Civilian Life
The Civil War was more than Union soldiers Vs. Confederate Soldiers. There were people in the background providing support to these soldiers. These people gave a reason for these soldiers to go to battle. As in every war, there are civilians. Civilian life is important because if they are not happy then the chances of success are lessened. Civilians provide for these soldiers, whether it is by making uniforms or weapons. Civilian life was different for the Union and Confederacy.
There were many differences between Union and Confederate civilian life. The Union had the luxury of industrialization. Getting around the Union was a lot easier with the use of trains. Civilians were able to get from one place to another quickly, this also allowed civilians to get materials to the soldiers. The Confederate civilians on the other hand struggled a lot more since they were not very industrialized. The Confederacy was far more focused on agriculture than industrialization. This was clear as more than half of the civilians in the confederacy worked in agriculture. Where as the Union had a little less than half of their civilians working in agriculture. For Confederate civilians, it was hard to get around without the use of trains. Confederate civilians were not able to transport materials to the soldiers in a quick manner instead had to resort to slower transportation.
There were civilians from Vicksburg who had to leave their homes due to the bombardments the Union sent down on the city. Many of the civilians who fled the city ended up living in cave homes. Living in these poor and unsanitary conditions was not ideal for these civilians but they had no other choice. Although this image shows only one person inside, there would be many people living inside one cave home causing crowding. They were also not fully protective as they were still able to get hit by the bombardments. This was a very hard time to live for Confederate civilians. After they were able to leave these cave homes they came back to destroyed homes.
There were a lot of civilian wives who had husbands fight in the war not knowing if they were going to come back. Many of these wives lost their husbands in the war. It was not only wives who lost loved ones but mothers too lost their kids in war. This image perfectly shows how happy these people were to embrace their loved ones after the war.
After the war and battles, the civilians who had to leave their homes came back to see their homes in ruins. This was very unfortunate for civilians. They were left without homes and had to find somewhere else to live. Many of these homes were destroyed due to the bombardments of battles.
This first video that I have shown here captures why civilian life was different for the Union and Confederacy. It also captures the civilian opinions that each side had on the other. The Union was more industrial and had no slaves to help them. The people of the Union believed they were hard workers and did their work instead of having to rely on slaves. The Union also believed that they were far smarter as they had a better education than the people of the Confederacy. The Confederacy believed that the people of the Union were money-hungry nosey people.
This second video shows a more in-depth difference between a Union civilian and a Confederate civilian. Most of the fighting went on inside the Confederacy leaving many civilians to evacuate their homes. The Confederate civilians who were not rich struggled greatly. Union civilians on the other hand were not near the fighting. Union civilians were offered more education compared to the Confederacy. Women in the Union stepped up to take in many jobs of men while they were away. Children were not able to live a normal life as they were made to work in factories.