies were on northern soil where it was difficult to remove them. Still, when the Northerners came through, they simply passed by the corpses without a second thought rather than at least removing them from plain view where they were vulnerable to animals and thieves. Also, the south did not necessarily think of themselves as a part of the Union yet. Their whole purpose in fighting the war was to separate themselves from the country. The north wanted the south to rejoin the Union, and neglecting their dead does not seem like a very convincing reason for the south to come back.
The north and south burried dead differently. The south had women that burried the the dead and no help from the government. These women made many assosiations that contributed majorly to bury the dead in the south. Unlike the south the north had help from their government and, " more than $4 million of public funds would be expended exclusively on dead northerners"(238). In the nroth many men help reburry the dead beacause they wanted to get it done quickly so they could identify the bodies. Thes men included Whitman, Moore, and many african americans. The north was able to bury over 300,00 union soldiers.
in responce to Blake I agree with Blake that the north honored their dead more. i believe this because the were able to name their dead. the south did a good job honoring their dead but the north was more successful because they had government funding.
I understand your viewpoint that the Confederacy might have worked harder because of a lack of funding. However, the North had people such as Whitman and Moore who traveled across the country in search of the dead and possible sites for national cemeteries. Whitman was also able to indentify many Union dead during his travels. The South may have had people like this, but none were really mentioned in the book. “Moore also interred many Confederates.” (p.217) The North also helped bury southern soldiers as well as their own. Quartermaster General Meigs also “ordered officers to provide a survey of cemeteries containing Union soldiers.” (p. 219) “Even before Congress passed formal legislation in February 1867, the effort to bury every Union soldier within the safe confines of a national cemetery began.” The North worked hard to remove Union soldiers from the south where their graves were being desecrated and put them into national cemeteries that could be protected. More than 300,000 Union soldiers were buried in National cemeteries. Also, “The absence of official concern for the Confederate dead stood in stark contrast.” (p.237) This shows that the North didn’t care much about the Confederate dead who were lying on the ground rotting. I understand the Confederacy may have worked a little harder due to a lack of funding and people who went searching for the dead, but the North buried hundreds of thousands of soldiers (including some Confederates) and reinterred them into national cemeteries.
The North and South both had very successful post-war efforts that were similar in some ways and different in others. They were similar because they both had the same idea when it came to rebuilding the nation. They created mass grave sites and informed the loved ones of the dead. They also searched for the missing and were very initiative about their duties. The difference, on the other hand, is that the south was much more privately funded than the north. The Hollywood Memorial Association was one of these groups. They were in direct contact with men such as Weaver in the act of spotting was the bodies were and were they needed to be taken. The North was very open about their obligations and responsibilities to the dead. They acquired the help from the U.S. Army and the rest of the government.
This is why I believe that the North was more successful than the South. With the help of nation and their funding, the North made sure that anything is possible.
I agree with Alfrado that the North was more successful in their efforts to rebuild the country. With funds that you stated were in tact, the North made unbelievable amounts of progress. You said they had $4,000,000 of public funds, and that they were able to bury over 300,000 union troops. There is no way that the south made this kind of head-way with their disinterment and post-war efforts.
Once the war was over, the reburial process was another challenge. Both the North and South tried their best to honor their soldiers. Both sides did not want the soldiers to just be left in the field but, buried with honor. “The postwar burial movements in both North and South made it possible for many bereaved families to identify kin and to visit or ornament graves…” (248) The reburial process done by both sides overall helped with the identification of missing soldiers, although thousands were still unknown. Between the two sides, the North was better funded therefore making it easier to rebury. They had lots of support and more resources to help identify and properly bury the dead. The South mostly consisted of women reburying the soldiers. They were funded not by the government, but mostly by people within the South. But, despite this, “The Confederacy would not live on as a nation, but its dead would in some sense become it corporeal and corporate representation, not only a symbol of what once was but summons to what must be.” (248) Between the two sides, I believe the North did a better job at honoring their dead. The reason for this is, the North was better funded, and overall had more help with the process. The funding provided by the government was overall a big contributor as to why the Union soldiers were better honored.
In response to Blake: I agree with your post. I liked how you used numbers to prove your point. It made me think of how much more sufficient the North was during the reburial process and how money significantly contributed to their reburial process. When reading your post, I rethought my point on how the North did a better job honoring. I agree with you saying, "Both sides honored the dead they reburied equally, but for the total amount of dead soldiers, I believe the North was more successful."
While the Confederacy was dissolved immediately after the end of the war, states were not readmitted into Congress until several years later, forcing them to act like a separate nation for some time after. One case was managing the burials of the fallen soldiers. Both the people of the north and the people of the South made efforts to bury and preserve the fallen distinct from one another. The north’s system was elaborate and run by the government. They had a sense of urgency and operated around deadlines (which actually meant something 150 years ago). The government of the south elected to step back and let the female civilians take care of it, for, according to the South, it was the duty of a woman to be leaders in mourning just as it was to demonstrate “allegiance to [her] country… by leading the southern reburial efforts,” (pg 242). Women of the south would literally “bury one’s neighbors and kin as a personal and private act,” (pg 242). Instead of using money from everybody to bury everybody, people used their money to bury whomever they wished. I think the South was far more effective and successful in honoring their dead. In the north, for the most part, everybody was buried in almost the same way regardless of the opinion of the taxpayers, friends, and family. They had a plan and that was the way it was to be done without exception. Not many decisions were left to the families because that would’ve made it too expensive and too time consuming to fulfill everybody’s needs. The south, on the other hand, allowed citizens to bury whomever they felt needed to be buried and allowed the burier to spend as much or as little time and money on the burial as they felt necessary to give proper honor to the deceased. Those who nobody wanted to give an elaborate burial were not given one; no money or time was wasted.
The North and South both reburied many bodies after the Civil War. In the North, Edmund B. Whitman and Captain James Moore worked hard to bury, rebury, and mark graves of Union soldiers. Whitman “sought surviving witnesses who alone had the information necessary to enable him to locate and identify the dead,” (219). They worked hard to find every dead Union soldier. Moore and Whitman also tried to work as fast as they could to protect the bodies from “human and natural forces” (222). There were many accounts of Union graves and bodies being vandalized, so they worked with urgency to keep this from continuing. Many other people helped the cause of reburial in the North including Clara Barton who founded the Office of Correspondence with the Friends of the Missing Men of the United States Army. The North received over $4 million of public funds to be used only for the North on the reburial effort. In the South, women took on the huge role of burying, reburying, and marking graves of Confederate soldiers. They made their own associations that helped including the Ladies of Richmond. The Ladies of Richmond did their own funding without government help. I think that the North honored the dead more successfully since they had government and funding support. Although the southern women did a great job of honoring their soldiers, they couldn’t do it all without support. In the North, they had so much money to help them. They also had information from the Christian and Sanitary Commissions that helped. All of this helped the North to successfully honor the Union soldiers.
In response to Cameron, You make great points, but I disagree with you. The North was very successful in honoring most Union soldiers. They had the money and government support that the South did not have. They also worked hard to gather as many Union soldiers as they could to bury or rebury. In addition, the North worked fast, so bodies would not be vandalized. The South didn’t have much urgency in the reburial effort. They didn’t have the government support from the North or financial support. You said, “Those who nobody wanted to give an elaborate burial were not given one.” Most soldiers probably wanted to be buried, so by not giving a burial it doesn’t honor the soldier. Therefore, the North successfully honored their dead better that the South.
The post-Civil War North and South handled reburial very differently from one another. The North operated through a government-run, organized system, while the South - lacking any sort of stable government of their own - took on the task of burying the dead without any help from the North. The federal government's reburial efforts were focused on the North, and their organized system allowed thousands of soldiers to be buried efficiently and effectively. The government's involvement in the burial of its citizens was very unique. While Southerners were excluded from the government program, it still showed a certain compassion for the people not shown by many governments during that time. "The program's extensiveness, its cost, its location in national rather than state government, and its connection with the most personal dimensions of individuals' lives all would have been unimaginable before the war created its legions of dead, a constituency of the slain and their mourners, who would change the very definition of the nation and its obligations" (237). The government showed a genuine concern for the well-being of its citizens and the honoring of its dead that would set a precedent for the nation in years to come. "'Such a consecration of a nation's power and resources to a sentiment,' Whitman observed, 'the world has never witnessed'" (237). Civilians in the South buried their loved ones privately, for the most part. "Southern civilians, largely women, mobilized private means to accomplish what federal resources would not" (238). They had little or no help from the government, as all of the North's money and time was spent on the burial of Northern soldiers. ". . . during the five years that followed Appottamox, more than $4 million of public funds would be expended exclusively on dead Northerners" (238). The North justified this with the reasoning that ". . .it seemed unimaginable that those who had tried to destroy the Union should be accorded the same respect as those who had saved it" (238). The civilians of the South were not left completely to their own devices in burying their dead, however. Groups such as the Hollywood Memorial Association of the Ladies of Richmond organized mass reburial efforts which handled the burials of thousands of southern soldiers. "The association began repair of the eleven thousand soldiers' graves dug at Hollywood during the war. . . . The association arranged for the transfer of hundreds of bodies to new graves in the Richmond cemetery during the summer and fall of 1866" (239).
I think the South was more successful in honoring their dead. They had few resources, no government funding, and far less manpower to fuel their reburial efforts, and yet they were able to bury thousands of fallen soldiers, and in a more personal way than the North as well. The dedication and determination and perseverance it took to bury all of those soldiers showed just how much the South cared for and honored their dead.
