Outsiders of Battlefield Experience: The Journey Home for the Civil War Soldier

Abstract

Present value is applied to the rapid nature of Civil War soldiers' redeployment home. This paper explores the means by which Union and Confederate soldiers found their way home and the obstacles they encountered along the way. The expansion of federal bureaucracy in the post-war years still proved woefully underprepared to meet the needs of veterans, but the lasting relationships forged during combat created a social network that persisted for decades after the canons ceased fire.