Response to Jenna: You said that ". . .the North honored the dead more successfully since they had government and funding support." They did do great work, and they were very effective and uniquely compassionate in their efforts, I think the North was hypocritical in not assisting the postwar South's recovery; they fought the Civil War in order to keep our country together, united and strong, but after they won the war, they neglected the South for several years, creating a rift between two halves of a nation. The North should have reached out to the South immediately after the war was won in order to form a working relationship between them, but they did not, and so the South was left devastated and impoverished for several years to come, our country broken and weak.
The North’s and the South’s efforts to locate the grave yards and scattered graves were basically the same. They both asked for the, “evaluation of the appropriateness of each site and a judgment as to whether bodies should be left in place or removed to a ‘permanent cemetery near (219).’” The difference between the two is the South vandalized the North’s graves and graveyards. They were sore from losing so they took it out on the already dead. The North usually just left the South’s bodies on the field to rot even more. I think that the Union honored all of the dead because they didn’t vandalize them, they at least left them to lie in peace.
The North and South both had extensive reburial efforts after the end of the war. The North was given government funding to locate and rebury as many Union soldiers as possible. Many former Union officers were given the arduous task of finding these graves, and then finding appropriate spots for for National Cemeteries to be placed. But the government funded all of this. "...during the five years that followed Appomattox, more that $4 million of public funds would be expended exclusively on dead Northerners." The South received no funding from the government and they still had to rebury and take care of soldiers' graves. While the military took care of most of the reburial efforts in the North, that duty mostly fell to the women of the South, who had to find their own ways to fund the reburying that they had to do. "Southern civilians, largely women, mobilized private means to accomplish what federal resources would not." The Union soldiers were moved, if possible to a newly formed National Cemetery and given a proper headstone, complete with information about them on it. But in the South, the Confederate dead had to make do with modest, humble grave markers, that may or may or not have had any information recorded on it. In the scope of things, I think that the North did a very good job honoring the dead. The officers who oversaw the projects did their best to ensure that each soldier had an individual grave, with a name, dates of birth and death, and other information if it could be found. In the South, where funds were low, the women who worked in the reburial efforts did the best they could to identify soldiers, but without decent information, many graves went unnamed. I think that the South did a better job of honoring the dead, because they did about half of what the North did in reburial efforts, with much less funding - none of it from the government - fewer people to do the work - and most of them were women - and it became more personalized for the former Confederates. Many of the Confederate dead were put in cemeteries in cities or near the towns they were from, if they hadn't been claimed by the family and taken home to be buried. While the North did a good job reburying the fallen soldiers, the process wasn't as personal, but more of a task that had to be completed.
Yes, the North was more productive. They obviously recovered and reburied many more dead than the South did, but they also had more funding and a more organized way of doing it. But that is all besides the point. The question was "Who do you believe honored their dead more successfully?" From your answer, it wounds like you think the North did a better job of honoring the dead, but you didn't state it that well.
Response to Jenna’s Response to my Post: You, along with many others, argue that “[The North] had the money…that the South did not.” That’s a misleading fact. In the South, they did have money, and it was in the pockets of the civilians as it should have been. Surprisingly enough, all the money that the North had to support reburial efforts did not fall from the sky, but was rather taxed from citizens and residents of the north. Instead of letting individuals invest their own money into burials, the government took whatever they wanted from the people, creating the illusion that they were rich and strong, when really the only difference in the South was that the money was still left in the hands of the citizens. There was the same amount of money on both sides either way. Also, you said that “most soldiers wanted to be buried, so by not giving a burial it doesn’t honor the soldier.” I believe that honor can only be given by those who truly care for and respect the dead and what they have done for the country. Therefore, I think that programs in the North failed to honor their dead. In my opinion, just because they were given a burial doesn’t mean that the dead were honored.
Both the North and the South did what they could for their dead. "The Northern reburial movement was an official, even a profesional effort." (pg 241)" "The honoring of Confederate dead in the months after Appomattox quite naturally included decoration of graves with seasonal flowers." (pg 240) The North and the South did what they could and what they though was honorable for their dead soldiers. I can't say that one of them did better than the other. They did reburials in their own honorable ways.
Both the North and the South went to great heights to bury and honor their dead. The North was helped by the government and they quickly got their Union soldiers into cemeteries around the country. "Urging that the bodies of all Union soldiers should be disinterred and 'brought speedily together into great national cemeteries,'" (pg. 232) The South, however, didn't have any help from the government, finantially or physically. The South's women took up the responsibility to honor and bury their falled soldiers. The South was still very successful though. "Whitman supervised the removal of tens of thousands of bodies to national cemeteries in the Division of the Tennessee," (pg. 235) Both sides honored their dead as much as possible and I don't believe either side should be labled as better or worse. I do however believe the South gave a bigger sacrifice to bury and honor their dead because they had less help. The North buried and identified more bodies but the South sacrificed more, therefore, both sides are even.
The North and the South put a lot of effort into the reburial after the Civil War. Many civilians and war veterans in the North (James Moore, Whitman, Clara Barton, etc.) put a lot of time, effort, and money into the reburial of Union soldiers. They eventually reburied thousands of soldiers and started national cemeteries. The government paid for a lot of this. They wanted it to go by quickly for fear of grave robbers, loss of identity, and the elements taking a toll on the bodies. The South, however did not have any help from the US government. So, the Southern women started many memorial associations to help the reburial effort in the South. But, without the government's help or much money, graves in the South went frequently unmarked. The South did make good progress in reburial, and I think both sided honored their dead equally. Even if the South didn't have much help from the North, they still tried very hard with the little resources and money they had. The North had help from many sources and was very successful in honoring their dead. But, they failed in honoring the South, even though they were a country. That to me is failing to honor the dead in your entire country.
Response to Nina- You said exactly what I was trying to say (although I'm not sure if the way I said it makes sense)- "I don't believe either side should be labled as better or worse...the South gave a bigger sacrifice to bury and honor their dead." That is what I believe because the South started from basically nothing and they still managed to honorably bury their dead. The North on the other hand did not honor the South but, they buried more bodies as you said.
The North had post war programs to help bury soldiers. The North made 74 national cemeteries to respect the fallen. These cemeteries made burial of soldiers easier and still gave them respect. The North tried to quickly bury soldiers so it would be still easy to identify soldiers. The government financed the burials with more than $4,000,000. It was much different in the South. Women began to start organizations, that were privately funded, to bury Confederate soldiers. Mean graves were unmarked because of the lack of efficiency and government help. Women still tried to honor the dead by decorating graves with flowers. Even though the war was over, Confederate and Union soldiers still were not buried together. I think that both North and South did their best to honor their soldiers, but I think that the Union was more efficient. They mark many more bodies than the South did. They also gave cemeteries for soldiers when they died.
You do make a valid point about money. Money was what made the Union able to bury their soldiers more effectively. I believe that money made this process much easier. The South had money but didn't use as much as the North.
Im glad i could help you out with what you were trying to say. That is exactly what i believe too because the South honored both the North and The South and they had to honor their soldiers by using their own money and own time and that is what helped them to honor their dead more. Also for them to honor the North too just makes their cause so much better than the North's.
The North had national cemetaries that were financialy covered by the government. therfore they were able to provide a better burial for their deceased. The North was able to locate land for proper burial with funding from the government. The North's fallen soldiers were able to have marked graves whereas the South did not. As for the South their burial was provided by the women with no help from the government. The women did the best they could with the resources they had. The South did the best that they could to honor their deceased. Therefore I don't believe that neither one was better than the other because they both did the best job that they could with the resources hat they had. They both provided the best cemetaries and burial services that they could for their soldiers.
In response to Celina I agree with you in that neither side should be made out to be better than the other because they both did their best to honor their soldiers in the best way they could. Even though the North had the support of the government and had the means of a better burial than the South. The South to me had a more personal touch to their burial of their fallen. The women of the South did a great job without governent help.
The North and the South handled reburial differently, of course both did the best they could to identify as many bodies as possible with the resources available to them. The North had a very government organized system, this took a lot of money and took time. "...during the five years that followed Appomattox, more that $4 million of public funds would be expended exclusively on dead Northerners." The South did not have this funding. They had to do the best they could without, and they did. Women took control of this responsibility in the South and really got to work identifying fallen soldiers. Athough they identified more bodies than then South I do not believe either did a better job with reburial than the other. Both completed the goal of honoring the soldiers who had fought for them in the War.
In response to Jessi: I really liked your post. I agree that both sides had their strengths during reburial. While the North seemed to honor more soldiers, the South honored each soldier more personally. I think it's interesting how this is sort of the same way it was with everything, when it came to notifying families of deaths, the North had a larger quantity and the South made each letter personal. Also, I agree with what you say about how "The Union soldiers were moved, if possible to a newly formed National Cemetery and given a proper headstone, complete with information about them on it. But in the South, the Confederate dead had to make do with modest, humble grave markers, that may or may or not have had any information recorded on it." This is another example of a huge difference in reburial in the North and South after the Civil War.
Even though both the Union and Confederate sides did successfully bury and identify many of their soldiers after the war, in my opinion the Union side honored their dead more successfully. The two crucial differences between the two was government funding, and how the Southerners disgraced Union resting places. In order for proper identification and burial of all of the fallen Union troops, the United States government funded a group including Walt Whitman and a number of colored troops, to tour battlefields and surrounding areas in search of Union soldiers and their graves. Overall this group was very successful in the identification of Union graves, but it was not easy. Many white Southerners disliked any Union soldier, and therefore would not share information on specific grave sites. This is where the freedman came in. Southern blacks had a great respect for the Union troops, and therefore, these colored people would gladly tell Whitman and his group the location of any Union soldier’s gravesites that they knew of. In addition to aiding the group, many colored soldiers identified, and buried fallen Union soldiers on their own. On the other hand, the South did not have any government groups to bury the fallen. This daunting task was left to the women of the south. Even though these women did an adequate job, they did not even have any respect to the fallen on the opposite side. “Near Memphis, Whitman encountered a road build over Union graves that had been all but destroyed by teams and carts, and he wrote sadly of 810 neglected Union graves in a cemetery three miles from the city. Nine hundred rebel graves in the same burial ground were carefully tended, with identities listed in a sexton’s book. The “Association of Southern Mothers,” he learned, had assumed responsibility for these Confederate dead, while their victorious counterparts lay dishonored beside them.” [pg. 225] So in my opinion, even though both sides did an adequate job in honoring their dead, I think that the North did a better job. Government funding did help, but you have to take into account that the North did not dishonor Confederate dead nearly as bad as the South did. So even though both sides did a fair job in burying the fallen, the North did better because they did not dishonor the counterpart’s dead nearly as bad as the South did.
In response to Blake Naito: I agree with Blake and his comment here, “Both sides reburied hundreds of thousands of fallen soldiers, while leaving the opposing sides’ soldiers to rot.” I agree with Blake here, even though both sides did rebury thousands of dead soldiers, it is a real shame that they had no regard for the other sides’ soldiers. As Faust said here, “These corpses were in every imaginable place and condition: buried on river embankments and the wholly or partially washed away (there were even reports of coffins floating like little boats down the Mississippi toward the sea), or abandoned in “ravines and jungles and dense cane breaks” and never buried at all. A farmer named Linn, who wanted to extend his cotton fields, had plowed up thirty Union skeletons and then delivered the bones “in bulk” to the Vicksburg city cemetery. Not far away a Union graveyard had been leveled entirely to make way for a racecourse.” [pg. 226] Even though both sides treated their own dead respectfully, there should never have treated their counterparts remains like they did. After all, they were all still Americans.
The North and the South both had different but successful ways of burying the dead. The North's burial process "was an official, even a professional effort...it was the work-and expense- of the Quartermaster Corps, the U.S. Army, and the federal government." (page 241) This proved to be a very orderly and efficient way of burying the dead while respecting the soldiers at the same time. Soldiers had official graves with gravestones that marked their identity and they had national cemeteries for the graves.
"In the South care for the Confederate dead was of necessity the work of the people," (page 241) this means that mainly the women of the South had the responsibility of burying their dead. They made an immense effort to bury as many as they could and honored each and every soldier. However, because the government didn't exactly help the Southerners bury their death many graves went unmarked and there were any proper cemeteries.
Clearly, the North was more efficient and the South more honorable, so, I personally feel that both did a good job respecting and burying the dead. If one was to ask who did the better job, I would say the North.
You made an interesting point when responding to Jenna's post. You stated,"I think the North was hypocritical in not assisting the postwar South's recovery; they fought the Civil War in order to keep our country together, united and strong, but after they won the war, they neglected the South for several years, creating a rift between two halves of a nation." I completely agree that the North should have reached out to the South more, so that they could have developed a stronger nation sooner. Because they left the South in a rut for years, the South had to struggle in the post-war aftermath. Great point.
The North and South's reburials both took effort and and time out of large organizations and associations, although they were separately done. Many people of both sides believed that it was dishonorable for the soldiers to be left rotting on the fields. The North and South's reburials "made it possible for many bereaved families to identify kin and to visit or ornament graves," (pg. 248). Also, "Civil War cemeteries-both national and Confederate- were unlike any graveyards that Americans had ever seen," (pg. 248). Although both sides had similarities, they also had differences in supporters. The North had help from the federal government, therefore recieving professional effort and expenses. They also had the support of black southerners. The South, however, only had the "work of people". Of the two, I believe that the North honored their people more successfully, while the South honored their people with more effort.
Both the North and the South tried very hard to honor and rebury their fallen soldiers. “The end of combat offered an opportunity to attend to the dead in ways war had made impossible.” (212) It was important to them to honor the soldiers that had risked their lives to fight for their country. However both sides handled it differently. The government in the North realized it was an important task and funded an organization to rebury their dead. Clara Barton founded the Office of Correspondence in 1865. She went directly to the source and tried to find information about the deceased from the surviving soldiers. The government backed Clara in her process of sending lists out of soldiers she found to be dead. The South’s reburial efforts however were not backed by the government. It was mostly volunteer women who got the job done. “Honor to the dead required the continuing defense of Confederate principles, which had been ‘defeated, not necessarily lost.’” (248) Honoring the dead to the south was just as important as it had been for the North. However I think the North honored their dead more successfully. They had more people on the task of doing so. Plus they were funded and had the support of their government when the South had neither. I think the South was successful but the North accomplished the task quicker and more efficiently.
In response to Lee P I like how you said, “…the North honored their people more successfully, while the South honored their people with more effort.” Because of the North’s incredible amount of support it was an easier task for them. The south did not have tons of support and they really had to use a lot of energy to get the job done. I agree if the South had more assistance then they would have been just as efficient as the North. But the South had other problems at the time and they did not believe it was a top priority.
Jonah- The North's effort was extremely organized. It was organized by the government. They reburied over 300k men and spent over $4,000,000 in their effort. They built many new cemeteries dedicated to the dead soldiers. They did everything they could to identify the soldiers even though in many cases it was impossible to identify the remains. The U.S. Burial Corps did all the labor and most of the members of this group were Blacks. In the South they had no such mass organizations or groups to rebury the dead. The women of the south were the most significant factor in their reburial. The women would honor the dead by trying to find the name and giving proper burials to every soldier. It was a much slower going and tedious process for the south, but they too reburied as many of their deceased soldiers as possible. I find it odd and not a good idea of the North to spend so much money and time burying soldiers but to not bury confederate soldiers after the war, seeing as they are one nation again. Although I believe both sides honored the dead very well in my opinion the south actually honored their dead better because it was mothers, sisters and daughters out there finding the dead not low paid work forces of hundreds of unrelated men.
Jonah- in response to Amber Pixley: I disagree with your statement. You say that the Southerners only buried the rebels and left the northern soldiers, but from what I understand it was the other way around. In fact on page 237 the author tells of a story she found where a reporter from New England found that Moore's men left two soldiers unreburied because they could tell from the buttons on their shirts that they were southerners.
The north's form of burial was much more organized, as they had the government do the work. They did everything they could to make sure that they identified all of the bodies they could, and give them a good burial. The south, on the other hand, was not as organized. The women did most of the work, which is not as official as the north. However, I feel that the south did a better job of honoring the dead, because they were not required to do the work, but they did anyways. They were just civilians, and nobody even asked them to take the responsibility, but they did, which i think is very honorable thing to do.
I agree with what you said about how both sides honored the dead. Both did a very good job, but the southerners did more to honor them. The north made everything very official, but they used a lot of money and people who didn't really have to do with the dead, whereas the south just had the women doing the burying. They didn't use as much money or hands, but they did what they had to to give the dead soldiers an honorable burial. The south had their burials on a much more personal level than the north, even if it wasnt as official.
In the process of burying the dead, both the North and South were successful in their efforts, however the Northern strategy proved very effective. The North had an organized and efficient effort fueled by many volunteers and federal money to aid the effort. They uncovered and reburied thousands of bodies, identified thousands more, and used federal grants to purchase land for national cemeteries. The reburial effort in the South, though not as effective, was nonetheless important. Southern women often headed small reburial efforts for a particular area or a particular battle. So, with no government help, the South succeeded in providing honored burials for its fallen. Both North and South were successful in honoring their dead but, the North’s reburial efforts was far superior due to the large amount of civilian an government help given.
The North's reburial effort was better organized and funded than the south but both were effective. As it should be the funded effort was more effective the North reburied and identified a lot more soldiers than the south. But the south deserves credit to since there reburying operation was mainly run by unpaid women which is very noble f them to do that. But the north reburied 300 thousand men and spent 4 million dollars in their effort so they were more effective.
I agree with you when you say "that the south did a better job of honoring the dead, because they were not required to do the work, but they did anyways. They were just civilians, and nobody even asked them to take the responsibility, but they did, which i think is very honorable thing to do." yes the south's method might have been more honorable but the north was more effective.
I totally agree with you that both sides honored their dead equally. It doesn’t matter that the North had money from the government or that they were more organized, just because a Northern funeral is more expensive, does it make it any less important?
There were quite a few differences between the reburial efforts of the North and the South. The North was very efficient in their reburial system. "Only slowly did the orders of individual military commanders combine with legislative authorization and funding to create an enormous and comprehensive postwar reburial program intended to locate every Union soldier across the South" as stated on page 217. The south on the other hand had women doing the reburial work. The North had more help in their reburials. I think that both sides honored the dead soldiers very effectively. I think the North was maybe a little more effective because they had more reliable help.
I agree with you. I think that both sides did honor their dead soldiers equally as you said. Even if the North did do more the South still did do a good job at the reburial of their soldiers.
Some of the similarities and differences between the North and South's reburial efforts after the Civil War were that, the south had soldiers go looking for the dead so they could bury them properly. The south worked hard to rebury all their soldiers. "The honoring of Confederate dead in the months after Appomattox quite naturally included decoration of graves with seasonal flowers."(240). Although their efforts were not as good as the North’s, they still cared about their fallen soldiers. The north ended up with a huge postwar reburial program. The North developed a new system of national cemeteries to put all their soldiers in. Reburial was the most important thing to northerners at this time. I believe that the North had honored the dead more successfully. This is because it seemed they went through more efforts in order to burry the dead properly.
I believe there is more to the south’s reburial efforts than you said. Its not that they didn’t care, they just hadn’t had as many resources as the norths.
Both the North and the South moved quickly to bury their dead and honor them, however, the North had government funding while the South did not. This of course meant that the North was much more efficient at burying their dead, but I think that the South had more personal burials, because in the North it was a business while in the South it was very personal because it was family members burying their fellow family members.
It seems that the North was much more official, if not efficient, in the burial of their dead. Page 217 speaks of the luxurious cemeteries of the North while page 238 notes that many times unofficial graves were made by women in the South. This difference may have been caused by the lack of funds the South had compared to the North or the political pressure on the North to honor their own and dishonor the Confederate soldiers. Despite the reasoning, however, the North took much better care of their dead where the South set it as a much lower priority.
I do not believe the South honored their fallen as the North did. This is understandable as the North had won and felt that they owed it to ever man to honor his piece in that success. In the same way, the South had lost and felt much less pride over each individual. Though family perhaps felt just as strongly for their loved ones, the small percentage of family members with the resources to find and bury men was minuscule on both sides, with no majority to change the statistics of treatment of the dead.
In response to Samantha: I agree with you about no side did better than the other. Because they both honored the dead by reburring them in respect to them. And that's all that matters. Who cares if one side had more money than the others and did it a better way. Each respected the dead in a way that can't be wrong.
"Only gradually in the years following the southern surrender did a general sense of obligation toward the dead yield firm policy."(217) The North worked hard to rebury their soldiers. They ended up with a huge postwar reburial program. The North developed a new system of national cemeteries to put all their soldier in. "Whitman proceeded with a sense of growing urgency."(222) The North worked quickly to identify and inter the bodies of their soldiers. Reburial was the most important thing to the North at this point in time. "The northern reburial movement was an official, even a professional effort."(241)
ReplyDeleteIn the south, the women responded the call to bury the Confederate dead. Even in death, the Yankees and Rebels were not buried together. "It is the least thing we can do for our soldiers."(242) The south worked hard to rebury all their soldiers. "The honoring of Confederate dead in the months after Appomattox quite naturally included decoration of graves with seasonal flowers."(240) Although the reburial effort in the south was not as strong as in the north, they still honored their dead successfully.
"Neither northern nor southern participants in the commemoration and reburial movement were 'simply...mourners for the dead.'"(248) The north and south worked hard to honor their soldiers. I think they both honored their dead equally. They honored their dead just for caring so much. It made their sacrifice worth something. I do not think one effort was more successful at honoring the dead.
Both the North and the South attempted to rebury their fallen soldiers. However, the North had the help and finance of the government, while the South only had its women to do the reburying. The North’s Whitman and Moore were able to travel the country in search of the slain and potential sites for cemeteries. Carpenters, soldiers, and other men accompanied Whitman around the country. On their journey, many African Americans assisted them, “Individual black civilians also proved critical to Whitman’s effort to locate corpses and graves.” (p. 227) These men wanted the process to be as quick as possible in order to ensure that the bodies would be able to be identified and to not be vandalized by Southerners. More than 300,000 Union soldiers were reburied into 74 national cemeteries, costing the War Department more than $4,000,000. (p. 236) The South on the other hand, resorted to its women doing the reburial job. These women had no funding from the government and had to pay for their project themselves and through private contributions. The women formed various associations to accomplish this task. Both sides reburied hundreds of thousands of fallen soldiers, while leaving the opposing sides’ soldiers to rot. However, I believe that the North honored their dead more successfully because they were able to identify and rebury a larger number of soldiers than the South, although the effort put into the task was most likely equal. Both sides honored the dead they reburied equally, but for the total amount of dead soldiers, I believe the North was more successful.
ReplyDeleteThough the North and the South were both determined to give their fallen a decent burial. Both the North and the South fought to bring all of their dead into national cemeteries. “Urging that the bodies of all Union soldiers should be disinterred and ‘brought speedily together into great national cemeteries’”. [232] “The [Southern] ladies worried too about the bodies scattered through the countryside, which they believed should be gathered, like Union dead, into hallowed and protected ground”. [239] The difference between the two comes when the Government did not fund the burials of Confederates, and the only ones that were done were to “clean up the littered Virginia fields” [217] The South was left on its own to bury their dead. “Mrs. McFarland [president of the Hollywood Memorial Association of the Ladies of Richmond] believed that… [speaking to the southern women] in ‘dying’… Confederates ‘left us the guardianship of their graves’” [239] I believe that the North did a better job in caring for the dead because they had a more organized system, and were also better at keeping track of the dead during the war with the Sanitarians and the Christian Commission.
ReplyDeleteIn response to Jamie Baumgarten
ReplyDeleteThough in Jamie’s answer to the question, she stated that both the North and the South were equally successful in honoring their dead, I believe that it depends on how honoring the dead is defined. If it is defined as federal subsidization and military effort to honor the fallen, then the North did a better job. “President Andrew Johnson agreed to subsidize the dissemination of her [Clara Barton] lists”. [213] “Soldiers of the U.S. Colored Troops, not yet mustered out of service, did the often repellant work”. [215] However, if honoring the dead is defined as the common citizen doing their best with their own blood, sweat, and tears to honor the men that died to protect the lifestyle that they led, then the South did the better job in honoring the dead. “… a group of Richmond women responding to the Examiner’s call gathered to found the Hollywood Memorial Association of the Ladies of Richmond… Every southerner, she insisted, held an obligation to the fallen out of gratitude for their ’noble deeds’ as much as in sorrow at their loss”. [239]
"After the war's work of killing was complete," "many soldiers lay unburied, their bones littering battlefields."(212) Both sides faced the task of reburial. People from both the North and South gave great efforts to achieve the task at hand.
ReplyDeleteIn the North, Clara Barton worked to identify fallen soldiers so their remains could be returned to their families. She started an organization called the Office of Correspondence with the Friends of the Missing Men of the United States Army. The organization received approval from the U.S. government. It helped identify over 20,000 fallen soldiers.
Unlike in the North, the Southern government did not help to rebury the dead. The job was taken on by volunteer organization composed of women. The Ladies of Richmond was one of these organizations that worked to honor the fallen soldiers. The organization pleaded for government help to no avail.
Even though both sides worked hard to rebury the fallen soldiers, I have to say that the North was more productive. The North had government support which provided money for the reburial efforts. The South only relied on the volunteer organizations
The northern and southern reburial efforts were more different than similar because the north was better equipped to deal with the loss of their soldiers. With the south having lost the war, they were left with a government too busy with their Union soldiers to help rebury the Confederate. As well as the government helping the north,” black southerners cared for the Union dead ... as a demonstration of gratitude and respect.” (227). With the help of the newly freed slaves the north found it easier to start the reburial process because the graves of their soldiers were well marked. The south on the other hand, had no help from the government or freed people and was left to fend for themselves. To raise money for the dead, “the Hollywood association sponsored a two-week-long bazaar”(240). The south had to rely on themselves where the north had help.
ReplyDeleteI believe that they were equal in honoring their dead because they both did the best with what they had. The north should have helped the south with their reburial process, because after the war there was no more north and south, it was all one United States of America, and one side shouldn’t have been favored over the other.
The North had people like Clara Barton Edmund B. Whitman who "sought surviving witnesses who alone had the information to necessary to enable" them "to locate and identify the dead." [pg. 221] They alsohad soldiers go looking for the dead so they could bury them properly. The South had the dead buried but didn't take care of the Unions graves. They only took care of the fallen Rebels. I believe that the North took better care of their dead than the South. I believe this because they didn't mutalate the dead of the South as the South did to the Northern deceased.
ReplyDeleteEven though the war had ended both Union and Confederate citizens weren’t ready to regroup as one, and as an effect both sides created their own reburial efforts. Both sides believed that letting the dead lie in battlefields unburied was extremely dishonorable, and shouldn’t be allowed. In addition (though there were some exceptions) both sides commonly avoided burying each other’s dead, and only wanted to bury their own, but not the other’s. The two sides shared almost everything from motives to burial techniques, but they had one big difference- size. The Union’s effort was much larger than the Confederate’s in money, resources, and people due to the support it received from the government, whereas the Confederate effort, which received no support from the government, was composed of smaller private groups made up of mainly civilian women. Although the Union effort had more success largely due to its size, I believe that the Confederate’s effort honored the dead more than the Union’s effort. By still putting together organizations committed to reburying the dead, even without the help of the national government, the southern people showed how strongly they felt about honoring their dead with a proper burial. In addition without the size the Union’s effort had, each member of the Confederate effort had to work a lot harder, showing how deeply committed they were to honoring their dead. The Confederate effort took a lot of strength from the people who participated, and that, in my opinion, makes it more impressive than the Union’s effort, and shows they honored their dead more.
ReplyDeleteResponse to Ben,
ReplyDeleteGood point about the size differential between the Northern and Southern burial efforts. The South relied solely on volunteer groups while the Union had both volunteers and goverment support. However, the South had no government support. This is the reason why the Union reburial force was much larger and productive than the Southern reburial force.
Response to Orion Tallmadge
ReplyDeleteI have to disagree with Orion. I do not think the North honored their dead more. I think both sides were equal. The North may have identified more soldiers but both sides put the same amount of effort into the project. I think both sides should have worked together to bury all the dead, however both sides cared about their soldiers. Identifying them does not necessarily mean they are honored. Those soldiers were honored by the people that cared enough to go and look for them. I think both sides did a great job considering the number of deaths.
Response to Jamie,
ReplyDeleteI didn't even say that the North honored their dead more. I said they were more productive. Maybe you should read the post before you reply to it.
In response to Ben:
ReplyDelete"The Confederate effort took a lot of strength from the people who participated, and that, in my opinion, makes it more impressive than the Union’s effort" I totally agree with you. The South had to work harder than the North, and even though they ended up burying less than the Union their efforts were significant. I understand the North was busy with their dead soldiers, and helping the enemy wasn't necessarily ideal, but you would think the government could have spared a little money or timeto help the South's reburial process.
After the end of the Civil War, both the North and South began the reburial process of their fallen soldiers. The North was given the support of government finance and was lead by the military in contrast to the South whose reburial efforts were left to the women. Quartermasters of the Union army gathered fallen Union soldiers across the country in attempt to properly rebury them. This was an urgent task that needed to be completed quickly to ensure that their identities and bodies remained in spite of vandalism and decomposition. This searching largely relied on data gathered by former soldiers and records keepers who during the war recorded burial sites and battlefields. With a combined effort from the leading search groups, Moore and Whitman successfully reburied 303,536 Union soldiers into national cemeteries with the help of craftsmen and work groups. Seventy four national cemeteries were used to bury the dead for a total expense of $4,000,306.26. In the South women were responsible for the reburial efforts of the Confederate soldiers. They received no government finance or assistance and were left to raise their own money and support. Many women organizations were formed all across the South dedicated to reburial. These women also only focused on their Confederate dead neglecting any Union soldiers they came across. Of the two opposing sides both honored their dead successfully. The Union spent great amounts of time, effort and money to properly bury their dead. They identified and buried mass amounts of soldiers converting them to national cemeteries. Moore and Whitman showed great dedicated to their fallen comrades. The South relied on its own means of reburial without any Union help or finance. They were greatly committed to honoring and respecting the dead through any means possible and successfully completed this process.
ReplyDeleteIn response to Ben G:
ReplyDelete“Although the Union effort had more success largely due to its size, I believe that the Confederate’s effort honored the dead more than the Union’s effort.” I believe Ben G. makes a good point that the even thought the South had fewer resources to bury the dead they showed dedication and effort in honoring the fallen soldiers. However, although the Union had more resources and support it does not mean they showed less honor and dedication. They took great care in respecting and reburying the dead in national cemeteries. They were more productive in this process but each side successfully honored their soldiers.
Both the North and the South tried their best to bury and honor the soldiers that had passed and yet to be buried when the war was over. "The war's work of killing was complete, but the claims of the dead endured." There were many unburied dead and this was a challenge for both sides, the North and South. Even with all their efforts the North was only able to identify a third of the fallen soldiers. Then North had more resources and help from the government. For example James Moore was ordered to the wilderness and Spotsylvania for the simple fact of finding the unburied dead. Also during Moore's mission he was ordered to attend to the Union dead but Moore also interred many Confederates in order to clean up the littered Virginia fields. Moore was very successful in his job that he said, "not more than 50 union soldiers still sleep outside our beautiful cemetery." Although the South's resources were not close to the North's they tried very hard to bury their dead. Volunteer organizations like the ladies of Richmond took the burden of the burial of the dead. The burial of the fallen rebel soldiers was truely a community effort. "In the south care for the Confederate dead was of necessity the work of the people, at least the white people; it became a grassroots undertaking that mobilized the white South in ways that extended well beyond the immediate purposes of bereavement and commemortion."(241) I believe that the South honored their dead more successfully than the North because even without the resources they were able to do just as good of a job as the North did.
ReplyDeleteIn response to Orion:
ReplyDeleteYou said, "Even though both sides worked hard to rebury the fallen soldiers, I have to say that the North was more productive. The North had government support which provided money for the reburial efforts. The South only relied on the volunteer organizations." This is a true statement, but the question wasn't, Which was more productive? The question was, which honored the dead more successfully." Although you are right that the North had more resources therefore they were more productive, the South honored them more by being volunteer groups and personally knew many of the dead soldiers.
Response to Blake:
ReplyDeleteI don’t agree with your ideas that both sides honored their dead equally, and both sides put an equal amount of effort into burying their dead, I think the Confederate’s effort honored their dead more than the Union’s effort, and they also put more effort into it. Because the Confederate effort lacked the money and people the Union’s had I think they had to work harder to make up for it. Even though the Confederate effort had little resources, they still worked hard, which shows me they honored their dead more. I’m not saying the Union effort failed to honor their dead or put effort into reburying them, but rather the Confederate effort did both better.
The North and the South differed greatly in the ways they honored their dead. "The northern reburial effort was an official, even a professional effort," whereas the southern effort was "a work of the people." For this reason, the north was more productive than the south. Both sides had very different ways of honoring their dead as well. The North honored their dead through government support, creating national holidays and issuing orders "forbiddng the desecration of Union graves." "The absence of official concern for the Confederate dead stood in stark contrast." Their reburial effort depended on the people's dedication to their dead. In my opinion, the South honored their dead more. While the North was more productive, their efforts were mandatory and industrialized. In the South, the effort was voluntary and personal. It relied on the people to care and their willingness to do something about it. For this reason, I believe that the South honored their dead more because they did so out of generosity rather than obligation.
ReplyDeleteResponse to Amber:
ReplyDeleteAlthough the north did not mutilate the dead, they did not do their part in taking care of them. The south did not have the means remove all the dead from the battlefield, and many bodies were on northern soil where it was difficult to remove them. Still, when the Northerners came through, they simply passed by the corpses without a second thought rather than at least removing them from plain view where they were vulnerable to animals and thieves. Also, the south did not necessarily think of themselves as a part of the Union yet. Their whole purpose in fighting the war was to separate themselves from the country. The north wanted the south to rejoin the Union, and neglecting their dead does not seem like a very convincing reason for the south to come back.
The north and south burried dead differently. The south had women that burried the the dead and no help from the government. These women made many assosiations that contributed majorly to bury the dead in the south. Unlike the south the north had help from their government and, " more than $4 million of public funds would be expended exclusively on dead northerners"(238). In the nroth many men help reburry the dead beacause they wanted to get it done quickly so they could identify the bodies. Thes men included Whitman, Moore, and many african americans. The north was able to bury over 300,00 union soldiers.
ReplyDeletein responce to Blake
ReplyDeleteI agree with Blake that the north honored their dead more. i believe this because the were able to name their dead. the south did a good job honoring their dead but the north was more successful because they had government funding.
In response to Ben:
ReplyDeleteI understand your viewpoint that the Confederacy might have worked harder because of a lack of funding. However, the North had people such as Whitman and Moore who traveled across the country in search of the dead and possible sites for national cemeteries. Whitman was also able to indentify many Union dead during his travels. The South may have had people like this, but none were really mentioned in the book. “Moore also interred many Confederates.” (p.217) The North also helped bury southern soldiers as well as their own. Quartermaster General Meigs also “ordered officers to provide a survey of cemeteries containing Union soldiers.” (p. 219) “Even before Congress passed formal legislation in February 1867, the effort to bury every Union soldier within the safe confines of a national cemetery began.” The North worked hard to remove Union soldiers from the south where their graves were being desecrated and put them into national cemeteries that could be protected. More than 300,000 Union soldiers were buried in National cemeteries. Also, “The absence of official concern for the Confederate dead stood in stark contrast.” (p.237) This shows that the North didn’t care much about the Confederate dead who were lying on the ground rotting. I understand the Confederacy may have worked a little harder due to a lack of funding and people who went searching for the dead, but the North buried hundreds of thousands of soldiers (including some Confederates) and reinterred them into national cemeteries.
hank hammond
ReplyDeleteThe North and South both had very successful post-war efforts that were similar in some ways and different in others. They were similar because they both had the same idea when it came to rebuilding the nation. They created mass grave sites and informed the loved ones of the dead. They also searched for the missing and were very initiative about their duties. The difference, on the other hand, is that the south was much more privately funded than the north. The Hollywood Memorial Association was one of these groups. They were in direct contact with men such as Weaver in the act of spotting was the bodies were and were they needed to be taken. The North was very open about their obligations and responsibilities to the dead. They acquired the help from the U.S. Army and the rest of the government.
This is why I believe that the North was more successful than the South. With the help of nation and their funding, the North made sure that anything is possible.
hank hammond
ReplyDeleteIn response to Alfrado
I agree with Alfrado that the North was more successful in their efforts to rebuild the country. With funds that you stated were in tact, the North made unbelievable amounts of progress. You said they had $4,000,000 of public funds, and that they were able to bury over 300,000 union troops. There is no way that the south made this kind of head-way with their disinterment and post-war efforts.
Once the war was over, the reburial process was another challenge. Both the North and South tried their best to honor their soldiers. Both sides did not want the soldiers to just be left in the field but, buried with honor. “The postwar burial movements in both North and South made it possible for many bereaved families to identify kin and to visit or ornament graves…” (248) The reburial process done by both sides overall helped with the identification of missing soldiers, although thousands were still unknown. Between the two sides, the North was better funded therefore making it easier to rebury. They had lots of support and more resources to help identify and properly bury the dead. The South mostly consisted of women reburying the soldiers. They were funded not by the government, but mostly by people within the South. But, despite this, “The Confederacy would not live on as a nation, but its dead would in some sense become it corporeal and corporate representation, not only a symbol of what once was but summons to what must be.” (248) Between the two sides, I believe the North did a better job at honoring their dead. The reason for this is, the North was better funded, and overall had more help with the process. The funding provided by the government was overall a big contributor as to why the Union soldiers were better honored.
ReplyDeleteIn response to Blake:
ReplyDeleteI agree with your post. I liked how you used numbers to prove your point. It made me think of how much more sufficient the North was during the reburial process and how money significantly contributed to their reburial process. When reading your post, I rethought my point on how the North did a better job honoring. I agree with you saying, "Both sides honored the dead they reburied equally, but for the total amount of dead soldiers, I believe the North was more successful."
While the Confederacy was dissolved immediately after the end of the war, states were not readmitted into Congress until several years later, forcing them to act like a separate nation for some time after. One case was managing the burials of the fallen soldiers. Both the people of the north and the people of the South made efforts to bury and preserve the fallen distinct from one another. The north’s system was elaborate and run by the government. They had a sense of urgency and operated around deadlines (which actually meant something 150 years ago). The government of the south elected to step back and let the female civilians take care of it, for, according to the South, it was the duty of a woman to be leaders in mourning just as it was to demonstrate “allegiance to [her] country… by leading the southern reburial efforts,” (pg 242). Women of the south would literally “bury one’s neighbors and kin as a personal and private act,” (pg 242). Instead of using money from everybody to bury everybody, people used their money to bury whomever they wished.
ReplyDeleteI think the South was far more effective and successful in honoring their dead. In the north, for the most part, everybody was buried in almost the same way regardless of the opinion of the taxpayers, friends, and family. They had a plan and that was the way it was to be done without exception. Not many decisions were left to the families because that would’ve made it too expensive and too time consuming to fulfill everybody’s needs. The south, on the other hand, allowed citizens to bury whomever they felt needed to be buried and allowed the burier to spend as much or as little time and money on the burial as they felt necessary to give proper honor to the deceased. Those who nobody wanted to give an elaborate burial were not given one; no money or time was wasted.
The North and South both reburied many bodies after the Civil War. In the North, Edmund B. Whitman and Captain James Moore worked hard to bury, rebury, and mark graves of Union soldiers. Whitman “sought surviving witnesses who alone had the information necessary to enable him to locate and identify the dead,” (219). They worked hard to find every dead Union soldier. Moore and Whitman also tried to work as fast as they could to protect the bodies from “human and natural forces” (222). There were many accounts of Union graves and bodies being vandalized, so they worked with urgency to keep this from continuing. Many other people helped the cause of reburial in the North including Clara Barton who founded the Office of Correspondence with the Friends of the Missing Men of the United States Army. The North received over $4 million of public funds to be used only for the North on the reburial effort.
ReplyDeleteIn the South, women took on the huge role of burying, reburying, and marking graves of Confederate soldiers. They made their own associations that helped including the Ladies of Richmond. The Ladies of Richmond did their own funding without government help.
I think that the North honored the dead more successfully since they had government and funding support. Although the southern women did a great job of honoring their soldiers, they couldn’t do it all without support. In the North, they had so much money to help them. They also had information from the Christian and Sanitary Commissions that helped. All of this helped the North to successfully honor the Union soldiers.
In response to Cameron,
ReplyDeleteYou make great points, but I disagree with you. The North was very successful in honoring most Union soldiers. They had the money and government support that the South did not have. They also worked hard to gather as many Union soldiers as they could to bury or rebury. In addition, the North worked fast, so bodies would not be vandalized. The South didn’t have much urgency in the reburial effort. They didn’t have the government support from the North or financial support. You said, “Those who nobody wanted to give an elaborate burial were not given one.” Most soldiers probably wanted to be buried, so by not giving a burial it doesn’t honor the soldier. Therefore, the North successfully honored their dead better that the South.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteThe post-Civil War North and South handled reburial very differently from one another. The North operated through a government-run, organized system, while the South - lacking any sort of stable government of their own - took on the task of burying the dead without any help from the North. The federal government's reburial efforts were focused on the North, and their organized system allowed thousands of soldiers to be buried efficiently and effectively. The government's involvement in the burial of its citizens was very unique. While Southerners were excluded from the government program, it still showed a certain compassion for the people not shown by many governments during that time. "The program's extensiveness, its cost, its location in national rather than state government, and its connection with the most personal dimensions of individuals' lives all would have been unimaginable before the war created its legions of dead, a constituency of the slain and their mourners, who would change the very definition of the nation and its obligations" (237). The government showed a genuine concern for the well-being of its citizens and the honoring of its dead that would set a precedent for the nation in years to come. "'Such a consecration of a nation's power and resources to a sentiment,' Whitman observed, 'the world has never witnessed'" (237). Civilians in the South buried their loved ones privately, for the most part. "Southern civilians, largely women, mobilized private means to accomplish what federal resources would not" (238). They had little or no help from the government, as all of the North's money and time was spent on the burial of Northern soldiers. ". . . during the five years that followed Appottamox, more than $4 million of public funds would be expended exclusively on dead Northerners" (238). The North justified this with the reasoning that ". . .it seemed unimaginable that those who had tried to destroy the Union should be accorded the same respect as those who had saved it" (238). The civilians of the South were not left completely to their own devices in burying their dead, however. Groups such as the Hollywood Memorial Association of the Ladies of Richmond organized mass reburial efforts which handled the burials of thousands of southern soldiers. "The association began repair of the eleven thousand soldiers' graves dug at Hollywood during the war. . . . The association arranged for the transfer of hundreds of bodies to new graves in the Richmond cemetery during the summer and fall of 1866" (239).
ReplyDeleteI think the South was more successful in honoring their dead. They had few resources, no government funding, and far less manpower to fuel their reburial efforts, and yet they were able to bury thousands of fallen soldiers, and in a more personal way than the North as well. The dedication and determination and perseverance it took to bury all of those soldiers showed just how much the South cared for and honored their dead.
Response to Jenna:
ReplyDeleteYou said that ". . .the North honored the dead more successfully since they had government and funding support." They did do great work, and they were very effective and uniquely compassionate in their efforts, I think the North was hypocritical in not assisting the postwar South's recovery; they fought the Civil War in order to keep our country together, united and strong, but after they won the war, they neglected the South for several years, creating a rift between two halves of a nation. The North should have reached out to the South immediately after the war was won in order to form a working relationship between them, but they did not, and so the South was left devastated and impoverished for several years to come, our country broken and weak.
The North’s and the South’s efforts to locate the grave yards and scattered graves were basically the same. They both asked for the, “evaluation of the appropriateness of each site and a judgment as to whether bodies should be left in place or removed to a ‘permanent cemetery near (219).’” The difference between the two is the South vandalized the North’s graves and graveyards. They were sore from losing so they took it out on the already dead. The North usually just left the South’s bodies on the field to rot even more. I think that the Union honored all of the dead because they didn’t vandalize them, they at least left them to lie in peace.
ReplyDeleteThe North and South both had extensive reburial efforts after the end of the war. The North was given government funding to locate and rebury as many Union soldiers as possible. Many former Union officers were given the arduous task of finding these graves, and then finding appropriate spots for for National Cemeteries to be placed. But the government funded all of this. "...during the five years that followed Appomattox, more that $4 million of public funds would be expended exclusively on dead Northerners." The South received no funding from the government and they still had to rebury and take care of soldiers' graves. While the military took care of most of the reburial efforts in the North, that duty mostly fell to the women of the South, who had to find their own ways to fund the reburying that they had to do. "Southern civilians, largely women, mobilized private means to accomplish what federal resources would not." The Union soldiers were moved, if possible to a newly formed National Cemetery and given a proper headstone, complete with information about them on it. But in the South, the Confederate dead had to make do with modest, humble grave markers, that may or may or not have had any information recorded on it. In the scope of things, I think that the North did a very good job honoring the dead. The officers who oversaw the projects did their best to ensure that each soldier had an individual grave, with a name, dates of birth and death, and other information if it could be found. In the South, where funds were low, the women who worked in the reburial efforts did the best they could to identify soldiers, but without decent information, many graves went unnamed. I think that the South did a better job of honoring the dead, because they did about half of what the North did in reburial efforts, with much less funding - none of it from the government - fewer people to do the work - and most of them were women - and it became more personalized for the former Confederates. Many of the Confederate dead were put in cemeteries in cities or near the towns they were from, if they hadn't been claimed by the family and taken home to be buried. While the North did a good job reburying the fallen soldiers, the process wasn't as personal, but more of a task that had to be completed.
ReplyDeleteResponse to Orion T.
ReplyDeleteYes, the North was more productive. They obviously recovered and reburied many more dead than the South did, but they also had more funding and a more organized way of doing it. But that is all besides the point. The question was "Who do you believe honored their dead more successfully?" From your answer, it wounds like you think the North did a better job of honoring the dead, but you didn't state it that well.
Response to Jenna’s Response to my Post:
ReplyDeleteYou, along with many others, argue that “[The North] had the money…that the South did not.” That’s a misleading fact. In the South, they did have money, and it was in the pockets of the civilians as it should have been. Surprisingly enough, all the money that the North had to support reburial efforts did not fall from the sky, but was rather taxed from citizens and residents of the north. Instead of letting individuals invest their own money into burials, the government took whatever they wanted from the people, creating the illusion that they were rich and strong, when really the only difference in the South was that the money was still left in the hands of the citizens. There was the same amount of money on both sides either way. Also, you said that “most soldiers wanted to be buried, so by not giving a burial it doesn’t honor the soldier.” I believe that honor can only be given by those who truly care for and respect the dead and what they have done for the country. Therefore, I think that programs in the North failed to honor their dead. In my opinion, just because they were given a burial doesn’t mean that the dead were honored.
Both the North and the South did what they could for their dead. "The Northern reburial movement was an official, even a profesional effort." (pg 241)" "The honoring of Confederate dead in the months after Appomattox quite naturally included decoration of graves with seasonal flowers." (pg 240) The North and the South did what they could and what they though was honorable for their dead soldiers. I can't say that one of them did better than the other. They did reburials in their own honorable ways.
ReplyDeleteBoth the North and the South went to great heights to bury and honor their dead. The North was helped by the government and they quickly got their Union soldiers into cemeteries around the country. "Urging that the bodies of all Union soldiers should be disinterred and 'brought speedily together into great national cemeteries,'" (pg. 232) The South, however, didn't have any help from the government, finantially or physically. The South's women took up the responsibility to honor and bury their falled soldiers. The South was still very successful though. "Whitman supervised the removal of tens of thousands of bodies to national cemeteries in the Division of the Tennessee," (pg. 235) Both sides honored their dead as much as possible and I don't believe either side should be labled as better or worse. I do however believe the South gave a bigger sacrifice to bury and honor their dead because they had less help. The North buried and identified more bodies but the South sacrificed more, therefore, both sides are even.
ReplyDeleteThe North and the South put a lot of effort into the reburial after the Civil War. Many civilians and war veterans in the North (James Moore, Whitman, Clara Barton, etc.) put a lot of time, effort, and money into the reburial of Union soldiers. They eventually reburied thousands of soldiers and started national cemeteries. The government paid for a lot of this. They wanted it to go by quickly for fear of grave robbers, loss of identity, and the elements taking a toll on the bodies. The South, however did not have any help from the US government. So, the Southern women started many memorial associations to help the reburial effort in the South. But, without the government's help or much money, graves in the South went frequently unmarked. The South did make good progress in reburial, and I think both sided honored their dead equally. Even if the South didn't have much help from the North, they still tried very hard with the little resources and money they had. The North had help from many sources and was very successful in honoring their dead. But, they failed in honoring the South, even though they were a country. That to me is failing to honor the dead in your entire country.
ReplyDeleteResponse to Nina-
ReplyDeleteYou said exactly what I was trying to say (although I'm not sure if the way I said it makes sense)- "I don't believe either side should be labled as better or worse...the South gave a bigger sacrifice to bury and honor their dead." That is what I believe because the South started from basically nothing and they still managed to honorably bury their dead. The North on the other hand did not honor the South but, they buried more bodies as you said.
The North had post war programs to help bury soldiers. The North made 74 national cemeteries to respect the fallen. These cemeteries made burial of soldiers easier and still gave them respect. The North tried to quickly bury soldiers so it would be still easy to identify soldiers. The government financed the burials with more than $4,000,000. It was much different in the South. Women began to start organizations, that were privately funded, to bury Confederate soldiers. Mean graves were unmarked because of the lack of efficiency and government help. Women still tried to honor the dead by decorating graves with flowers. Even though the war was over, Confederate and Union soldiers still were not buried together.
ReplyDeleteI think that both North and South did their best to honor their soldiers, but I think that the Union was more efficient. They mark many more bodies than the South did. They also gave cemeteries for soldiers when they died.
In response to Cameron:
ReplyDeleteYou do make a valid point about money. Money was what made the Union able to bury their soldiers more effectively. I believe that money made this process much easier. The South had money but didn't use as much as the North.
In response to Nicole:
ReplyDeleteIm glad i could help you out with what you were trying to say. That is exactly what i believe too because the South honored both the North and The South and they had to honor their soldiers by using their own money and own time and that is what helped them to honor their dead more. Also for them to honor the North too just makes their cause so much better than the North's.
The North had national cemetaries that were financialy covered by the government. therfore they were able to provide a better burial for their deceased. The North was able to locate land for proper burial with funding from the government. The North's fallen soldiers were able to have marked graves whereas the South did not. As for the South their burial was provided by the women with no help from the government. The women did the best they could with the resources they had. The South did the best that they could to honor their deceased. Therefore I don't believe that neither one was better than the other because they both did the best job that they could with the resources hat they had. They both provided the best cemetaries and burial services that they could for their soldiers.
ReplyDeleteIn response to Celina
ReplyDeleteI agree with you in that neither side should be made out to be better than the other because they both did their best to honor their soldiers in the best way they could. Even though the North had the support of the government and had the means of a better burial than the South. The South to me had a more personal touch to their burial of their fallen. The women of the South did a great job without governent help.
The North and the South handled reburial differently, of course both did the best they could to identify as many bodies as possible with the resources available to them. The North had a very government organized system, this took a lot of money and took time. "...during the five years that followed Appomattox, more that $4 million of public funds would be expended exclusively on dead Northerners." The South did not have this funding. They had to do the best they could without, and they did. Women took control of this responsibility in the South and really got to work identifying fallen soldiers. Athough they identified more bodies than then South I do not believe either did a better job with reburial than the other. Both completed the goal of honoring the soldiers who had fought for them in the War.
ReplyDeleteIn response to Jessi:
ReplyDeleteI really liked your post. I agree that both sides had their strengths during reburial. While the North seemed to honor more soldiers, the South honored each soldier more personally. I think it's interesting how this is sort of the same way it was with everything, when it came to notifying families of deaths, the North had a larger quantity and the South made each letter personal. Also, I agree with what you say about how "The Union soldiers were moved, if possible to a newly formed National Cemetery and given a proper headstone, complete with information about them on it. But in the South, the Confederate dead had to make do with modest, humble grave markers, that may or may or not have had any information recorded on it." This is another example of a huge difference in reburial in the North and South after the Civil War.
Even though both the Union and Confederate sides did successfully bury and identify many of their soldiers after the war, in my opinion the Union side honored their dead more successfully. The two crucial differences between the two was government funding, and how the Southerners disgraced Union resting places. In order for proper identification and burial of all of the fallen Union troops, the United States government funded a group including Walt Whitman and a number of colored troops, to tour battlefields and surrounding areas in search of Union soldiers and their graves. Overall this group was very successful in the identification of Union graves, but it was not easy. Many white Southerners disliked any Union soldier, and therefore would not share information on specific grave sites. This is where the freedman came in. Southern blacks had a great respect for the Union troops, and therefore, these colored people would gladly tell Whitman and his group the location of any Union soldier’s gravesites that they knew of. In addition to aiding the group, many colored soldiers identified, and buried fallen Union soldiers on their own. On the other hand, the South did not have any government groups to bury the fallen. This daunting task was left to the women of the south. Even though these women did an adequate job, they did not even have any respect to the fallen on the opposite side. “Near Memphis, Whitman encountered a road build over Union graves that had been all but destroyed by teams and carts, and he wrote sadly of 810 neglected Union graves in a cemetery three miles from the city. Nine hundred rebel graves in the same burial ground were carefully tended, with identities listed in a sexton’s book. The “Association of Southern Mothers,” he learned, had assumed responsibility for these Confederate dead, while their victorious counterparts lay dishonored beside them.” [pg. 225] So in my opinion, even though both sides did an adequate job in honoring their dead, I think that the North did a better job. Government funding did help, but you have to take into account that the North did not dishonor Confederate dead nearly as bad as the South did. So even though both sides did a fair job in burying the fallen, the North did better because they did not dishonor the counterpart’s dead nearly as bad as the South did.
ReplyDeleteIn response to Blake Naito:
ReplyDeleteI agree with Blake and his comment here, “Both sides reburied hundreds of thousands of fallen soldiers, while leaving the opposing sides’ soldiers to rot.” I agree with Blake here, even though both sides did rebury thousands of dead soldiers, it is a real shame that they had no regard for the other sides’ soldiers. As Faust said here, “These corpses were in every imaginable place and condition: buried on river embankments and the wholly or partially washed away (there were even reports of coffins floating like little boats down the Mississippi toward the sea), or abandoned in “ravines and jungles and dense cane breaks” and never buried at all. A farmer named Linn, who wanted to extend his cotton fields, had plowed up thirty Union skeletons and then delivered the bones “in bulk” to the Vicksburg city cemetery. Not far away a Union graveyard had been leveled entirely to make way for a racecourse.” [pg. 226] Even though both sides treated their own dead respectfully, there should never have treated their counterparts remains like they did. After all, they were all still Americans.
The North and the South both had different but successful ways of burying the dead. The North's burial process "was an official, even a professional effort...it was the work-and expense- of the Quartermaster Corps, the U.S. Army, and the federal government." (page 241) This proved to be a very orderly and efficient way of burying the dead while respecting the soldiers at the same time. Soldiers had official graves with gravestones that marked their identity and they had national cemeteries for the graves.
ReplyDelete"In the South care for the Confederate dead was of necessity the work of the people," (page 241) this means that mainly the women of the South had the responsibility of burying their dead. They made an immense effort to bury as many as they could and honored each and every soldier. However, because the government didn't exactly help the Southerners bury their death many graves went unmarked and there were any proper cemeteries.
Clearly, the North was more efficient and the South more honorable, so, I personally feel that both did a good job respecting and burying the dead. If one was to ask who did the better job, I would say the North.
In response to Abbey Borchers:
ReplyDeleteYou made an interesting point when responding to Jenna's post. You stated,"I think the North was hypocritical in not assisting the postwar South's recovery; they fought the Civil War in order to keep our country together, united and strong, but after they won the war, they neglected the South for several years, creating a rift between two halves of a nation." I completely agree that the North should have reached out to the South more, so that they could have developed a stronger nation sooner. Because they left the South in a rut for years, the South had to struggle in the post-war aftermath. Great point.
The North and South's reburials both took effort and and time out of large organizations and associations, although they were separately done. Many people of both sides believed that it was dishonorable for the soldiers to be left rotting on the fields. The North and South's reburials "made it possible for many bereaved families to identify kin and to visit or ornament graves," (pg. 248). Also, "Civil War cemeteries-both national and Confederate- were unlike any graveyards that Americans had ever seen," (pg. 248). Although both sides had similarities, they also had differences in supporters. The North had help from the federal government, therefore recieving professional effort and expenses. They also had the support of black southerners. The South, however, only had the "work of people". Of the two, I believe that the North honored their people more successfully, while the South honored their people with more effort.
ReplyDeleteBoth the North and the South tried very hard to honor and rebury their fallen soldiers. “The end of combat offered an opportunity to attend to the dead in ways war had made impossible.” (212) It was important to them to honor the soldiers that had risked their lives to fight for their country. However both sides handled it differently. The government in the North realized it was an important task and funded an organization to rebury their dead. Clara Barton founded the Office of Correspondence in 1865. She went directly to the source and tried to find information about the deceased from the surviving soldiers. The government backed Clara in her process of sending lists out of soldiers she found to be dead. The South’s reburial efforts however were not backed by the government. It was mostly volunteer women who got the job done. “Honor to the dead required the continuing defense of Confederate principles, which had been ‘defeated, not necessarily lost.’” (248) Honoring the dead to the south was just as important as it had been for the North. However I think the North honored their dead more successfully. They had more people on the task of doing so. Plus they were funded and had the support of their government when the South had neither. I think the South was successful but the North accomplished the task quicker and more efficiently.
ReplyDeleteIn response to Lee P
ReplyDeleteI like how you said, “…the North honored their people more successfully, while the South honored their people with more effort.” Because of the North’s incredible amount of support it was an easier task for them. The south did not have tons of support and they really had to use a lot of energy to get the job done. I agree if the South had more assistance then they would have been just as efficient as the North. But the South had other problems at the time and they did not believe it was a top priority.
Jonah-
ReplyDeleteThe North's effort was extremely organized. It was organized by the government. They reburied over 300k men and spent over $4,000,000 in their effort. They built many new cemeteries dedicated to the dead soldiers. They did everything they could to identify the soldiers even though in many cases it was impossible to identify the remains. The U.S. Burial Corps did all the labor and most of the members of this group were Blacks. In the South they had no such mass organizations or groups to rebury the dead. The women of the south were the most significant factor in their reburial. The women would honor the dead by trying to find the name and giving proper burials to every soldier. It was a much slower going and tedious process for the south, but they too reburied as many of their deceased soldiers as possible. I find it odd and not a good idea of the North to spend so much money and time burying soldiers but to not bury confederate soldiers after the war, seeing as they are one nation again. Although I believe both sides honored the dead very well in my opinion the south actually honored their dead better because it was mothers, sisters and daughters out there finding the dead not low paid work forces of hundreds of unrelated men.
Jonah- in response to Amber Pixley:
ReplyDeleteI disagree with your statement. You say that the Southerners only buried the rebels and left the northern soldiers, but from what I understand it was the other way around. In fact on page 237 the author tells of a story she found where a reporter from New England found that Moore's men left two soldiers unreburied because they could tell from the buttons on their shirts that they were southerners.
The north's form of burial was much more organized, as they had the government do the work. They did everything they could to make sure that they identified all of the bodies they could, and give them a good burial. The south, on the other hand, was not as organized. The women did most of the work, which is not as official as the north. However, I feel that the south did a better job of honoring the dead, because they were not required to do the work, but they did anyways. They were just civilians, and nobody even asked them to take the responsibility, but they did, which i think is very honorable thing to do.
ReplyDeleteIn response to jpduerst:
ReplyDeleteI agree with what you said about how both sides honored the dead. Both did a very good job, but the southerners did more to honor them. The north made everything very official, but they used a lot of money and people who didn't really have to do with the dead, whereas the south just had the women doing the burying. They didn't use as much money or hands, but they did what they had to to give the dead soldiers an honorable burial. The south had their burials on a much more personal level than the north, even if it wasnt as official.
In the process of burying the dead, both the North and South were successful in their efforts, however the Northern strategy proved very effective. The North had an organized and efficient effort fueled by many volunteers and federal money to aid the effort. They uncovered and reburied thousands of bodies, identified thousands more, and used federal grants to purchase land for national cemeteries. The reburial effort in the South, though not as effective, was nonetheless important. Southern women often headed small reburial efforts for a particular area or a particular battle. So, with no government help, the South succeeded in providing honored burials for its fallen. Both North and South were successful in honoring their dead but, the North’s reburial efforts was far superior due to the large amount of civilian an government help given.
ReplyDeleteThe North's reburial effort was better organized and funded than the south but both were effective. As it should be the funded effort was more effective the North reburied and identified a lot more soldiers than the south. But the south deserves credit to since there reburying operation was mainly run by unpaid women which is very noble f them to do that. But the north reburied 300 thousand men and spent 4 million dollars in their effort so they were more effective.
ReplyDeleteIn response to Ben,
ReplyDeleteI agree with you when you say "that the south did a better job of honoring the dead, because they were not required to do the work, but they did anyways. They were just civilians, and nobody even asked them to take the responsibility, but they did, which i think is very honorable thing to do." yes the south's method might have been more honorable but the north was more effective.
In response to Jamie Baumgarten
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with you that both sides honored their dead equally. It doesn’t matter that the North had money from the government or that they were more organized, just because a Northern funeral is more expensive, does it make it any less important?
There were quite a few differences between the reburial efforts of the North and the South. The North was very efficient in their reburial system. "Only slowly did the orders of individual military commanders combine with legislative authorization and funding to create an enormous and comprehensive postwar reburial program intended to locate every Union soldier across the South" as stated on page 217. The south on the other hand had women doing the reburial work. The North had more help in their reburials. I think that both sides honored the dead soldiers very effectively. I think the North was maybe a little more effective because they had more reliable help.
ReplyDeleteIn response to Samantha:
ReplyDeleteI agree with you. I think that both sides did honor their dead soldiers equally as you said. Even if the North did do more the South still did do a good job at the reburial of their soldiers.
Some of the similarities and differences between the North and South's reburial efforts after the Civil War were that, the south had soldiers go looking for the dead so they could bury them properly. The south worked hard to rebury all their soldiers. "The honoring of Confederate dead in the months after Appomattox quite naturally included decoration of graves with seasonal flowers."(240). Although their efforts were not as good as the North’s, they still cared about their fallen soldiers. The north ended up with a huge postwar reburial program. The North developed a new system of national cemeteries to put all their soldiers in. Reburial was the most important thing to northerners at this time. I believe that the North had honored the dead more successfully. This is because it seemed they went through more efforts in order to burry the dead properly.
ReplyDeleteIn response to Amber:
ReplyDeleteI believe there is more to the south’s reburial efforts than you said. Its not that they didn’t care, they just hadn’t had as many resources as the norths.
Both the North and the South moved quickly to bury their dead and honor them, however, the North had government funding while the South did not. This of course meant that the North was much more efficient at burying their dead, but I think that the South had more personal burials, because in the North it was a business while in the South it was very personal because it was family members burying their fellow family members.
ReplyDeleteIt seems that the North was much more official, if not efficient, in the burial of their dead. Page 217 speaks of the luxurious cemeteries of the North while page 238 notes that many times unofficial graves were made by women in the South. This difference may have been caused by the lack of funds the South had compared to the North or the political pressure on the North to honor their own and dishonor the Confederate soldiers. Despite the reasoning, however, the North took much better care of their dead where the South set it as a much lower priority.
ReplyDeleteIn response to Steven Simpson,
ReplyDeleteI do not believe the South honored their fallen as the North did. This is understandable as the North had won and felt that they owed it to ever man to honor his piece in that success. In the same way, the South had lost and felt much less pride over each individual. Though family perhaps felt just as strongly for their loved ones, the small percentage of family members with the resources to find and bury men was minuscule on both sides, with no majority to change the statistics of treatment of the dead.
In response to Samantha:
ReplyDeleteI agree with you about no side did better than the other. Because they both honored the dead by reburring them in respect to them. And that's all that matters. Who cares if one side had more money than the others and did it a better way. Each respected the dead in a way that can't be wrong.